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What is Absuma?
Ethiopia, an old country beyond all imaginations, has culture and traditions dating back over 3000 years, with over 80 different ethnic groups, with their own language, culture norms, customs, beliefs, and traditions. In the country there are a number of both good and harmful traditional practices. Depending on the custom, culture, norms, and of the societies, the harmful traditional practices differ from region to region. In this post I will try to offer you a general picture of one of the oldest regions in Ethiopia, Afar. It is one of the regional states of the country found 700 km far in the north east of Addis Ababa, the capital of Ethiopia. In the Afar region there are some harmful traditional practices which have been exercised since many years back. Female genital mutilation and Absuma are considered to be the major traditional practices which are being widely exercised in the region. Today we will focusour discussion on “Absuma”
Absuma is a type of marriage that usually happens between relatives. In the region, marriage between child sisters or brothers is common because of the culture of Absuma. The question of love is not necessary in the case of Abusuma, because whether they love each other or not they have to perform marriage by the interest of the boy, because the culture allowed them do so. It is a in the culture, so it is an obligation to get married for a girl in “Absuma”, and if she rejects the marriage the boy has all the right to do anything he believes is just; he may wait for her in the forest and rape her. Because of the culture, the boy will never been asked by the law, therefore nobody will care about the psychological and physical problem of the girl. In addition to the entire problem she has faced she will be forced to get married with the pain. The culture also favors the boys. The guy has all the right to marry his wife’s sister if his wife is dead.
Such kind of marriage accelerates the transmission of HIV/AIDS among young couples in the region because prevention methods are not applied. The youths have no the opportunity and interest to participate in any activities that would bring change to fight the harmful traditional practices in the region, because the region is highly bounded by culture.
To fight the “Absuma” traditional marriage, recently some Anti-AIDS associations have started functioning in the region in collaboration with government organizations to create awareness about HIV/AIDS for senior community members who have all the power to change the situation in the region and for the young people who are the major actors of Absuma.
