Between ‘forced marriage’ and ‘free choice’: social transformations and perceptions of gender and sexuality among the Balanta in Guinea-Bissau

Abstract

African women are frequently portrayed as a subaltern group in need of external support, used as property in forging social relations, producing wealth in people and doing most of the agricultural work to feed household members in societies where ‘modernization’ does not always seem to change their unfortunate predicament. This article destabilizes such narratives by showing the complexities of marriage practices and the difficult dialectics between freedom and subjugation in one West African agrarian society – the Brasa-speaking people of Guinea-Bissau. Among this patrilineal and virilocal group, marriage was usually arranged at birth or when girls were still small children. However, after marriage, women enjoyed great freedom of movement to have distant sexual partners and to pursue private profit-making activities. Paradoxically, while at present most young women are allowed to marry a young husband of their choice, having lost the support of their descent groups they are becoming more subjected to their husbands’ power and control.

The shade of religion: Kyangyang and the works of prophetic imagination in Guinea‐Bissau

“…Ntombikte insisted (to her public and to us) on the importance for the Balanta of sending their children to school, teaching them how to pray, and keeping their bodies and houses clean. In contrast to the importance given in the early days of the movement to giving up extra‐marital sexual relations – a very common practice among the Balanta (Temudo 2019) – in her interviews with us in the early 2000s, Ntombikte minimised the importance of it. Yet she placed great importance on altering gender relations in work and insisted on reaching a new gender division of agricultural labour, one that would encourage diversification of crops, cropping systems and diet.…”

Economía sexual macua: reciprocidad, sexualidad y género en Mozambique

“…Hoy, esto está en transformación, tanto por los significados cambiantes del dinero como por la afirmación recogida en el campo de que "ya no hay hombres para casarse" o "los hombres no quieren casarse". Temudo (2019) también corrobora que la ausencia de hombres hace a las mujeres menos dadas al divorcio, y que soporten mayor violencia doméstica 34 .…”

Forced Marriages and Lack of Sufficient Canonical Investigation in Ruteng Diocese

“…As the parent of the bride, Sarjono (pseudonym) stated the following witness: I continued to force them (bride and bridegroom) to marry in the Church with the following considerations: [1] Bride and bridegroom could receive communion. They might practice their faith typically, and [2] they had been already living together, [3] the bride has given birth to a child, and [4 ] so that she could continue/complete her studies. In addition, [5] I felt ashamed of my daughter's situation, who gave birth to a child out of marriage… Since we were the ones who insisted on getting married, we prepared everything, including all the costs.…”