It has become the silent cancer that is eating up Africa and yet, we
refuse to talk about it. More than 60 percent of African children are sexually
violated before they are 13 by someone close to them.
Now it has become an epidemic in South Africa; more than 267 young
women are raped daily. Here is a story of one of the survivals; She was eight
years old and playing hide-and-seek at a cousin’s house when another distant
relative, who was about 15 at the time, convinced her to hide behind the couch
with him. He then lay on top of her, pressing down hard on her small frame. He
lifted her skirt and entered her, says Ntontlo.
“I was crying, but he slapped me and threatened to beat me more.”
Now 30 years old, Ntontlo was too embarrassed and confused at the time
of the incident to tell anyone.
“I was afraid of what my mother would say and I was also afraid of the
one who raped me.”
Ntontlo’s shame and the guilt she felt led to troubled teenage years.
“I became very promiscuous. I had so many boyfriends. If I saw a man I
was attracted to I would do everything I could to have sex with him that day,”
She eventually contracted HIV/AIDS through unprotected sex. We must not
see this as just a South African problem. South Africa is experiencing this
rape of the future today because Africa tends to protect the family at the
expense of self. We have allowed our women to bear unbearable burden just to
protect the family. When an uncle rapes his niece it is buried in secrecy. Most
time the father is never allowed to know. The little girl bears the hurt.
Because of our secrecy, the rape victim suffers alone.
It is so bad now that they don’t even share their pains and the
culprits are not punished. So they live to do it to more young ones again and
again. Our women are abused as children and harassed continually as adults yet
we still consider rape victims as the culprits in our so-called way of life.
Let’s speak up before it is too late.
Mothers thinks it is a shame to tell others that a close relative rape
their child. It is high time we started speaking up against this evil. It is
not shameful or inappropriate to arrest a cousin who raped a member of the
family. Our women have suffered enough. Join this chariot and speak out against
this evil.
