"Wait for the glass

The Glass Ceiling

Waiting for a glass of wine

Glasses are added.

"Just let me





get drunk and just let me get drunk and just let me be drunk and just let me be drunk. "Let me get drunk," that is part of the chorus in a song called The Servant of the artist Aslay Isihaka Nassoro a.k.a Dogo Aslay.

Not that I want to teach you to sing or I've become a singer no! But I want to share the song's lyrics, especially if you have watched the video, which shows a dispute between Dogo Aslay and his girlfriend, where almost all bets Dogo Aslay complains about his girlfriend, until he later goes to a local alcohol club where he thinks he wants a glass.

Surely Dogo Aslay gets enough sleep, comforts himself with what has happened to him and life continues to move. I don't want to play the song, I just want the music. Let's add glass!

Let's leave that imaginary story of Dogo Aslay, which is probably unreal, I want to take you to an event that is real, not identical to Dogo Aslay's, but is itself as if it is being swayed by the 'Add Glass' cliché, which means I feel comfortable until you want a glass added.

Yes it is added glass. What's the glass? It is a Chagulaga tradition, which the community has, knows it is not good, the means of control are known but there are some parents adding glasses. They want it to go on again and again even though it's exhausting to even hear it.

Chagulaga is a tradition and tradition of the Wa Push community, which is said to increase teenage pregnancy and maternal mortality in Katavi and other parts of the Lake District, with citizens adding glass!

The rituals when a girl breaks the trunk then is organized in traditional dance festivals, especially during harvest season, where girls and men organize, a man stretches out a hand, where the daughter chooses a man and establishes a relationship with him.

However, the tradition has become a bitter thorn in the daughters of Katavi, where if she breaks the snare the parents look for several young people and force the daughter to choose one and if she does not do so she is punished with corporal and other severe punishment.

Speaking in an exclusive interview with NewsTODAY, the Tobacco Officer of the Mlele District of Katavi District, Grace Sanga, says that if the daughter is not treated the mother goes to the doctor for what they claim the daughter will be and why the child is not being sedated.

"That's why children get pregnant early, if a 14-year-old child breaks the trunk is forcibly married, he will be assigned 10 men and forced to choose one, unless he does so he is given a severe punishment," Grace said, adding:

"This tradition and tradition of the chagulaga requires extra strength, if you give them an education they see you as a modern person, the community excludes you," he said.

Following the phenomenon of teen pregnancy, Katavi is among the leading regions with maternal mortality and teen pregnancy at 45 percent, followed by Tabora 43 percent and Mara 37 percent, according to the 2022 Maternal and Child Health and Malaria Indicators (TDHS-MIS) survey.

There are serious consequences for teenage pregnancy, including economic, psychological, mental and health.

Reproductive health experts advise that in order to avoid health problems, it is best to get pregnant after you are at least 18 years old.

Under 18 years of age, the girl is not yet mentally and physically mature enough to carry the responsibilities of parenting, and the hips are too young and narrow to be unable to carry the creature and cause serious harm during childbirth.

Other health effects of teenage pregnancy are excessive bleeding during childbirth, fistula, pregnancy epilepsy and maternal and child mortality.

WHAT THE COMMUNITY SAYS

Kulwa Blanket, 56, says his first wife found him in the chagulaga.

"Chagulaga is our tradition, even my first wife I found her in the chagulaga, the other one I saw and I just loved her and I followed the normal procedures of marrying," he says, adding:

"It's hard to stop this tradition, when there is a dance or wedding or traditional ceremony that's what happens there, you'll give the girl's hand a gesture of stalking and she'll receive it then you'll tell your fellow men that the daughter accepts me so they don't follow her.

"If the daughter doesn't receive the hand, then you will leave and another man will go and give her a hand," says Blanket, who seems to enjoy the tradition.

WHAT ABOUT THE GIRLS

Lilian Charles, 22, a resident of rural Uzega, says the tradition is oppressive and denies daughters the opportunity to study and decide for themselves.

"I have a friend of mine when we finished primary school only her parents sent her to choose, she was sent four but she didn't like one she rejected them, they beat her until she agreed, i.e. if you are sent you must choose to choose, do not want to," he said.

"I wish the government would wipe this tradition out of existence, a 14-year-old girl you find has two or three children, 22 years old, five children, they are forced to marry because of property," Lilian says.

Asteria, 19, was forced by her father to marry at 16, while studying in Form <>.

"My father didn't have money to teach me," he said. "Then I found out she had already received a dowry of 20 cows for me....: "It is normal for a girl to break the shack only the family is forced to marry in order to get dowry.

"Because they don't value their daughters' education, and because they're also afraid they'd get pregnant and bring shame to the family.

"Some girls also see marriage as a way out of poverty, violence, enforcement or child labour," she says.

Sarah John (not real name), forced to marry at the age of 15 after failing the seventh grade graduation exam.

"My father decided to find me a man to marry me because I was staying home not doing anything," she said.

However, a large number of daughters who have interviewed with NewsTODAY say their husbands have abandoned them and left them to care for children without any financial support.

The government should work to make improvements to marriage and divorce laws, including setting the minimum age for marriage at 18.

DISTRICT COORDINATOR ALONGA

Mlele District maternal and child health coordinator Nuruel Sarwati says cows are the source of girls getting married at a young age and thus experiencing various challenges during childbirth that lead to child and maternal mortality.

He said that in the eight months between January and August the total number of child deaths was 49 and two pregnant women.

In those months, babies born and died there were 14, babies who died in the womb were 21 and those of one day to seven days were 14, bringing the death toll to 49, while the number of babies who died from blood loss was two.

"The children are not educated, most are pastoralist communities, we are very accepting of the labour of daughters aged 14, 15, 16 and are very much 17, it is a challenge, and this is because of tradition and tradition," says Sarwati.