Imperial, international, and local responses to early and forced marriage in British Colonial Africa, c.1920-1962

This thesis examines imperial and international discourses relating to women's and girls' rights in British colonial Africa, focusing on forced and early marriages, c.1920-62. These remain important areas of international, national and local concern, particularly for Africa. However, current concerns often understand the issue as one relating to ahistorical notions of 'tradition' or 'culture', and rigidly define child and forced marriages. The inattention to the historical and local specificities of these practices ignores their imperial roots. To shed light on this longer historical trajectory, the thesis explores contentious debates within and between the British Colonial Office, mission societies, British and transnational women's organizations, the 'international community' represented by the League of Nations and the UN, and African communities. It examines questions of polygamy, forced and child marriages, and bridewealth, to elucidate how debates on African marriage were influenced by shifting ideas of colonial governance in this period. The thesis aims to show how the growth of the international community - and associated ideas of anti-colonialism, development, and universal rights, particularly women's and child rights - shaped these debates. Existing studies of African marriage focus on local microstudies: this thesis is the first to place these questions within the broader imperial and international frame and examine them across British colonial Africa as a whole. This represents an important original contribution to the scholarship and provides essential context for current debates.