In the sticky warmth of a June day in Juba, South Sudan’s capital, teams of younger women and men sang as they walked alongside the principle street of Sherikat, on the east financial institution of the White Nile. Weaving via the slow-moving visitors, the boys carried lengthy sticks whereas the ladies wore vibrant beads, skirts and lawas, an extended piece of material tied on the shoulder.
With hundreds of different Dinka, one of many largest ethnic teams in South Sudan, they’d dance late into the evening on the agam (‘acceptance’ in Dinka) ceremony that celebrates the conclusion of a “marriage competitors”, the normal follow wherein a number of males vie for the hand of a marriageable woman.
For months, Marial Garang Jil and Chol Marol Deng, two South Sudanese males of their 40s who come from two totally different Dinka clans in Jonglei state however now dwell overseas, had been vying to marry Athiak Dau Riak, a woman her mom says is 14.
Athiak’s father, Dau Riak Magany, says she is nineteen and has consented to the wedding, even if she was in major 8 yr at college (which youngsters normally begin at 13) when the wedding negotiations started in March this yr.
Her mom, Deborah Kuir Yach, who’s now in hiding for her security as she opposes the wedding, says she has proof that her daughter is 14.
The case may need remained a dispute between members of the family had photographs and movies of gatherings not been posted on-line and shortly shared.
The story of Athiak and her suitors went viral; Athiak was praised for her peak and wonder, and as “the woman on the coronary heart of a historic marriage competitors” in publications throughout Africa.
After the ceremonial a part of the marriage in June, when she was given as a spouse to Chol Marol Deng, for a fee of 123 cattle, 120m South Sudanese kilos (about $44,000 or £33,000) in money and a plot of land, she was dubbed “the costliest bride in South Sudan” in TikTok movies that gained hundreds of likes.
“There’s nothing unsuitable with this marriage,” her father mentioned on the time. Garang Mayen Riak, a cousin of Athiak who travelled from Canada for the ceremony, agreed. “We’re an informed household – we can not drive a woman to marry,” he mentioned, stating his attachment to Dinka traditions. “This marriage is exclusive, as a result of such competitions hardly ever occur in our trendy society. We’re happy with it as a result of it reminds us of who we’re.”
South Sudan’s 2008 Baby Act prohibits early and compelled marriage, however in keeping with Unicef, baby marriage is “nonetheless a standard follow” and “current figures point out that 52% of women [in South Sudan] are married earlier than they flip 18, with some ladies being married off as younger as 12 years previous”.
An Edinburgh College-led report on the “brideprice” system in South Sudan says “customary courts typically settle for menstruation as the standards for eligibility to marry” and early marriage is “a standard follow … doubtless motivated by households’ ambitions to achieve brideprices for his or her daughters as quickly as potential”.
Globally, 122 million ladies are married in childhood yearly, in keeping with one other Unicef report. Throughout sub-Saharan Africa, greater than a 3rd of younger girls have been married earlier than the age of 18.
Regardless of baby marriage being commonplace, Athiak’s case has gripped the nation. Within the social media frenzy, folks “campaigned” for his or her most well-liked suitor. Others promoted the marriage as an affirmation of “Dinka tradition and id”, rebuffing critics who had condemned the method as “the auctioning of a woman”.
However the on-line exercise additionally caught the eye of a lawyer, Josephine Adhet Deng, who opened a case in opposition to Dau Riak Magany in June, alleging that he had allowed the marriage of a minor and calling for Athiak to be introduced again from Kenya, the place she was taken shortly after the agam ceremony.
Questions round Athiak’s age have been sparked by a Fb put up by her maternal uncle, Daniel Yach, a Canadian citizen, who mentioned “she is a minor” and condemned the proposed marriage as “a traditional instance of pedophilia”.
“I used to be very shocked as a result of I had not seen Athiak since I left to Canada in 2015,” he says in a telephone name. “By then she was six years previous. Then I noticed the posts concerning the marriage and I found how tall she had turn into.
“However she’s only a baby. This little woman is being brainwashed. It’s the craziest stuff ever.”
after publication promotion
When Chol Marol Deng was introduced because the profitable suitor on 13 June by a committee of Athiak’s uncles and father, they mentioned it was “her selection”.
However that didn’t sway Aluel Atem, a South Sudanese feminist activist. “She needed to decide one in every of them. I don’t assume there was an choice for her not to decide on both of those two males,” she says.
Atem describes the association as “one thing near a pressured marriage”, although Athiak in all probability “takes pleasure in the truth that the pledges have been so excessive for her brideprice”.
“It’s a factor now for these younger ladies in Sherikat,” she says. “The mentality is like that: the extra a person pays, the extra worthy you’re. There’s a standing connected.”
Sarah Diew Biel, a safety supervisor for the South Sudanese growth organisation Nile Hope, says: “Whenever you’re going in opposition to a thousand people who find themselves saying ‘this marriage is OK’, you turn into a traitor within the eyes of the neighborhood, with a khawaja [foreigner] mentality. It’s mentally and emotionally draining.”
Biel works with different native organisations and social employees – in addition to the police and the Ministry of Gender, Baby and Social Welfare – to offer safety for survivors of gender-based violence in South Sudan, together with utilizing protected homes for women who escape pressured marriages.
“The South Sudanese are very happy with their tradition and id, and I’m too, however there are cultural norms that do extra hurt than good,” she says.
Athiak’s mom tried to cease the marriage. “I attempted telling the household that Athiak shouldn’t be married,” she says. “However all of them insisted.
“They have been searching for the cows. They noticed that Athiak will convey them that nice wealth. After I refused, they separated me from my daughter.”
On the day the choice was made that Athiak would marry Chol Marol Deng, “I attempted to kill myself,” she says. “And the subsequent day, I made a decision to run away.”
Yach claims Athiak’s start certificates and ID have been destroyed by different members of the family. “They sneaked out with Athiak to make a brand new age-assessment certificates, primarily based on a false date of start, in my absence,” she says.
A brand new passport says Athiak was born in 2005, however Yach has an emergency journey doc processed by South Sudan’s inside ministry in August 2015, stating that Athiak was born in Juba on 28 December 2009.
Immediately, Yach is confined to the few sq. metres of the home the place she is in hiding, separated from her seven youngsters, and together with her life on maintain. “I don’t know who she’s staying with,” she says of Athiak.
The lawyer, Adhet Deng, believes Athiak is now in all probability in Nairobi with the household of Chol Marol Deng, who has returned to Canada, the place he works.
Adhet Deng is ready for the judiciary to think about if the case she filed can progress, as it isn’t clear with an already “sealed” customary wedding ceremony.
However she says there might be one other method: “I’ve instructed the daddy and the opposite members of the family that they need to pause this wedding ceremony, let Athiak return to highschool for at the very least 5 years, and resolve then what she needs.”
Athiak has by no means spoken publicly concerning the controversy surrounding her marriage. However, on the eve of the agam celebration in June, she instructed the Guardian that, had the wedding course of not began, she would have “most well-liked to review”.
