fbpx

Opinion: Polygamy Tradition Undermines Gender Equality In Southern Africa

Opinion: Polygamy Tradition Undermines Gender Equality In Southern Africa

South Africa has one of the most progressive constitutions in the world, yet President Jacob Zuma advocates polygamy, arguing that it is freedom to practice ones culture and traditions.

Polygamy is complicated in South Africa’s legal structure, writes Kubi Rama, a constitutional and legal rights expert, in GenderLinks.

It is legal but the country’s constitution provides for the equal rights of women and men — something many see as absent from polygamous relationships. The polygamy tradition undermines gender equality, Rama argues.

Given South Africa’s history of apartheid, some say polygamy represents the opposite of democracy — an oppressive and outdated tradition. Those championing polygamy hold it up as a symbol of openness in a newly democratic society.

Great gains have been made in Southern Africa since the adoption of the SADC (Southern African Development Community) Protocol on Gender and Development in 2008, according to Rama. Eight constitutional reviews have been undertaken, each one strengthening gender provisions in constitutions. Malawi, Zambia and Tanzania are in the process of undertaking constitutional reviews.

Despite these progressive provisions, constitutions coexist with many discriminatory practices that undermine gender equality, according to Rama. Polygamy is one of several practices that contradict gender provisions in Southern African constitutions, Rama said.

A key source of contradictory and discriminatory laws and practices emerges from parallel legal systems. Current contradictions between formal and customary or traditional laws that occur across the SADC region require the most significant legal reform, according to Rama. Parallel legal systems of statutory, customary and in some cases religious law, govern marriages.

“It is unacceptable that girls escape poverty through getting married to older men. This is an abuse of culture and religion,” siad Nyaradzayi Gumbonzvanda, goodwill ambassador for the African Union Campaign to End Child Marriage. Gumbonzvanda said that the Sustainable Development Goals to be adopted by the U.N. in September present an important opportunity to address the issue, according to Rama.

The 28 targets of SADC Gender Protocol are set to expire in 2015. They are being reviewed in line with the Sustainable Development Goals. The post- 2015 SADC agenda must make it clear that constitutional provisions take precedence over customary practices, Rama said.

Failure to do so would be to continue denying women their constitutional rights.

Women suffer discrimination due to non-uniform marriage and divorce laws, property laws that still favor male land ownership, lack of equal access to education, harmful and discriminatory cultural practices, and gender-based violence, Rama said.

Constitutions in two thirds of SADC countries have provisions relating to institutional arrangements between constitutional and customary law. Unfortunately in five countries, “claw back” clauses give to women on the one hand and take away on the other, Rama said.

SADC‘s 15 member countries include the following: Angola, Botswana, DRC, Lesotho, Madagascar, Malawi, Mauritius, Mozambique, Namibia, Seychelles, South Africa, Swaziland, Tanzania, Zambia and Zimbabwe.

In Swaziland, the constitution says that customary or traditional institutions and democratic societies need to be blended. It sets out traditional pillars of the monarchy and says that traditional government is administered according to Swazi law and custom. This affects women’s right to own land and oppose traditional practices such as polygamy. The constitution has been challenged without success to allow a female to be chief, Rama said.

In Tanzania, female genital mutilation is illegal but continues under the guise of religious and traditional practices.

Eight SADC countries made 18 the legal age for marriage. In Namibia, it’s 21. In DRC, Lesotho, Seychelles, Tanzania, Zambia and Zimbabwe it’s between 15 and 16 for girls and 18 for boys. Malawi this year raised the legal age of marriage for women to 18 — a major victory for gender equality, Rama said.