The scourge of early and forced marriageEmelda Juan has packed a lifetime into less than two decades. The daughter of subsistence farmers, she grew up in a village in southern South Sudan, a hilly and sparsely forested area. At 14, her parents sold her for seven cows to a man more than twice her age, a 37-year-old village shopkeeper. She then got pregnant. After her husband could not look after her and their baby girl, she moved to the capital, Juba.Now 16, Juan is a single mother without an education, earning her living as a house cleaner, on wages that…
Anthony Kamba
South Sudan: the scourge of early and forced marriage by Anthony Kamba Emelda Juan has packed a lifetime into less than two decades. The daughter of subsistence farmers, she grew up in a village in southern South Sudan, a hilly and sparsely forested area. At 14, her parents sold her for seven cows to a man more than twice her age, a 37-year-old village shopkeeper. She then got pregnant. After her husband could not look after her and their baby girl, she moved to the capital, Juba. Now 16, Ms Juan is a single mother without an education, earning her…
