Opinion Saul Gwakuba Ndlovu
Zimbabwe is undoubtedly experiencing an increase in the incidence of crimes of various kinds because of a number of factors, the most important of which is obviously socio-economic in form. One type of crime that traumatises the entire country’s population daily, particularly the female members, social scientists and criminologists inform us, occurs at the alarming rate of slightly more than 15 per day.

That crime is rape. According to the child welfare civil society organisation, Childline, 1,354 rape incidents occurred between January and March in Zimbabwe this year.

Of that number, 946 involved girl-child victims. That quarterly figure (1,354) if divided by the number of days in that period, which is 90, gives us a daily average of nearly 10 incidents.

Bearing in mind the fact that many other rape cases are not reported to the police, we cannot but be stunned by the high level of that crime. Some of the unreported cases involve highly superstitious and grossly ignorant parents and guardians whose young girls are victims of religious charlatans who masquerade as apostolic or born-again prophets.

The girls and some adult women are raped by those unscrupulous devilish “prophets” who claim to have pentecostal spiritual powers and are threatened with a visit by Gehenna itself should they reveal the crime to anyone.

Some rape victims are threatened with either death or violence or an eternal curse if they revealed what has been done to them by those human hyenas some of whom dress in snowy white robes from the sole of their feet to the tips of their hair.

The victims who fall prey to that type of criminal are usually educationally empty, culturally unsound, economically vulnerable and socially insecure, and are intimidated by those social misfits to suffer in silence.

It is also relatively common to come across unreported rape incidents because the parents or guardians of the victims felt that reporting would result in the whole community knowing that the girl concerned is no longer a virgin.

Some parents and guardians would rather have such crimes swept under the carpet so that they do not have to go to the police station and to the court as either witnesses for or as authority over the rape victims.

They feel that their involvement in police investigations and subsequent court cases would be a most unwelcome inconvenience to the normal routine of their generally uneventful daily lives.

Some 54 years ago, the author of this article was an assistant in a social anthropology research project among the BaKalanga and was based at Chief Bango’s area in the Mangwe District.

His immediate superior was a Fulbright scholar, Dr Richard Werbner, later Professor Werbner, of Manchester University in the United Kingdom.
One of our interesting findings was that rape was virtually non-existent among the BaKalanga before the advent of the settler colonial administration and its introduction of the Roman-Dutch legal system into the country in the mid-1890s.

The tradition then was that when a girl became pregnant either through rape or any other immoral sexual behaviour, her parents would offer her as wife to some rich friendly man who would accept her as she was, that is to say pregnancy and all.

The whole marital process, that is from the offering stage (pizabukwe) to that of betrothal (for lack of a much more precise word) would be hastened “because the child has developed a swollen navel”, which in TjiKalanga is “ngobe mwana wazwimba kombo.”

That tradition covered up a number of rape and other unpleasant and embarrassing sexual immoralities in a number of families.
The colonialists abolished all that and, assisted by Christian missionaries, made it an offence for a parent or guardian to offer his daughter or ward as a wife to anyone. It is debatable whether or not that traditional, rape tolerant, male chauvinistic attitude no longer exists throughout Zimbabwe. But it is most heartening that the government has launched an anti-rape campaign under the name: the National Action Plan Against Rape and Sexual Abuse (NAPARSA).

To consolidate that campaign throughout the country and help to reduce the incidence of rape, it is advisable to educate members of every community to respect one another, especially the community’s female members. This can be done with the initiative of the community’s cultural leadership comprising village heads, headmen and chiefs.

It can also be carried out socially from grade zero up to university level. It should be a major political programme for every party or organisation. Religious movements have an important role to play in moulding the moral character of the communities in which they operate.
Chiefs and headmen should organise workshops to which the Zimbabwe Republic Police (ZRP) could be invited as resource personnel to educate the relevant communities about the country’s law on rape.

Members of parliament and councillors should give priority to the crime of rape by discussing it with their constituents and wards plus the relevant security and law enforcement authorities. The country’s courts should pass effectively deterrent sentences on every convicted rapist without exception.
All women’s organisations should publicly and most vigorously campaign against rape.

The role that should be played by all African women in the continental fight against the crime of rape should be highlighted all the time.
The patriotic responsibilities shouldered by the black mothers of the African continent in the struggle for nationhood are well known and do not have to be left to our individual imagination. The sacrifices made by the black Zimbabwean mothers during the armed liberation struggle especially in the rural areas are unforgettable and historic. Their rightful demand for recognition and for national respect is duly responded to by the Constitution of Zimbabwe.
What is left is for each one of them to claim that which is historically and constitutionally their right, that is, to be respected by an efficiently administered legally protective judicial system.

You Might Also Like

Comments