Essohouna Balakime

Early Marriages of Girls in Togo Essohouna Balakime

In most countries, early marriage is on the decline and this trend is not general. In Togo, for example, in 2006, 27.9 per cent of girls were married before the age of 18; this proportion increases to 29.1 per cent and 32 per cent in 2010 and 2014, respectively. The target group for early marriage is girls married to uneducated, rural and economically poor spouses. They are also Muslim or animist/non-religious girls living in the savannah region. We have come to the conclusion that early marriage of girls is widespread in Togo, but the predictability of this phenomenon has declined from the older generation to the very young generation. The socio-economic and cultural variables used explain an increasingly smaller proportion of the variance in marital behaviour. The results also show that, regardless of generation, the girl's level of education comes first and that it is girls with less than secondary education who experience it more frequently. The individual characteristics of the spouse also have a remarkable influence.