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African Population Studies/Etude de la Population Africaine, Vol. 18, No. 1, April 2003, pp. 1-18 How Early is the Timing of Family Formation in Rural Cameroon? Bangha Martin W1 African Census Analysis Project (ACAP), Population Studies Center, University of Pennsylvania, USA Code Number: ep03001 Abstract Most recent demographic studies suggest that women are postponing marriage to their twenties. However, data from the 1978 Cameroon Fertility Survey and 1991 Demographic and Health survey suggest that an average rural woman in Cameroon experiences marriage and motherhood very early in life even by Sub-Saharan African standards. By the time a cohort of women is celebrating its 20th anniversary; very few are single. While marriage is closely tied with motherhood experience, an appreciable number of rural women do start sexual relationships and have their first births even before contracting a socially recognized marital union. Marriage does not seem to be the prerequisite for childbearing as 21% of the never married women (mostly teenagers) were already into motherhood. Résumé La plupart des études en démographie ont montré que les femmes diffèrent leur mariage jusqu'à l'âge de vingt ans. Cependant, pour une femme du milieu rural du Cameroun, tout indique qu'elle se marie ou commence la maternité très tôt dans sa vie même par comparaison aux normes en usage en Afrique sub-saharienne. Quand un groupe de femme célèbre son vingtième anniversaire, seules quelques rares parmi elles sont encore célibataires. Même si le mariage est étroitement lié à leur expérience en tant que mère, beaucoup de femmes commencent à avoir des rapports sexuels et enregistrent leur première naissance bien avant qu'elles ne contractent un mariage socialement accepté. Donc, le mariage ne semble pas être une condition pour le démarrage d'une vie sexuelle ou de la maternité puisque 21 % des femmes qui n'ont jamais été mariées (dont la plupart sont des adolescentes) étaient déjà mères. Introduction Marriage is an important institution for both the individual and the society at large. Indeed, it is a significant and memorable event in the life cycle of individuals as well as the most important foundation in the family formation process. For the society as a whole, it unites several individuals of different families and represents the creation of a production and consumption unit as well as one for the exchange of goods and services. In demographic research, the study of nuptiality has really acquired importance due to its strong bearing with procreation. However, the subject of nuptiality is quite complex and is governed by different rules and practices in different countries and societies with usually very lengthy procedures that generalizations are still hard to make. But in most comparative studies of nuptiality, it has been usual to characterize Sub-Saharan marriage patterns as 'early' and 'universal'. In recent studies on nuptiality, it is a common suggestion that most women tend to wait till their twenties before getting involved in family formation business. This is especially the case in urban areas where age at marriage substantially surpasses what prevails in the rural areas because the urban environment offers a woman all the modern features associated with delayed marriage like opportunities for women to acquire some formal education as well as employment in modern occupations. Such elements combine with the hardships of urban life to render profitable the postponement of family formation. This paper examines available data on family formation events in Cameroon in order to assess the demographic evidence of changes over time. The analysis is based on a sub-sample of rural women from the 1978 Cameroon Fertility Survey (CFS) and the 1991 Demographic and Health Survey (CDHS) totaling 6016 and 1685 women respectively. The levels and trends in age at marriage have been assessed with the help of proportions married, singulate mean age at marriage, mean ages at marriage and survival analysis. The paper thus, focuses on the timing of family formation events and the observed trends among rural women in Cameroon. All Women Eventually Marry before they Are Mid-Way their Reproductive Life Span As the single most important indicator of nuptiality, marital status gives a static representation of a given population in relation to its nuptial characteristics (social relationship with other individuals or partners). Its importance lies partly on the fact that various basic indices of nuptiality can be easily computed given marital status. The categories used in the CDHS differed slightly from those of the CFS, though like in any official registration distinction was made between single women (never married), married or in union, separated, widowed and divorced. Of all the 1685 rural women included in the 1991 CDHS, those in publicly recognized conjugal unions represented 67.8% to which could be added some 11% who were in what can be termed consensual unions. This raises the figure to 79% that were living with a regular partner. Taken together, widows, divorced and separated were well below 10% (2.3%, 1.6% and 2.5% respectively). Eliminating the age group 15-19 where not up to half reportedly had a regular partner, the proportion of women in union vary only slightly along the age ladder from a low of 83% to a high of 93%. Meanwhile, the proportion of women with at least a temporally disrupted union increased as expected with age but it does not in any case substantially exceed 10%. This probably suggests that remarriages may be so common and rapid that women hardly remain in this state for long. The proportion of single women which stood at 14.7% was actually attributable to the considerable youthfulness of the group. Aside from the large difference in sub-sample size (1685 in the CDHS compared to 6016 women in the CFS), the above figures differed only slightly with those obtained in the earlier survey where 82.2% were in union and 9.9% in the single status. The widowed, divorced and separated represented 4.3%, 1.5% and 2.0% respectively. The proportion ever married at any given age is the net result of the cumulative previous marriage formation experience by the cohort. As such, data on proportion ever married gives us an idea on the quantity (universality) of marriage. It also gives an idea or a brief indication of the timing of marriage within the population. On the whole, 85% of all the women considered had at least been in a union at some point in their lives. By the time a cohort of rural women survives through the peak age group of 25-29, 97% of them would have at least contracted a union. This implies that virtually all rural women eventually marry before they are mid way into their reproductive span. Ultimately, female celibacy is virtually non-existent in rural Cameroon. Based on the women aged 25 years and above, we could approximate permanent celibacy at less than 3% of the women. Reasonable Levels of Polygyny and Quasi-stable Marriages Marriages do not seem to be unstable in rural Cameroon, though it is not uncommon to find a woman who had been married several times in life. Of all the ever married rural women considered in the CDHS, about 27% had contracted at least two unions. A majority of such women were in their second union. Educational level and religion seem to be highly associated with the likelihood of having a disrupted first union. In essence, this is simply a reflection of the fact that uneducated women marry early meanwhile Muslims and the adherents of traditional religion appear to be quite permissive to marital disruptions. As observed previously in the country report (Cameroon, 1983), voluntary ruptures of unions are more frequent among the less educated than among the educated women. Polygyny is one of the most widely known features of African marriages. In Cameroon, there is every indication that it has remained a flourishing institution rather than a dying tradition (Bangha, 1996) as it offers more women the chance to enjoy the benefits of marriage. As the data here suggest, in rural Cameroon, polygyny is not only a socially accepted form of marriage, but it is also widely practiced and has been maintained at a reasonable level (or same level) for a considerable length of time. Based on the 1991 CDHS, about 42.6% of the currently married women were in polygynous unions. A proportion of similar magnitude was obtained from the earlier survey. Since the tendency is to contract several unions, rural uneducated, Muslim or traditional women are likely to be married to a polygynist. Thus, women who have been into several unions are likely to be found in population sub-groups where polygyny is common practice. The particular case of Muslim women is partly associated with the long time conserved practice of arranged marriages that is common to this segment of the population. Usually women were married off without their consent even long before they ever reach puberty. While the only gate out is for them to repudiate the marriage afterwards (following puberty), another Islamic tradition does not allow for single unmarried "marriageable" women to idle around. Marriage Precedes the Onset of Conventional Procreative Life The timing of marriage or the age at which women first marry is one of the main nuptiality variables often identified by demographers as significant in accounting for observed variations fertility levels. Normally, in the absence of "illegitimate" or unwanted births, a rise in age at first marriage is expected to yield substantial reductions in fertility. A distribution of the ever married rural women in the CDHS by age at marriage suggests that a good proportion of them entered into their unions before the conventional start of procreative life. About a third of them were in their first unions before they ever reached the age of 15 years. Moreover, the evidence suggests that a large majority of the first marriages are concentrated between the ages of 15 and 16 years. Only 10% of the ever married women reported having gone through the teenage years in the single status (i.e. 90% were into first marriage before they ever celebrated their 20th anniversary). This implies that marriages during early years of adolescence are still a common feature for girls in the rural areas. The average age at first marriage for this sub-sample as a whole is estimated at 15.9 years. The age at which individuals contract unions is heavily conditioned by socio-economic factors and their variation over time. Indeed, most recent trends or changes, if any, in age at marriage amongst populations have been attributed to socio-economic changes (education, urbanization and to some extent the prevailing economic hardships that distant many potential eligible husbands from their parenthood responsibilities). The strength and magnitude of association may not be the same in different populations or groups. However, education by virtue of the time spent in schools normally leads to the postponement of marriage. Similarly, urbanization brings along certain modern values which combined with hardships of urban life tends to make early marriage a less viable enterprise. Besides, urbanization tends to drain the rural population of its educated few who overcrowd the cities in a desperate search for better opportunities. The pattern noted here indicates that the timing of marriage may be associated with subsequent marital instability or the type of union into which the woman is married. The mean age at marriage is slightly lower among women who had contracted several (at least 2) unions and likewise for women who were in plural unions. By implication, women marrying at tender ages are more likely to have their first marriages dissolved subsequently and equally a greater likelihood of being in polygynous unions at some point in life. These findings bear important policy implications in the area of family formation and health given that a third of all first marriages is recorded by the age of 15 years. This is especially so because, coupled with their physical immaturity, such early marriages are likely to be associated with little room on the part of the girl for decision-making on matters related to partner choice and subsequently the potential reproductive health risk involved.Any signs of postponement of first marriage In this section, we assess the trend in the timing of marriage by comparing data at two points (CFS and CDHS) as well as marital history data from the 1991 CDHS. While the latter may appear less preferable especially where data at two points exist, it may be rather preferable if the data are not of identical quality. Evidence from Cross Sectional Data at Two Points in Time Timing and Quantity of Marriage One of the basic indices that can be used for describing nuptiality regimes are the proportion of single at say age 20-24 and at age 40-44. The former is used for measuring the timing of marriage while the latter is a measure of the quantity of marriage. The proportion of single at age 40-44 is used here to measure the quantity (that is permanent celibacy) because first marriage beyond this age group is quite rare in Cameroon in general and particularly in the rural areas. The proportion of single women at age 40-44 as a whole indicates that marriage is virtually universal and there is no indication that spinsterhood could be on the increase. Essentially, all the rural women do contract a union at one time or another before they ever reach the terminal point of their reproductive life span. There is however sub group variations between the two periods in the proportion of single at this age group (Table 1) that may reflect for the most part sampling variations due to smaller numbers of observations in the CDHS survey. Normally, in this particular case of Cameroon, one would not expect to find any great changes in the prevalence or quantity of marriage but rather should expect changes in the timing. As can be observed, the prevalence of marriage in the rural areas has not only remained virtually unchanged but the timing seems to have witnessed little or no change. The proportion of single at age 20-24 rose sharply during the period separating the two surveys. It actually doubled by 1991 (13.1 % up from 6.7 % in 1978). However, not up to 20 % of the women in any sub-group do wait until after their teens before marrying. This is yet a low proportion. However, the proportion of unmarried rural women as already noted was slightly higher in the CDHS than in the CFS and from the results obtained further, we may be tempted to assert that any positive difference in age at marriage between the two surveys could be for the most part, a reflection of sampling variations resulting from the smaller numbers of observations in the CDHS survey. From the proportion single by 5 year age groups at a point in time, it is possible to construct period gross nuptiality tables from which the mean age at marriage could be estimated. One renowned index that is often obtained from such a table based on one cross-sectional observation is the popular Hajnal's (1953) singulate mean age at marriage (SMAM). This gives an estimate of the average number of years lived in a single state by those who eventually marry before age 50 years. The resultant SMAMs for selected subgroups are given in Table 2. On average, women in 1978 spent 17.4 years in single status before getting married compared with the estimate of 18.2 years in 1991. This average age varies greatly according to their background and the trend in SMAMs seems slightly upwards. However, the change is quite minimal. All in all, the table suggests an increase in SMAM for a period spanning beyond a decade (1978 to 1991) of less than a year (0.8 years) for all rural women taken together. The highest increase of 2.7 years over the same period is recorded for rural women who had some minimum amount of education. Thus, school attendance alone may be considered as playing a role in delaying first marriage even though primary schooling normally should end much earlier than the start of marital life. Among the uneducated rural women, the implied changed is considerably low - less than five months (0.4 years). By religious categories, Protestant women experienced the most substantial increase of about a year and half (1.5 years) followed by the Catholic women with roughly 10 months (0.8 years) while the other suggest no difference. Such figures, however, must be taken with caution as SMAM has been noted to be less precise for identifying changing marriage patterns (United Nations, 1983). Here we used marital history data in the most recent survey for an assessment of the trend in age at first marriage over time. We first of all try to examine the information obtained by year of marriage. Table 3 presents the mean ages at marriage by the year of marriage (grouped mostly into five year periods). Based on single year means (Figure 1), there is some evidence of slight fluctuations and seemingly some attraction to certain years of marriage. Ignoring these and opting for a trend pattern, a cursory look gives us the impression as already noted that age at marriage might have been rising very slowly and gradually. But on the whole, the rise does not seem to be any thing to write home about given the amount of time lapse. Women, who entered their first unions before 1970, on average married before they ever celebrated their 16th anniversary (Table 3). Meanwhile, most of those who married between 1970 and 1990 were generally between ages 16 and 17 years. As such, the apparent increase for a period of say 20 years might be barely a year. There is a significant difference in the mean of those who married during the five-year period 1985-89 and those who married during the last 18 months (1990-91) preceding the survey. The mean for the former is about 17 years as against 18.2 years for the latter. This gradual upward trend may either be a part product of recall errors while on the other hand it is also likely that this could be the first signs of the real situation (preliminary signs of some postponement of marriage) that accompanied the current economic difficulties which intensified as the country entered this last decade of the century. While we cannot exactly ascertain only from this data set, a glance at the yearly frequencies of marriages reveals some signs of a decline in the number of marriages recorded in the years closer to the survey. But it is worth mentioning that a substantial proportion (28.8%) of the women could not state their year of marriage. The computed means for such women show that they were mostly those who reportedly married before age 15 years. On Cohort Differences in Marriage Patterns In any given society or area, owing to changing socio-economic conditions, the timing of events is usually expected to differ among individuals with respect to their generations. Comparing the pattern by age cohorts, it can be noted that the trend in proportion marrying before age 15 years does not support any assumption about rising age at marriage. There seems to be no systematic decline in marriages occurring at these ages, though marriages on or beyond the age of 20 appear to be slightly more common among the younger cohorts. For instance, 15% and 11% respectively of the women in age cohorts 25-34 and 40-49 reportedly married beyond the age of 20. Based on this procedure, Appendix 1 presents the mean ages at first marriage for women age 20 years and above who contracted their first unions before their 20th anniversary. As noted previously, the results suggest that there has been no change in the timing of marriage over time. There is no numerical difference between the cohorts. Essentially, the younger women (20-29) regardless of their background characteristics tend to marry on average at virtually the same age as did their counterparts in the next age cohort (30-39) and likewise when compared to the older cohort (40-49). The same pattern is confirmed by similar estimates computed from the 1978 CFS. This result is contrary to the view that has been generally held that age at first marriage is gradually increasing in most of Sub-Saharan Africa. Simple indices computed from the two censuses of 1976 and 1987 show very little difference in the timing of marriage among rural women. From the 1976 census (Cameroun, 1976) the mean age at first marriage was estimated at 18.2 years and evaluated from the 1987 census (Cameroun, 1992) the equivalent value was 19.6 years, suggesting a slight increase of 1.4 years during the inter-censal period spanning 11 years. Furthermore, the data in the table reveals slight subgroup differences in the timing of marriage across age cohorts with most women however, contracting their first marriage by age 16 except for the case of women with some minimum amount of education. Certainly, any rural woman who had at least attended a formal educational institution is likely to spend a longer time in the single state (2 years) before contracting her first union than is the uneducated. Sexual Debut, Marriage and the Timing of Motherhood The age at which women start childbearing influences a number of demographic as well as non-demographic phenomena. In the case of Cameroon where fertility is not actively controlled (contraceptive prevalence rates have remained consistently well below 10% even for the country as a whole), the total number of births women bear throughout their reproductive life span should largely be a function of the age at which childbearing begins. Existing knowledge suggests that the timing of childbearing may also influence the outcome of some socio-economic and cultural variables. For instance, it tends to be incompatible with schooling and subsequently, wage earning employment outside the home. Also, age at first birth of a woman is constrained by various biological and non-biological conditions and is closely associated with a woman's marital experiences especially in a population like that of rural Cameroon where marriage and fertility are considered to be strong and major indicators of status. Of all the rural women considered in the CDHS, about 78% had given birth. The proportion increases to 88% when we limit ourselves to the women who had at least contracted a union at one time or another. On average, these women had their first birth before they ever celebrated their 18th birthday. The average time span between the initiation of sexual activity and the arrival of the first birth or beginning of motherhood could be estimated at about two years. This time span reduces by about half (to one year) when we consider the timing of unions and motherhood. The life table technique or survival analysis is believed to be a better way of summarizing the life experience of individuals who are subjected to a cause of decrement since it is particularly useful in taking into account the duration of exposure of all the individuals. Two widely used indicators of any event can be obtained by this technique, one of which is the cumulative proportion of individuals who experienced an event by a certain exact age and date. Limiting our application of this method to the cohort of women aged 20-49 for obvious reasons, the results show that 59 % of the rural women in Cameroon became involved in sexual relationship by the time they celebrate their 15th birthday while 47 % happen to be in socially recognized unions at about the same age. In effect, 88 % of the women had their first conjugal union before their 20th birthday; the remaining 12% eventually did so between age 20 and 30. Thus, a young rural woman at this rate has close to 9 on 10 chances to enter a publicly recognized sexual union before she reaches age 20 assuming she survives, and one on two chances to do so before 15 years of age (Fig 2). Concerning the timing of motherhood, the proportion as expected is a bit lower than in the case of sexual relationship and marriage, which probably only makes sufficient allowance for the waiting time to conception and the gestation period. There are indications that an early marital union is closely followed by early motherhood. Indeed, childbearing is pretty early. A good proportion (at least 27%) of the women had their first child before their 15th birthday. By the time they are 20 years old, at least 77 % are already mothers. Consequently, we have barely less than a quarter of the women who do have to wait to celebrate their 20th anniversary before they become mothers. Some additional 20% of the women apparently had their first births between the ages of 20 and 24 years which suggest that out of the every ten rural women, nine are likely to become mothers by the time they are 24 years old. Any Changes in the Timing of Motherhood As in the case of marriage, we first look at the stated year of marriage of the women. Based on the figures obtained (Table 4), there is virtually no evidence to suggest that the timing of motherhood has changed (or is being delayed) in recent years. On the whole, there is little difference in mean age at first birth by year of marriage except for the observable slight tendency for those with recent marriages to report younger ages at first birth. Like in the case of age at first marriage, those who could not specify their year of marriage had their first births a little earlier than the others. For an idea on possible changes in the timing of motherhood, we can examine here the mean for separate age cohorts. The trends are therefore, discerned by comparing the experience of the older to that of the younger cohorts. The results suggest a slight tendency for younger women to have their first birth a little earlier than their older counterparts. On the whole, the mean age at first birth drops from 18.4 years for women of the age cohort 40-49 through 17.8 for the 30-39 age cohort to 16.9 years for the young women of 20-29 age cohort if the results are taken at face value. The resultant difference is just about a year and half for an estimated period of over a decade. This pattern suggests that women marrying late tend to have marriage closely tied to the arrival of the first birth. This behaviour has been often attributed to a faster family building strategy among those marrying late. However, we do not have sufficient evidence to attribute this to a faster family building strategy among women who marry late because such women also have a longer exposure to the risk of premarital births given the low contraceptive prevalence rates in the country. One would probably have expected the pattern to differ with some socio-economic conditions. Nevertheless, a similar pattern is observed irrespective of the sub-group considered. Age at first birth surprisingly appears to be slightly declining as we go from the older to the younger cohorts. This trend is equally supported (even at national level), when the CDHS results are compared with those of the CFS (Balepa et al, 1992). However, for an estimated period of over a decade, the change can hardly be estimated to exceed two years. It is more visible and substantial among the uneducated, Muslims and Traditional rural women with a decline of at least a year from age cohort 30-39 to age cohort 20-29 or two years when we compare age cohort 40-49 with the cohort 20-29. This could partly be attributable to recall lapse which tends to be common among these population subgroups. Sexual Activity and Single Motherhood (among Never Married Women) It is often assumed in the analysis of age at marriage that it is an indicator of the start of regular sexual unions and hence, of exposure to the risk of childbearing. While this may hold good for the former in several cases, it does not certainly hold true for the latter in most countries. In fact, except for the effect of sterility and contraception, the timing of sexual activity could be a major determinant of the timing of motherhood. That is, in the absence of any widespread conscious fertility control (like in Cameroon) and where a significant proportion of fertility is premarital, age at first sex tends to be a more pertinent predictor of age at first birth than age at marriage. However, marriage remains the most widely accepted and essential element in the family building strategy in Cameroon. For most Cameroonian societies, particularly the traditionally rural ones, it was formerly a taboo for a young girl to have sexual relations before marriage let alone put to birth. This was an offence sanctioned heavily by the community. It was not only a dishonor to her family but there was the eventual risk of having no husband. Besides, the girl's family could be sent to "Coventry" by the village (Ministère des Affaires Sociales, 1988). As such, pregnancy before marriage was the most traumatic thing that could happen to a young unmarried girl and every effort was made to ensure that a young girl did not become pregnant before marriage. Nowadays, modernization and to some extent economic hardships have led to dramatic changes in behaviours. Such social change can be explained by many factors, the most important of which, as indicated by a study on responsible parenthood in Cameroon (Ministére des Affaires Sociales, 1988), is the 'sexual looseness' of 'modern or civilized' youths. Parents can no longer control the girls as in the past since they have gained 'independence' and would rather listen to their more 'emancipated' peers as well as imitate them than their parents. Table 5 shows the proportion of single women who had initiated sex and had ever put to birth as recorded in the 1991 CDHS. On the whole, about half of the unmarried women were sexually active and a least one in every five had put to birth. It appears that there is a higher prevalence of premarital sexual intercourse among the educated single women which should be a product of the longer time spent in school (and concomitant later age at marriage) that increases the amount of time a woman is exposed to the risk of premarital intercourse. Incidentally, a greater proportion of such women tend to report having put to birth. In effect, given the early entry into marital unions in the rural areas, the never married women (78.6%) were essentially teenagers, 38% of whom had already had their first sexual experience and 12.8% were already into motherhood. Furthermore, as was the case with married women, over 80% of the first births to all these never married women occurred before they ever graduated from their teens. The problem here is not so much the initiation of premarital sexual intercourse per se or having a birth considering the fact that such single women could be sufficiently old by African standards but has do with the timing of this event. The average age at which these unmarried rural women initiated sexual intercourse could be estimated at about 15.7 years while the arrival of the first birth was on average at about 16.9 years. The difference between the two values is barely a year. It is therefore evident that sexuality and childbearing begin at very tender adolescent ages not really because of early marriages as one would have thought. Undoubtedly, the longer the time a woman spends in the single state, the greater the likelihood of her having a premarital birth. This further confirms that rural women are more likely to become mothers in their teenage years. This may also suggest that the early timing of sexual activity and entrance to motherhood is not solely associated to marriage in rural Cameroon. A sizeable number of rural women as a result of their early involvement in sexual relationships do become mothers before they ever contract a socially recognized union. Considering they are themselves barely children and the difficulties of rural life, one can easily imagine the trauma or the torture they encountered. There is therefore sufficient reason to resort to clandestine and 'indigenous' life threatening pregnancy termination or at best abandoning the baby after delivery. Besides, since most of such births are usually untimely or unwanted, they can be very disruptive in the women's lives. For such sexually active young single girls, it is very likely that very few have access to or even attempt using any effective pregnancy control methods. As such, this increases their risk of contracting not only STDs, some of which are capable of rendering the girl sterile but recently enhances the spread of the HIV/AIDS with its deadly consequences. Conclusion Based on data from the first two nation-wide fertility surveys conducted in the country, (Cameroun 1978; 1991) the marriage data on proportion ever married, proportions never married, age at first marriage, age at first sexual experience and age at first birth did not provide any evidence on changes in marriage and birth timing of rural women. The timing of marriage seems to have remained pretty stable and similarly in the case of motherhood. These findings are however surprising because one would have expected that with the increased economic hardships and social pressures that intensified during the period covered by the surveys, the tendency would have been for marriages and the timing of first births to be delayed until a later age. While it is well established that female education is positively associated with the delaying of family formation, reasons for this virtually constant pattern could partly be found in the high illiteracy rates among these rural women and the reasonable prevalence of polygyny. The observed level of polygyny confirms its proven resistance as a form of marriage in Tropical Africa that goes beyond what was generally anticipated (Timaeus and Graham 1989, Romaniuc 1988, Pison 1987). However, we must also bear in mind that, most rural women who make it in school eventually leave for the urban areas. That marriage has remained early and universal in rural areas of Cameroon is an undisputed demographic reality. By the time a cohort of women is celebrating its 20th anniversary, very few are left in the single state. While marriage tends to be closely tied with the timing of motherhood, a good proportion of rural women do also start sexual relationships and have their first births before ever contracting a socially recognized conjugal union. Indeed, the timing of motherhood is early and seems quasi-universal except probably for sterility that is still prevalent. Even by sub-Saharan African standards, marriage and childbearing among rural Cameroonian women occurs very early. On the whole these women marry and have their first birth long before they ever celebrate their 20th anniversary. This does not however suggest that marriage is the prerequisite for sexual relationship or childbearing as 21% of the never married women were well into motherhood business. Though unsubstantiated by any empirical evidence, it is likely that these rural women have little or no knowledge on sexual health issues. This is further aggravated by the fact that marriage or pregnancy often tends to reduce the already slim chances of the woman attaining higher education. As such, the early timing of sexual relationship, marriage and childbearing has extremely important implications for women's life course, in terms of reproductive health, general family well-being and their educational achievement, socio-economic and personal development. The results call for a health program with special attention not only to youths but also the rural folks. It is however noteworthy that attempting to delay only marriage through restrictive legislation, as has been the case lately, may be a necessary step but not really an effective one since this may not eliminate the likelihood of a woman becoming sexually active and having a child before marriage. Thus, such a program and policy should educate them on the advantages of delaying childbearing till the twenties. Greater efforts towards raising the level of education and particularly vocational training options that will give the women other alternatives in the rural communities may also be very helpful in this direction. Notes 1This paper was prepared while the author was Coordinator of the Small Grant Programme on Population and Development at the Union for African Population Studies. References
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