Cultural Pedogamy: Towards an Eco-Cultural Theory of Early (Child) Marriage

Early marriage, particularly (early) girl-child marriage, is prevalent in many indigenous ethnic and cultural communities around the world and in Cameroon. In spite of this, and despite the fact that studies have continued to be carried out on the phenomenon to elicit its causes and effects on individuals and practicing communities, no study has attempted to develop a psychological theory of the practice based on the practice itself. Most of the theories that have informed studies on early marriage practices have either been mainstream psychological theories; only one Africentric theory so far, namely the social ontogenetic theory of development, has made a contribution to explaining the practice from an African point of view. The theory of cultural pedogamy is developed from findings from the study titled “Early girl-child marriage: An exploration of its psychosocial practices and effect in four cultural communities in Cameroon.” The communities sampled included the Mbororo-Fulani communities of Sabga and Ndawara, the Moghamo cultural community, the Nwe Mundani, and the Lower Mboh. This study utilized the sequential exploratory design and data were collected from four cultural communities using questionnaires, key informant interviews, and focused group discussions. Data collected from interviews were analyzed using the process of thematic analysis with the support of Atlas.ti version 5.2 software (Atlas Ti GMBH 2006). Findings from the study revealed that the practice of early marriage is deeply rooted in cultural beliefs, norms, values, perceptions and expectations as well as in socio-economic conditions and has psychosocial, socio-economic and educational limitations on the girl-child. Quantitative data revealed that of the 36 respondents in the sub-sample of child-wives and former child-wives, 44.4% were in forced early marriages; 52.8% were completely dependent on their husbands financially and materially; none of them was in a legally registered marriage; 88.6% did not know the legal age for marriage in Cameroon; 85.7% said their husbands did not treat them as equals; 63.3% reported that they lacked decision-making rights in their marital homes; 94.1% had attempted school but all of them were currently dropouts as none was schooling while in marriage; 74.2% had ended school before the age of 15 years; 85.6% of them were illiterate and all expressed the willingness to return to school if given the opportunity. Furthermore, a significant 94.1% of this sample perceived early marriage as a violation of the human rights of the girl-child and above 90.0% indicated that they lacked happiness and fulfillment in their marriages. The theory of cultural pedogamy argues that cultural pedogamy results largely from several endo-ethnic-cultural factors which include cognitive cultural factors (cultural belief systems, cultural norms and values, and culture-determined perceptions), and sociocultural factors (socio-cultural expectations, cultural practices and traditional/cultural institutions). These cultural factors have developed through a cognitive causal sequence. The interaction between the cognitive endo-ethnic-cultural factors and between the cognitive and non-cognitive factors determines the strength of the practice and its endurance over time.