Afrikan Goddess (AG) Online

By: N. Amma Twum-Baah

As part of United Nations Week 2008, there was a viewing of the documentary film, “The Greatest Silence: Rape in the Congo,” produced by Lisa F. Jackson. The filming was held at the offices of InterAction (The International Council for Voluntary International Action) in Washington, D.C., and sponsored by UNA-NCA YPIC’S Africa Committee, UNIFEM and InterAction; and AG attended the viewing.

The film, aimed at bringing about awareness in the United States, portrays a crisis that has received very little coverage and attention from the United States and the international community at large – the war and despair in the Congo; and the effect it has had on its people, especially women and children. While the film seeks especially to bring about awareness of the atrocities being committed against women and children in the Congo, it also paints a broader picture of the effects of a senseless war that has been going on for over 13 years, but with no outside intervention – but for a handful of U.N. peacekeepers who are barely making a difference for lack of resources and a feeling of helplessness.

The film was shot by Lisa Jackson and involves interviews with some of the soldiers perpetuating these heinous crimes against women as old as 80 and children as young as 3, and with some of the rape victims. Lisa, who herself was a victim of rape in the late 80’s saw herself identifying and feeling the pain of these women, even though she did admit that their circumstances and access to resources was far from similar to hers. According to Lisa, she was gang raped in Georgetown, while she was walking late at night after having worked late. She describes the humiliation, the fear and the anger she felt after the attack and says she blamed herself for years for “bringing the attack on herself.” A lot of the women in the Congo feel the same and, as a woman, one cannot help but feel the anger, helplessness and the shame these women face on a daily basis. Some of them would rather starve than go into the woods in search of food for fear of being gang-raped by the soldiers who are supposed to be there to protect them.

But, staying home and starving does not guarantee that a woman is safe because every now and then, a village is raided and the men are either killed or forced to join the militia – not sparing the young boys, and the women and young girls are raped and either left for dead or left with the scares of horror they must live with for the rest of our lives – and maybe every once in a while get to tell their stories to a kind and curious stranger who has traveled across the ocean to hear them tell their story. There are no support groups, no psychiatrists or therapists that these women can talk to – the few that avail themselves, do so at their own risk and with no resources at their disposal.

What makes the story of these women strikingly different from the one told by their interviewer, Lisa Jackson, is that Lisa’s story received media coverage – the local news and newspapers, her perpetrators were punished and she had the protection of law enforcement and her family. The women of the Congo have none of the above. For them, the men assigned to protect them are the very ones committing these gruesome crimes and their government has turned a deaf ear to their plight. The few perpetrators that are arrested pay meager bribes ($2, $3) and are set loose to go out and commit further rapes.

One thing that was quite interesting in the film was the fact that when interviewed, most of the rapists admitted that they felt it was their right to take a woman by force if she did not willingly comply with their demands. Some of them went to the extent of stating a belief in a magical power derived from raping a woman. As one rapist put it, to paraphrase, “when a woman is raped it gives the man power from the gods to become stronger and to be able to withstand anything. So, the women of the Congo who have been raped are actually doing their country a great service by ‘allowing’ themselves to go through what they have been through.” Some of the rapists admitted that they would kill a man if they learned that he had raped or even touched a female member of their household and some said they would not retaliate if they believed that the rape was for a good cause, such as “magical powers.”

As woman after woman told her story about the rape - gang rapes - being forced to the ground by a group of young men with guns, being stripped of their cloths, beaten, then raped one man after the other, after which sticks and/or guns were forced into their private parts to destroy the womb, then left to die; it was difficult to hold back the tears, not to be angry, not to want to do something, ask questions, seek answers, see these men punished or, as one woman put it, even “killed.” But the most important thing learned from the film goes without saying: “why use rape as a weapon of war? It is as if the men in the Congo are at war against their own women. But why?

The panel discussion that followed the viewing sought to address the issue. The panel was moderated by Bernard R. Londoni, a native of the Congo who now lives in the US and is currently with the Woodrow Wilson Center for International scholars. Bernard fled the war in 2001 and lived in Zimbabwe before coming to the United States. Other panel members included: Amani Lwanzo, an Amnesty International Human Rights Reebok fellow also from the Republic of Congo, and currently a graduate student at Duquesne University in Pittsburg, PA; Bahati Ntama Jacques, who is a policy analyst at the African Faith and Justice Network (AFJN), also originally from the Republic of Congo. (The plight in the Congo is said to be personal for Mr. Jacques because some of his families have been victims of the war) and; Laura Kaplan, an economic development coordinator at Women for Women International.

According to Ms. Kaplan, “impunity is not a realistic solution to the crisis of Congolese women because there is no one to enforce impunity on the perpetrators of these heinous crimes.” Ms. Lwanzo argued that “the underlying issue runs a lot deeper than impunity.” She stated unpaid soldiers taking their frustrations out on the weak – women and children, and lack of the rule of law needed to enforce impunity as reasons for the continued violence against women and children in the Congo. Mr. Jacques, who appears to have a deep seated passion about the issue stated that “the victims are too many to count and to track, and can’t even be identified.” He suggested that there is only one way to stop the violence against women – “call a cease-fire!” He explained that calling for and enforcing a cease-fire – or working out an amicable agreement – “would stop the war, identify the women and child victims and offer them treatment and help.”

While all points were well-made and suggestions given, it is easy to sit in a comfortable room miles and miles away from the victims of these atrocities and offer our opinions on what we think needs to be done about the thousands of women and children who live this nightmare on a daily basis. Yes, every now and then a person might show up with a camera so these women can tell their stories, yet in the meantime, they still live the horror of what their men are doing to them. Hopefully, more awareness through these kinds of media would get the word out to those who care enough to want to (and have the power) do something. But, it must start at home! The viewing was well attended, but one could not help but notice the handful of blacks/Africans present in the room. The majority of those who showed up were not Africans. If we can’t care enough about the issues that affect us, how can we rightfully expect others to care?

“A woman is the mother of a nation. To rape a woman is to rape a nation and its resources. When women are victimized, a whole nation is victimized” Lisa F. Jackson.

 (Amma is the Managing Editor of African Goddess and a member of the UNA-NCA, YPIC Africa Committee)