Zimbabwean Teens Kick Away Child Marriage with Taekwondo

One town in Zimbabwe has learned to bear the weight of history by “kicking” child marriage customs away. 

Zimbabwean woman. ScotchBroom. CC BY-NC 2.0. 

In the small settlement of Epworth southeast of Harare, Zimbabwe’s capital, is a growing community of taekwondo enthusiasts. One member, 17-year-old Natsiraishe Maritsa, has taken it upon herself to organize taekwondo classes for the girls of her community. The participants of her classes are underage girls, some as young as 10, who have been subjected to the harrowing practice of child marriage that plagues Zimbabwe. 

The Statistics

Child marriage is a tradition practiced all around Zimbabwe, but it runs particularly rampant in rural areas. The Zimbabwean countryside was found to have a child marriage rate of about 40% compared to the urban areas that show a rate of 19%. 

In Zimbabwe, 34% of girls are married off before the age of 18, while another 5% are married before the age of 15. The issue of child marriage, although an occurence involving mostly underage women, affects more than just women. About 2% of boys are forced into the practice before the age of 18. 

Complications of Elimination

The task of eliminating child marriage has proven to be especially difficult due to the many conditions and societal beliefs that worsen girls’ ability to escape the practice. There are four main reasons that girls are easily trapped in the tradition: 

First, gender inequality ranks women as inferior to men, thereby allowing the men of the family to force the women into submission. 

Second, and a particularly large piece of the problem, is poverty. The practice of child marriage is often used as an economic tool; the price for a bride is used to cover household expenses. Because marrying off daughters of the family can be the decision between life and death, the pressure to commit these practices is often insurmountable. With poverty increasing due to COVID-19, this problem has become particularly difficult. 

Third, the need to avoid shame causes many families to marry off their daughters. In Zimbabwe, the act of a daughter committing premarital sex is seen as shameful to the family, so it is resolved by forcing the daughter to marry her boyfriend. The girls will submit to these demands, especially if they became pregnant, in order to avoid abuse by their family members. 

Fourth, a lack of education pushes girls into the trap of child marriage. Many poorer households are unable to pay for their daughters to attend school, which increases the risk that they will be forced into a marriage. 

It is an oppressive cycle. Studies find that poverty causes child marriage, and in return, child marriage feeds into poverty. 

Seventeen-year-old Maritsa has chosen to use taekwondo education to empower the girls of her community, hoping they can use their newfound confidence and skills to reshape their futures. She holds classes in a small dirt yard in front of her house, while her parents use their small income to supply some food for the attendees. 

Maritsa’s class has proven to be empowering, with each class used as a safe space for girls to talk about the physical, mental and emotional abuse they endure from their husbands. 

She has proven that although oppressive practices are formidable opponents, the power of education and community can undo even the most controlling traditions. 

To Get Involved

Nonprofit organization FORWARD is led by African women seeking to end violence and the oppression of women in Africa, including child marriage. To read more about how to lend a hand, click here

Global partnership Girls Not Brides has combined the efforts of over 300 organizations dedicated to empowering women on nearly every continent. To see how you can support bills and other legislation they are pushing, click here


Ella Nguyen

Ella is an undergraduate student at Vassar College pursuing a degree in Hispanic Studies. She wants to assist in the field of immigration law and hopes to utilize Spanish in her future projects. In her free time she enjoys cooking, writing poetry, and learning about cosmetics.

Zimbabwe’s Mining Ban: A Potential Empty Promise?

The government of Zimbabwe now bans mining in its national parks, but environmentalists argue that the prohibition is hardly adequate. 

An elephant at a watering hole in Zimbabwe’s Hwange National Park. BARMCD. CC BY-NC 2.0.

After mounting pressure from conservationists, Zimbabwe’s government has declared a mining ban in the country’s national parks. Reports have circulated that Chinese companies are scouting out coal mining sites in Hwange National Park, Zimbabwe’s largest national reserve. The park stretches over nearly 6,000 square miles and is home to about 50,000 of Zimbabwe’s estimated 86,000 elephants. Extensive conservation projects are conducted in the region to preserve its plethora of wildlife species, but the call to protect the elephant population has drawn the most intense focus.

The government’s new ban is the result of a case brought to the country’s High Court by the Zimbabwe Environmental Lawyers Association. The group argues that mining would destabilize the park’s biodiversity while injuring the fragile ecotourism sector. This case was first brought to the High Court after officials of Afrochine Energy and Zimbabwe Zhongxin Coal Mining Group were arrested for conducting illegal mining projects only to be released with special permission by Zimbabwe’s President. Outrage immediately ensued, and conservationists rode the wave of anger to action. 

The immense pressure on the government to implement change follows months of anger by environmentalists claiming that Chinese mining companies have already caused catastrophic damage in other regions of Zimbabwe. Environmentalists explain that the companies dump toxic waste, clogging precious dams and resulting in substantial drops in local wildlife populations. Locals also resent the presence of Chinese mining companies due to diminishing livestock populations and disrupted irrigation routes. 

Environmental groups also argue that mining will perpetuate the drought and overcrowding problems that have already killed hundreds of elephants. Local residents deal with regular poaching disputes and rely heavily on income from ecotourism; so, many fear that failure to hold off Chinese mining companies could cause  economic damage and increased levels of conflict. Furthermore, many Zimbabweans believe that mining in Hwange is only one piece of the bigger picture. Gold and diamond mining sites pepper other parts of the nation, causing equal degrees of environmental destruction to the over 1,000 species of animals that roam the country.

Tusks removed from a poached elephant. Sokwanele. CC BY-NC-SA 2.0.

For now, it seems that the government of Zimbabwe has yielded to the demands of conservation groups, but environmentalists appear far from satisfied. The government says that it is canceling current mining titles, but conservationists are doubtful that this is enough. Shamiso Mtisi, deputy director of the Zimbabwe Environmental Lawyers Association, states that the group is demanding an interdict, which is a legally binding prohibition. Pressure on the government to act quickly increased significantly in the past week as 11 young elephants died due to an unknown bacterial infection. Investigations are now proceeding to determine the cause of the elephants’ deaths, and whether poisoning may be linked to nearby mining activity. 

Although the High Court’s verdict is already known, but whether or not Zimbabwe’s government will take the necessary steps to save the country’s natural and economic resources remains a mystery.

Ella Nguyen

is an undergraduate student at Vassar College pursuing a degree in Hispanic Studies. She wants to assist in the field of immigration law and hopes to utilize Spanish in her future projects. In her free time she enjoys cooking, writing poetry, and learning about cosmetics.

Zimbabwe’s All Women Anti-Poaching Unit

Conservation becomes a community enriching project.

Photo of Zimbabwe’s Hwange National Park by Christine Donaldson on Unsplash.

The unit is called Akashinga, Shona for The Brave Ones, and it could not be more aptly named.

Founded by Damien Mander, an Austrailian former special forces soldier, Akashinga is a part of the International Anti-Poaching Foundation, a non-profit dedicated to preserving the Phundundu Wildlife Area. 

Phundundu is a 115-square-mile area in the Zambezi Valley ecosystem which is home to 11,000 elephants and other endangered wildlife. In the past 20 years, frequent poaching has taken its toll on the reserve, resulting in the loss of thousands of elephants. While killing wildlife without a permit is illegal, animal trophies such as bones, tusks, and teeth can be sold on the black market for an amount equivalent to a month’s salary.

According to Akashinga’s website, anti-poaching initiatives often close off “traditional grazing areas, places of burial, worship, water points, food sources and traditional medicine,” making communities feel that endangered plants and animals are more important than their humanity. This resentment can fuel poaching attempts for which offenders can be arrested and sometimes killed. These experiences then reinforce the idea that endangered flora and fauna are of greater importance than the community, creating a cycle of resentment and violence.

To address this phenomenon, Akashinga takes a community-first approach to conservation. By recruiting women from the communities surrounding the Phundundu to serve on the unit, the organization is able to use conservation initiatives to enrich communities. Akashinga’s website describes the effort as having a “community-driven interpersonal focus, working with rather than against the local population for the long-term benefits of their own communities and nature.” To this end, 62% of operational costs are returned to local communities.

In this light, it is significant that the unit is made up entirely of women. According to National Geographic, research shows that in developing countries, women invest 90% of their income in their families, while men only invest 35%. Women are at the grassroots of community life, and when their wages are invested in their families, the entire community proffits.

But this is not the only reason that women are so right for the job. Mander had formerly trained male rangers for years before changing to an all-female model. He said that women are far better rangers; they are less likely to take bribes from poachers, and are skilled at de-escalating high tension situations. In National Geographic he commented that a gun in the hands of a man is a toy, but with a woman it is a tool.

Women also prove to be more resilient. Only three women quit the army-style training necessary to become part of the unit. When Mander was training men, all but three recruits quit after the first day. In National Geographic Mander said that, “we thought we were putting [the women] through hell, but it turns out, they’ve already been through it.”

This resilience is not without cause. Many of the women of Akashinga are victims of abuse, and have experienced their own trauma and exploitation. The BBC writes that Kelly Lyee Chgumbura, a unit member, was raped at seventeen and forced to drop out of school, abandoning her dream of becoming a nurse. She then had to give her baby to her rapist's mother, in accordance with Shona norms where if a mother is unable to provide for her child, the father’s parents become its guardians.

“My goals had been shattered,” she told the BBC, “It was like I couldn’t do anything more with my life.” A few years later, Chgumbura was recruited by her village head to try out for a ranger position. She was selected for the unit, and with a steady career now has a chance to win back custody of her daughter.

Being a ranger provides a sense of purpose as well as an income. “When I manage to stop poachers, I feel accomplished,” Chgumbura told the BBC, “I want to spend my whole life here on this job, arresting poachers and protecting animals.”

Like Chgumbura, most of the unit have faced traumatic experiences and lacked the agency and resources to protect themselves. “Who better to task with protecting exploited animals,” Mander told National Geographic, “than women who had suffered from exploitation?”

Phundundu is the first reserve worldwide to be managed entirely by women, but it will not be the only one for long. According to its website, Akashinga plans to welcome 1,000 new recruits who will protect 20 reserves. They aim to accomplish this by 2025. 






EMMA BRUCE is an undergraduate student studying English and marketing at Emerson College in Boston. While not writing she explores the nearest museums, reads poetry, and takes classes at her local dance studio. She is passionate about sustainable travel and can't wait to see where life will take her.