Do kids in Kongo live a similar life as kids in Sweden? Do they have the advantage to get a nine year long education for free? And can they marry anyone they want as we can in Sweden?  An example of a common destiny for a young girl in Kongo, is Bora. Bora was only 14 years old when her father sold her. He sold her to a 55 year old man, who wanted to marry her. Bora was very young when she started to work. She was only five years old when she started to carry water, and that was a walk of one hour. And when she was seven she started to work in the field. She lived a pretty nice life, she had friends and a family that she lived with. And her highest dream was to become a buissnes woman and work in the market selling and buying things. She was in love also, she was in love with a boy who lived in the same village as her, and he was in love with her too. One day when Bora was out on the field working, her father had called for her to come home. He was going to tell her that she was going to get married. Married to her father's friend for two cows. Boras father stole her youth and her future by selling her to his friend for two cows. The flee Bora didn't wan't to marry that man, so she screamed to her father that she didn't want to marry him. But then her father said that if she didn't, he would force her to leave the family and the village. And so she did. She ran away to her aunt and hid there for about a month. But then her father came and threatened her aunt. So then Bora followed her father because she didn't wan't that anything to happen to her aunt just because of her. The wedding Four months later she was going to get married to her father's 55 year old friend. Her father and her father's friends drank and celebrated that Bora was going to get married. Boras mother wasn’t even invited, because she was against the marriage. But she couldn't do anything about it because men have more power than women have. The marriage After the marriage Bora had an awful time in her life. She got pregnant shortly after the wedding. She gave birth to a little son. The childbirth was horrible for Bora, because a 14 year old girl isn't built for having children. And then it didn't take very long before she got pregnant again, and then it was with a daughter. Her life would have continued like this, with working in the house and giving birth to many, many children. But luckily for her, the war came to Kongo. Luckily because her father was killed one day when he was walking home, and when her father was dead, the duty of being married to her father's friend, wasn't valid any more. And also her husband's cows were killed when their village was plundered and he thought that it was too expensive to be married to two women at the same time. So he went home to his other wife, and Bora went home to her mother. But unfortunatley she couldn't keep both her children, because her ex-husband wanted to keep the boy. Facts Child marriages is a serious thing, because if children get married they get robbed of their youth and their future. They can't live the life they deserve. Child marriages are most comon in Africa and in south Asia. And it's mostly girls who suffer from it. In Kongo 75 % of all girls sre forced to marriage before they become 18 years old, but only 5 % of the boys are forced to marriages before they are 18. The main reason for child marriages is poverty. Fathers see their daughters as an economic weight, and then they can sell their daughters to rich men, so the family doesn't need to pay for their daughters living, and they get something in return for their daughters. Another reason for child marriages is that fathers want to protect their daughters from sexual temptations. Because sex before marriage is a serious crime in some cultures.  © 2004 Freeway Writer: Ann Kristoffersson (sp05-11@park.se) HTML by: Martin Näsström (te06-15@park.se). |