Sultan Njoya’s good example

HIS Royal Highness, Nabil Mbombo Njoya, the new Sultan of Bamoun in the Republic of Cameroon, a veritable custodian of tradition, reportedly declined recently, the offer of a 14-year-old virgin in marriage as tradition demands, saying that she is a minor. According to tradition, the wife of a new Sultan must come from the Njim Monchouh family to terminate the traditional rites known as Lah-kam. But the Sultan refused the young girl offered by the family and opted to marry his long-time girlfriend instead. He has however promised to sponsor the teenager’s education from secondary school up to the university level.

Ever since the incident, the social media has been agog with excited responses from people who reasoned along with the Sultan and who saw and admired the gesture as symbolising progress, contrary to the expected reaction by other similarly circumstanced traditional rulers who seized the opportunity of positive traditional sanction to proliferate their harem, even if some of the “wives” they married were underage. The truth is that such customs really do not have to be endorsed by the expected beneficiaries in the light of modernity, responsive enlightened parenting, and positive social change. Marrying young, pre-nubile girls off in the name of tradition is perpetrating gender-based violence. Among other harrowing experiences, such girls often have to contend with the repercussions of vesicovaginal fistula even without having reached the age of consent yet!

Truth be told, young girls do not deserve to be robbed of their childhood in the name of tradition. The advantages that will definitely accrue to the whole society if they are given the opportunity to thrive and soar like their male counterparts are immense. It is men like the Sultan of Bamoun who can lead the advocacy for the necessary change of perspective among the custodians of tradition. His good example must be emulated. Again, among other laudable goals, world bodies like the United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF) and the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organisation (UNESCO) ought to seize this opportunity to launch yet another round of persuasive and credible advocacy for the empowerment of the girl child and the abolition of all forms of gender-based violence. Society cannot make lasting progress when people are consistently held down and precluded from social advancement on the basis of their gender. There must be real changes, and very fast too.

It is retrogressive to sexualise women, let alone prevent them from actualising their life goals. There is much more to women than marriage and childbearing and those who insist that the hands that rock the cradle should rule the nations certainly know what they are talking about. For far too long, the lofty dreams of girls and women of being helpful to the society have been crudely and cruelly truncated, indeed terminated, through the lascivious, lewd and prurient interests of men who lack a vision of what women could achieve if given the opportunity to soar.

We encourage other custodians of tradition placed as beneficiaries of gender-based violence to look beyond the immediate satisfaction of their lust and take cognisance of the greater good of their respective societies. They can effect positive change by borrowing a leaf from the Sultan of Bamoun’s great book.