In Juba, the capital of South Sudan, groups of young men and women sang as they walked down the main Sherikat street, on the eastern bank of the White Nile. Wading through the slow-moving traffic, the boys carried long sticks, while the girls wore colorful beads, skirts, and lawas, a long piece of cloth tied over the shoulder.
Together with thousands of other Dinka, one of the largest ethnic groups in South Sudan, they danced late into the night at the agam ceremony (“acceptance” in Dinka) that celebrates the completion of a “marriage contest,” a traditional practice in which many men vie for the hand of a marriageable girl.
The Suitors of the Teenage Girl
According to the Guardian, for months, Marial Garang Jil and Chol Marol Deng, two 40-year-old men from South Sudan who come from two different Dinka tribes in Jonglei State but now live abroad, competed to marry Athiak Dau Riak, a girl whom her mother claims is 14 years old.
Athiak’s father, Dau Riak Magany, states that she is 19 years old and that he consented to the marriage, even though she was in the 8th grade at primary school (which children usually start at 13) when negotiations for the marriage began in March of this year.
Her mother, Deborah Kuir Yach, who is now in hiding for her safety as she opposes the marriage, says she has proof that her daughter is 14 years old.
The case could have remained a dispute among family members, had not photos and videos from the gatherings been posted online and quickly shared.
Athiak’s story and her suitors went viral—Athiak was praised for her height and beauty and dubbed “the girl at the heart of a historic marriage contest” in reports across Africa.
The Suitor Who Became a Husband
After the ritual part of the wedding in June, when she was given as a wife to Chol Marol Deng, in exchange for a bride price of 123 cattle, 120 million South Sudanese pounds (about €39,400) in cash, and a plot of land, she was dubbed “the most expensive bride in South Sudan” in a TikTok video that garnered thousands of likes.
“There is nothing wrong with this marriage,” her father said at the time. Garang Mayen Riak, Athiak’s cousin who traveled from Canada for the ceremony, agreed. “We are an educated family— we cannot force a girl to marry,” he said, expressing his adherence to Dinka traditions. “This marriage is unique because such contests rarely happen in our modern society. We are proud of it, as it reminds us who we are.”
Athiak Dau Riak and her new husband, Chol Marol Deng, at the end of the agam celebration.
The Guardian
The 2008 Child Law States
The 2008 Child Law in South Sudan prohibits early and forced marriages, but according to Unicef, child marriages “continue to be a common practice” and “recent data shows that 52% of girls [in South Sudan] marry before they turn 18, with some girls marrying as young as 12.”
A report led by the University of Edinburgh on the “bride price” system in South Sudan states that “customary courts often accept menstruation as a criterion for marriage eligibility” and that early marriages are “a common practice … likely driven by families’ aspirations to secure bride price for their daughters as soon as possible.”
Globally, 122 million girls are married while still children every year, according to another Unicef report. Across sub-Saharan Africa, over one-third of young women marry before the age of 18.
“A Classic Example of Pedophilia”
Despite the fact that child marriage is a common institution, Athiak’s case has captivated the country. In the frenzy of social media, people “campaigned” for their preferred suitor. Others promoted the marriage as a confirmation of “Dinka culture and identity,” pushing back against critics who condemned the process as “the auctioning of a girl.”
But the online activity also drew the attention of a lawyer, Josephine Adhet Deng, who opened a case in June against Dau Riak Magany, claiming he allowed the marriage of a minor and asked for Athiak to be returned from Kenya, where she was taken shortly after the agam ceremony.
Questions surrounding Athiak’s age were sparked by a Facebook post from her maternal uncle, Daniel Yach, a Canadian citizen, who stated that “she is a minor” and condemned the proposed marriage as “a classic example of pedophilia.”
“I was very shocked because I hadn’t seen Athiak since I left for Canada in 2015,” he says in a phone interview. “By then she was six years old. Then I saw the posts about the marriage and discovered how tall she had grown.
“But she is just a child. This little girl has been brainwashed. These are the craziest things that have ever happened.”
“She Had to Choose. She Had No Other Option.”
When Chol Marol Deng was announced as the winning suitor on June 13 by a committee consisting of Athiak’s uncles and father, they said it was “her choice.”
However, this did not convince Aluel Atem, a feminist activist from South Sudan. “She had to choose one of them. I don’t think she had a choice not to pick one of those two men,” she says.
Atem describes the arrangement as “something close to a forced marriage,” even though Athiak likely “feels proud that the offers were so high for her bride price.”
“It’s now a thing for these young girls in Sherikat,” she says. “The mindset is somewhat like this: the more a man pays, the more worthy you are. There is a status attached.”
Sarah Diew Biel, the protection officer for the South Sudanese development organization Nile Hope, says, “When you go against a thousand people who say ‘this marriage is fine’, you become a traitor in the eyes of the community, with a khawaja [foreigner] mentality. It’s mentally and emotionally exhausting.”
Biel collaborates with other local organizations and social workers—as well as the police and the Ministry of Gender, Child and Social Welfare—to provide protection for survivors of gender-based violence in South Sudan, including the use of safe houses for girls fleeing forced marriages.
“The people of South Sudan take great pride in their culture and identity, and so do I, but there are cultural norms that do more harm than good,” she says.
The bride’s father, Dau Riak Magany (in blue), during the agam. He and his brothers, who announced the winning suitor, said that Chol Marol Deng was “her choice.”
The Guardian
What the Bride’s Mother Says
Athiak’s mother tried to stop the marriage. “I tried to tell the family that Athiak should not get married,” she says. “But everyone insisted.
They were looking for cows. They saw that Athiak would bring them this great wealth. When I refused, I was separated from my daughter.”
The day the decision was made that Athiak would marry Chol Marol Deng, “I tried to commit suicide,” she says. “And the next day, I decided to run away.”
Yach claims that Athiak’s birth certificate and identification were destroyed by other family members. “They secretly left with Athiak to create a new estimated age certificate, based on a fake birth date, in my absence,” she says.
A new passport states that Athiak was born in 2005, but Yach has an emergency travel document processed by South Sudan’s Ministry of Interior in August 2015 that states Athiak was born in Juba on December 28, 2009.
Today, Yach is confined to the few square meters of the house where she is hiding, separated from her seven children and with her life on hold. “I don’t know who she is staying with,” she says of Athiak.
Deborah Kuir Yach has gone into hiding after reporting and trying to stop her daughter’s marriage.
The Guardian
Lawyer Adhet Deng believes Athiak is now likely in Nairobi with Chol Marol Deng’s family, who has returned to Canada where he works.
Deng is waiting for justice to consider whether the case she filed can proceed, as it is unclear with an already “sealed” customary marriage.
But she says there could be another way: “I have told the father and other family members that they should suspend this marriage, allow Athiak to return to school for at least five years, and decide then what she wants.”
Athiak has never spoken publicly about the controversy surrounding her marriage. But on the eve of the agam celebration in June, she told the Guardian that if the marriage process had not begun, she would have “preferred to study.”