Kidnapped and forced to marry their rapist: ending 'courtship rape' in Uganda

Kidnapped and forced to marry their rapist: ending ‘courtship rape’ in Uganda

In Karamoja, one of the country’s poorest regions, schoolgirls face forced sex and abduction as an accepted route to marriage

Patience Akumu in Kampala, Deborah Nguyen in Karamoja
Thu 28 Sep 2023 01.00 EDT
Last modified on Thu 28 Sep 2023 01.35 EDT


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The walk to school can be dangerous in Karamoja. In this region of north-east Uganda, one of the poorest in the east African country, marriages can begin with a man abducting a woman, raping her and keeping her captive at his house until it is unacceptable for her to return to the life she had. Girls on their way to school are a target. “Most children drop out of school when their mothers cannot always escort them. Other mothers, out of fear, stop sending their girls to school,” says Christine Akello, from the Uganda Association of Women Lawyers in Karamoja. It is why Gloria Nakong became a home-help when she was seven. Nakong’s sister, her guardian since their father died, thought such a job would keep her safe. So she helped other children get ready for school, babysat, cooked, cleaned and carried containers of water three times her weight. Eventually her family raised the money to send her to Kangole Girls’ boarding school.


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Gloria Nakong in Karamoja. She is working towards becoming a lawyer ‘to fight for the girl child’. Photograph: Siegfried Modola

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The pandemic was difficult for Gloria Nakong as her school closed. ‘School is the only place where, as a girl, you can feel safe,’ she says. Photograph: Siegfried Modola

For 60 years, Kangole Girls’ boarding school in Moroto, run by Catholic nuns, has been a sanctuary. “We open our school to the community and reach those girls who would be left out of school. We talk to their parents and encourage them to bring the girls to school, where they can be safe and have food to eat. By talking to parents, we ensure that the girl who would have stayed home, got married and not received an education gets an education and a better future,” says headteacher Sister Emma Wachira. Former pupil Joyce Namoe works for the World Food Programme. She escaped a forced marriage at 19, and now oversees the school meals programme.

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Speaking out against the practice is taboo and the custom thrives in silence in the sprawling Karamoja hills. Michael Aboneka, a lawyer who has successfully sued the government for failing to protect the rights of women, thinks it will take more than having girls in school to end courtship rape.“A woman ends up in a forced marriage with 12 children instead of studying and working to make her life better,” he says. “The law against such injustices must become more deterrent because what we have is clearly not enough. ”Nakong wishes never to return to her village. “There are so many dangers out there,” she says. “I survived the warriors and now I am working hard to become a lawyer because I want to give people justice. I want to fight for the girl child.”

https://www.theguardian.com/global-development/2023/sep/28/kidnapped-and-forced-to-marry-their-rapist-ending-courtship-in-uganda