Oh! Those poor Malawian girls!

stumbled on a story yesterday in the evening whilst browsing on the Internet, preparing for our Monday radio talkshow 'top of the day'. A certain Chief in the South African country known as Malawi was reported to have annulled the marriage of some three hundred and thirty girls who had been given away into marriage as adolescents.
The story pricked me into thinking, where were the poor girls father's when they were being packaged as would be brides to go warm the beds of men old enough to be their father's even some times grand fathers ? I wondered what would make a father agree to this modern day slavery? Money, culture, tradition or religion?
What ever it is, methinks, the girl child in Africa, is the victim in this whole situation. Well I threw the question open during the program and I got some interesting response. Two fellows said they were all for marriage of adolescents because as they put it, 'teenage pregnancy will be reduced'. The rational behind this belief lies in the tradition in many African societies where it was considered a shame to the family if their daughter gets pregnant out of wedlock so the best panacea to that embarrassing possibility is to marry off the girl as soon as possible.
Another offshoot of that mind set is the reason why female genital mutilation is practised, 'cut off the most sensitive part of the girls sexuality and she won't be interested in men or sex'. And so the act goes on in many African communities desperately severing female flesh putting them at risk of all manner of infections whilst purportedly saving the girl child from herself.
The phone calls kept coming and almost when I was wondering if no one would Speak for the victims, I got a call from a lady who was point blank in her position on the issue 'the State should not allow such marriages take place in the first place not to mention annulling them' was her opinion. Allowing the marriage to happen in the first place will expose the girl child to so many dangers she posited.
The barrage of calls that ensued after wards all echoed her position with some even proposing stiff penalties for perpetrators. Well, what can I say? All we can do as Broadcasters is to bring such issues to the front burner and hopefully appeal to the collective conscience of the society and the Authorities towards taking a proactive step in bringing this embarrassing reality to antiquity.
As a father I can not fathom how I can bring myself to agree to my precious Daughter being subjected to this ordeal. I ask again where were the papa's of the three hundred and thirty Malawian girls?