The context of early marriage in this zone must be understood within an environment of poverty,

gender inequality, cultural taboos against premarital sex for girls, religious beliefs andpatriarchal
predisposition for controlling female sexuality. It is also true that culture differs in every society and
they have some basic norms and beliefs that guide the people. In a country like Nigeria particularly the
Northern Nigeria (Hausa - Fulani dominated) allowed early marriage of the girl-child. Erulkar and Bello
(2007) opined that the basis for acceptance of early marriages among Northern region is to preserve the
value of virginity, fears about marital sexual activity, toreduce promiscuity of the girl-child, and other
socio-cultural and religious norms. However, due to the ignorance and selfish nature, more often than
not they forget the effect it has on the girl- child as well as their community development. It is however
unfortunate, disturbing and worrisome that the girl- child has no power to resist the offer.

According to Hall (2005: 18-20), representation is the ability to describe or imagine. Representation is
important because culture is always formed through meaning and language, in this case, language is a
symbolic form or a

The meaning of culture itself is always mediated by language to be shared with each member of culture.
From this, Hall points out the importance of representation as a means of communication and social
interaction, he asserts representation as a basic communication need without which humans cannot
interact.

Hall, Stuart. 2005. Culture, Media, Language. CCCS: Birmingham.

Storey, John. 2006. Cultural Studies and Pop Culture Studies. Yogyakarta: Jalasutra.

Hall, S. (Ed.) (1997). Representation: Cultural representations and signifying practices. Chapter 1:
Representation, meaning and language. London Thousand Oaks, Calif: Sage in association with the Open
University. pp. 15-64

DU CAY, P. (ed,) {1997) Pmduction af Cuítwe/Cultures of Productíon, London,

Sage/The Open Universiíy (Book 4 ín íhis series).

Du GAY, Hall, S . JANES, L., MACKAY, H. and NEGUS, K. (1997) Doing Cultural Studies: the story of the
Sony Walkmafí, London, Sage/The Open University
(Book 1 in iMs series).

Jennifer Parsons, Jeffrey Edmeades, Aslihan Kes, Suzanne Petroni, Maggie Sexton & Quentin Wodon
(2015) Economic Impacts of Child Marriage: A Review of the Literature, The Review of Faith &
International Affairs, 13:3, 12-22, DOI: 10.1080/15570274.2015.1075757

UNFPA. (2012). Marrying Too young: End Child Marriage. New York NY: United Nations Population Fund.

UNICEF. 2016. State of the World’s Children. New York: UNICEF.

https://www.unicef.org/publications/files/UNICEF_SOWC_2016.pdf

Le Strat, Y., C. Dubertret, and B. Le Foll. 2011. “Child Marriage in the United States and Its Association
with Mental Health in Women.” Pediatrics 128 (3): 524–530. doi: 10.1542/peds.2011-0961

UNFPA (United Nations Population Fund). 2012. Marrying Too Young: End Child Marriage. New York:
UNFPA.

UNFPA (United Nations Population Fund). 2013. State of the World Population 2013: Motherhood in
Childhood: Facing the Challenge of Adolescent Pregnancy. New York: UNFPA.