Rape Epidemic in the African Congo

At 3 o’clock in the morning a 6 year old girl rings the doorbell of her own house. After having gone missing for several days she has returned to her front porch where her mother finds her with blood covering her legs. This tiny child had been raped, repeatedly.

An 18-year old female was abducted from her village. Her captors tied a rope around her neck, and tied her to a tree. Once a day for four months she was untied from her tree, only to be gang raped for several hours.

The photo above shows a young girl being treated after she had been abducted from her home and raped repeatedly. After raping her, her attackers mutilated her body by chopping off both of her hands.

These stories may be horrific, but they are common occurrences in the African Congo. The United Nations reported in 2006 that in one province in South Africa alone there were over 27,000 sexual assaults and these are just the ones that were reported. There is little to no respect for women in these areas. Even post-rape victims receive a second victimization from their justice system or their community. Because of the nature of the assault and cultural views of women as inferior objects a rape victim is often considered a disgrace by her family and community. And because of the high number of assaults, if she seeks to report the offense she is not often given the medical treatment, physical and psychological, that she may desperately need. The justice system often chooses not to punish or prosecute an offender which has led offenders to believe that rape is an act that 1) Isn’t considered to be a serious issue, at least not one worthy of being prosecuted for, and 2) They can get away with it. One can imagine how disheartening it must be to be taken against your will and brutally raped, only to return to your community and safe-haven where you are expecting help and getting these reactions instead. It is no wonder why so many women choose not to report their assaults.



There is a general acceptance of this brutality from the men and women in South Africa. I deduct that this logic originates in the history of violent unrest in the African Congo and wartime tactics of militias. Women are considered nothing more than war booty and a means to humiliate the enemy community. Women are usually kidnapped when they stray away from the village to perform everyday duties, such as collecting firewood or water. They are often taken into the forest where they are systematically gang-raped for days, even weeks. Their bodies are frequently mutilated as the attackers insert objects into their vaginas after the gang rape. These objects include but are not limited to sticks, knives, and gun barrels. Some groups have been known to shoot the woman in her vagina after the rape as a way to “leave their mark”. The woman is left permanently disfigured and psychologically damaged, but alive.

This longstanding history of sexual violence and mutilation of women in the African Congo has caused a social phenomenon. Rape is no longer solely an act between warring parties but has become socially ingrained in Africa’s young boys. The frequency of rape created a misconception in the minds of the young men, and women, in Africa that it is acceptable. Young boys caught and convicted of rape have been documented as saying that they did not know it was rape. This is a sick and sad normality associated with violent sexual acts. In an effort to reverse the cognitive distortion that rape is acceptable, counselors for young men convicted of rape have begun redirecting them to treatment centers instead of jail. Oftentimes the young boys honestly did not know the extent and consequences associated with their actions, ranging from legal ramifications to the psychological and physical damages caused to the victim.

The United Nations has attempted to help eradicate this problem by introducing peacekeepers to the area. They have initiated night flashes where troops shine the headlights of their vehicles all night so the civilians and potential aggressors are aware of their presence. Often they will wake to find their trucks surrounded by hundreds of sleeping village people. The peacekeepers are there to help protect the women of the village, but how is this supposed to be affective in the long run? Peacekeeping does not fix the social problem that has led to the sexual abuse of women in the area. There must be a strong effort by the African government and United Nations to solve the social issue associated with these crimes. Until then we should not be surprised to see the number of rapes in the African Congo rise exponentially.