In most communities in sub-Saharan Africa, the definition of a child is culturally, politically, and socially unspecific and varied. The variance in meanings ascribed to a child is evident in legislative definitions, especially on the issue of child marriage. Child marriage, a human rights violation is a legal or customary union in which one or both spouses are below the age of 18. This practice is prevalent in most communities in sub-Saharan Africa. Arguably, it robs children of the opportunity to enjoy childhood and experience dependence, protection, and care. Rather, it turns them into protectors, nurturers, and providers. Children are shoved with the responsibility of being parents through child marriage. Thus, creating no demarcation between the role and responsibility of an adult and a child. Given that children are ill-prepared for marriage and its concomitant elements such as sex, psychological, emotional and physical maturity to be spouses and possibly parents, this paper argues that the journey to self-discovery and identity is at the intersection of culture, law, and religion. The clash between religious and cultural autonomy is a pervasive problem for national and international laws, one that arises because of claims of immunity from child protection and marriage provisions on the grounds of cultural or religious autonomy. Informed by observation during fieldwork in Southern African countries and literature on cultural relativism, this paper suggests that the clash between cultural autonomy and child marriage prohibition is best addressed through a legal pluralist perspective. This perspective seeks to bridge the gap between customary law, national laws, and international treaties, and requires sensitivity to the economic and socio-cultural factors behind the persistence of child marriage.

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The fate of marriage gifts during a customary law divorce is significant for the interaction of legal orders in sub-Saharan Africa, especially in the context of scholars' fixation with conflict of laws. In analysing this fatet, this article introduces normative intersectionality as a theoretical framework for a nuanced understanding of how laws and socio-economic forces interact in post-colonial settings. Normative intersectionality rejects a legal positivist view of rights, which neglects people's adaptation of indigenous norms to socioeconomic changes. In this sense, normative intersectionality is useful for addressing the traditional Igbo law of matrimonial property, which regards a married woman's property rights as subsumed in her husband's rights. Using the division of marriage gifts in Southern Nigeria as a case study, the article draws attention to how legal orders speak to, rather than against, each other, and in so doing, stresses the adaptive character of indigenous laws. It argues that normative intersectionality illumines the interplay of gender equality, property rights and legal pluralism. Accordingly, it urges judges to use the imitative nature of legal pluralism in post-colonial settings to remedy entrenched systems of injustice and inequality, which often hide under the banner of tradition. Keywords: Adaptive legal pluralism, marriage gifts, African customary law, matrimonial property rights.

Broadly, the concept of social exclusion denotes a condition in which peopie are unabie to voice their opinion freeiy and fuiiy in matters affecting their iives. It often manifests as unequai respect for, and protection of people's rights based on gender, age, race, and simiiar demographics. Sociai inciusion has become a concern for poiicy deveiopment and impiementation, particuiariy in cuiturai matters, where tensions often arise between traditionai norms and universaiist State iaws. In this context, brideweaith payment in Southern Nigeria presents an intriguing iens for examining social exclusion. Here, women's exciusion from their own brideweaith negotiation iiiustrates the interpiay of agency and unequai power reiations, two twin elements that affect access to justice and policy development. So, in what ways does women's exclusion from bridewealth negotiation broaden understanding of access to justice and development programming? This article argues that women's cultural exclusion from bridewealth negotiation hinders their agency in marriage under customary law. Using data obtained from Southern Nigeria in 2016, it shows how the sustenance of social exclusion stands at the intersection of law, culture, and justice.