Konkomba Values That Support Girl-Child Betrothal

International Journal of Research and Innovation in Social Science (IJRISS) | Volume III, Issue XI, November 2019 | ISSN 2454–6186

Konkomba Values That Support Girl-Child Betrothal

Dominic Alimbey Dery (Phd)¹, Adam Bawa Yussif (Phd)², Alexander Bedekuru Nmaninyin³

^1,2Department of Languages and Liberal Studies, Tamale Technical University, Ghana
³Mccoy College of Education, Ghana

Abstract: – The phenomenon of betrothal of the Konkomba girl-child and the resultant early marriage is a very serious cultural issue that the people of Saboba have to grapple with. For instance, records from the Saboba District Commission on Human Rights and Administrative Justice (CHRAJ) indicate that up to one hundred cases of girl-child betrothal were recorded between the years 2002 and 2005, and of this number, more than seventy percent are cases from Nalogni. These numbers exclude unreported cases. The case study approach was used for investigating the research problem. Purposive sampling was first used to identify the respondents, after which random sampling approach was used to select respondents for interviews to be administered. The sample size included seventy respondents (70), out of a total population of four hundred and thirty people, representing 16.2% of the entire population. Of the seventy (70) respondents, the breakdown was as follows; girls betrothed (15), girls not betrothed (15), mothers of girls betrothed (10), fathers of betrothed (10), mothers of girls not betrothed (6), fathers of girls not betrothed (6) and key persons (8). The study revealed the following; that the adherence to a number of Konkomba values accounted for the betrothal of the Komkomba girl-child. These included the following; maintenance of family ties, lineage, ensuring girls marry men of good character, solidification of marriage alliances, and the desire to choose the right partners for these girls.

Key Words: Values, Girl-Child and Betrothal

I. INTRODUCTION

In June 1999, the Institute of the African Child realizing the vulnerability of the African child especially the girl-child who is exposed to a lot of dangers as a result of many questionable customs decided to hold an inaugural conference of its community members to deliberate on the state of the African child. Among the outcomes of these deliberations and activities, was the realization that the African girl-child was more vulnerable and encountered peculiar challenges in the exercise of her rights. Various constraints ranging from cultural practices in the form of female circumcision, nutrition taboos, early betrothal and marriage, low enrollment in school as a result of her engagement in domestic labour and care, trafficking and sexual exploitation and the HIV/AIDS pandemic, continue to retard the progress of the African-child. The need to make the plight of the African girl-child the focus of researchers became even more necessary than ever (Manoja 1997).

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