grandmother and mother made me to try aborting the pregnancy by taking in the sugar 

and muscatel solution, and it landed me in a disaster. In fact, when my father got to know 

about the pregnancy, he was so upset with me. [Bernadette] 

After two failed abortion attempts, she gave birth to her first child. This is perhaps partly 

why couples keep the information about pregnancy to themselves and obtain abortions secretly 

as often as possible.  

 5.2.3 

Boyfriends 

and 

Husbands 

Ten of the study participants, ranging in age from 16 to 22, said that they were either 

planning to get married or hoped to get married to their current boyfriends. They were speaking 

in each case of a boy or man with whom they had created a pregnancy that resulted in either an 

abortion or a birth. The following participant, who was 18 years old when she first became 

involved with her boyfriend, had two children with him and is still with him at the age of 21.    

I worked with my mother and met this young man who expressed interest in me. We 

moved together for a while and I got pregnant. . . No [we are not married], but we intend 

to get married as soon as he gets a better job. . . He comes to the house often and gives us 

our chop money.[Lily]  

Even more significant, however, was that seven participants, ranging in age from 18 to 

24, referred to themselves in casual conversation as already being married by sometimes calling 

their partners their  husbands,  and two others said they had already been married but no longer 

were. When asked directly, however, all of these participants said that a legal marriage ceremony 

had never been performed. When Candace was asked directly why she called herself married 

when there had been no legal ceremony, she said,   

Okay, since some time ago I can say that you are married. When you have a child with a 

man and you are living together, they say you are married. [Candace] 

Many of the participants said they lived with their husbands or boyfriends, as did 

Candace, but only two participants lived with their partner exclusively, like Rachel, who said,  

When I met him, not long after, I got pregnant. As soon as I realized I was pregnant, I 

moved out of my parents' house to live with him in his house. So I have been living with 

him for the past nine years. [Rachel] 

It turned out that most study participants who said they were living with either their 

husbands or boyfriends actually lived in at least two locations. Usually, one location was the 

home of a maternal relative and the other was either the home of the boyfriend's family or a 

single family dwelling. 

I have two homes. The one in this community is the [family name] family house. In that 

house we are a lot. My aunties, uncles, and their children all live there. My second home 

is my husband's house. We are only three living together, myself and husband and our 

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