‘Fwenyatete’ encouraging early marriage

Babra's uncle, John Katandula

By Innocent Daka

It is only 09.00 hours in the morning but the people of Totoka village in Zambezi district have braved the bone-biting-cold, gathering at a house to drink a local brew beer and dance to rhumba music blasting from a solar powered Hi-fi machine.

They are at this particular house to celebrate 15-year-old Barbara Ndonga for becoming a mother.

Normally children would be in school at this hour, but they have also joined the party.

“The celebration will go on for three days,” says John Katandula, the uncle to Barbara. 

“I am very happy...she gave birth at 08.00 hours...she has given us a baby boy. From here we are going to take the celebration to the house of Alex Kabaza,” Katandula adds, pointing at the 30-year-old man who made her niece pregnant.

While Kabaza joins the celebration, Barbara is isolated in a bulwark of grass-thatch and sticks. “She has to stay there to protect herself and the baby from the ‘bad things’ of life,” explains the uncle.

Barbara is a grade 9 pupil, but she will have to discontinue school for now to take care of her baby. She will return maybe after six months or a year later to start off where she left. The ministry of education school policy allows girls maternity leave, a measure instituted as an affirmative action to remove inequalities that denied girls equal access to education.

Kabaza, who is the father to the newborn, dropped out of school in grade seven and now he sales goat meat.  He and the teenage mother are not yet married and, under the Zambian penal code, Kabaza would be charged with defilement of a child under 16-years and making her pregnant.  

However, the gathering of family members and neighbours for the celebration, locally known as Fwenyatete, is a sign that they approve of the pair’s unwedded, illegal-by-law relationship.

Fwenyatete is a common practice among the Luvale and Lunda tribes of Zambezi and Chavuma. It is held to celebrate every first birth, whether it is outside wedlock or not.  

“The celebration is meant to please the man for becoming a father. Family members from both sides buy new parents clothes and cook meals to honour celebrate the birth and honour the father,” district public officer for Chavuma Raphael Banda said.

Alex Kabaza in red Liverpool FC shirt

People like Barbara’s uncle, Katandula, sees this as a normal practice and argues that it even happens among affluent families in towns.

“You rich people in town also celebrate birth of a child, although you do it in your homes behind wall-fences and with a few invited friends. Here in Totoka the birth of a child is the pride of the whole community.”

However, public health authorities feel the practice is abetting teenage parenthood.

“When they see the community ‘honour’ their young friend with a lot of respect, buy new clothes and throw a party for him, they will not see anything wrong about engaging in premarital sex and becoming parents too. They go out to do it,” says Mr Banda.

Chiyeke health centre youth friendly health services nurse Jessica Sweta adds that Fwenyatete corrupts girls as it makes them feel unworthy unless the community celebrates Fwenyatete for them.

 

Living Own Lives

It is not just Fwenyatete that contributes to high number of unwanted pregnancies among school aged girls in Chavuma. The practice to allow teenage boys and girls to live their own evening lives is also exacerbating the problem of young people engaging in sexual activities.

“The housing structures are so small. When boys and girls become teenagers parents decide they cannot live with them in the same house so they build separate huts for the young people,” says Mr Banda. “This gives these boys and girls freedom to live their own lives in the evening, making it easier for them to experiment with a lot of vices, including beer drinking and sex.”

Yet hope is on the horizon. “At least now with sensitisation to discourage the practice, some families are changing although a number of girls still drop out of school due to pregnancy, especially at Chiyeke basic,” says district HIV/AIDS coordination adviser for Chavuma Benjamin Kitanda.

At Chiyeke, Kakuhu Mweezeh a United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA) trained family planning nurse runs the sexual and reproductive health services clinic for young people.

On this particular day, as Kakuhu is busy in a cubic side room attending to a school leaver who had come to have her Jadelle progesterone contraceptive implant removed, 17-year-old grade nine Lizzy (not her real name), eagerly waits to have her turn to go in.

After entering the cubic room briefly, Lizzy walks out smiling. The nurse has just successfully implanted the Jadelle—a contraceptive that is inserted in the bicep in form of three strands that lasts effective for five years, slowly releasing progesterone to prevent pregnancy.

“I have a boy friend...we are faithful to each other and in instances we use condoms, sometimes we don’t. My choice to take Jadelle is because I do not want to become pregnant in order to complete my school,” she talks calmly but sure about her decision.

Ms Kakuhu says more young people are becoming aware on the need to protect their reproductive health by seeking more information and family planning services to prevent pregnancy.

“I get about eight young people in two weeks seeking various Family Planning services. “I have inserted about 20 or so with Jadelle since 2010,” she said.

HIV infections proxy

The high number of pregnancies shows that boys and girls do not practice protected sex. This means that if one has many sexual partners, they are exposed to high risk of sexually transmitted infections, including HIV/AIDS.

“High number of pregnancies is a proxy indicator that there is a lot of unprotected sex, and HIV infections could be high,” says Brian Sweta, North Western NAC (National Aids Council) provincial Aids coordination adviser on his visit to Chavuma recently.

Mr Sweta wants the DATF (District HIV/AIDS Taskforce) to do a lot more in promoting sensitisation of the young people as well as increase the use of condoms in order to reduce both pregnancies and HIV infection rates.

While young girls can be happy to make choices to start using contraceptives like Jadelle, which can prevent pregnancy for five years, they should also get worried about HIV, says UNFPA authorities.

“Like the girl at the rural health centre, she has a boyfriend and having sex. She is using family planning to avoid getting pregnant so that she can focus on her education. You cannot know if she is really sticking to one partner and if the boyfriend does too. If not she must also be empowered to have protected sex.”