Breaking the Silence

Page 1

Breaking the

Silence In war-ravaged Congo, rape survivors offer hope in the face of unspeakable atrocities b y C a merin C o u rtney

PRISM 2 0 1 0

26

Courtesy of Light of Africa Network (LoAfrica.org)

While rape has been a horrific companion to most wars throughout history and is a current reality in areas of political unrest such as Colombia and Darfur, rape has reached epidemic proportions in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC). The extreme numbers in the Congo have prompted the UN to install its largest peacekeeping force in the world in that country. The International Rescue Committee has called the current situation in the Congo the “worst humanitarian disaster since World War II.” “I think what’s different in the Congo is the scale and the systematic nature of it, indeed, as well as the brutality,” Anneka Van Woudenberg, senior Congo researcher at Human Rights Watch, told 60 Minutes’ Anderson Cooper in 2008. “This is not rape because soldiers have got bored and have nothing to do. It is a way to ensure that communities accept the power and authority of that particular armed group. This is about showing terror.” The war that’s been raging in the Congo since the late 1990s has claimed more than 5 million lives. But in addition to the death toll, tens of thousands of women and girls have been raped and sexually assaulted by foreign militias and the Congolese army. The brutality of these rapes has left many women physically — not to mention psychologically — damaged beyond repair. Countless others have been infected with HIV or other STDs, or impregnated with babies their bodies are too young to support or that they are financially and/or emotionally unable to care for. American Lisa F. Jackson, an Emmy Award-winning producer/director and a gang rape survivor herself, traveled to Africa to document the female experience of war, but when her filming took her to the Congo to cover the issue of rape, she realized that the rape epidemic needed a film of its own. “Just walking into Panzi Hospital,” Jackson recalls of her visit to a Congolese medical facility that cares for rape victims, “and seeing row after row after row of women just staring at the ceiling while their traumatized bodies healed was overwhelming.” Jackson wanted to explore the universal stigmas associated with rape and its survivors. In the Congo, those stigmas are even greater than they are in the United States. Because rape brings shame to a woman’s entire family, Congolese women are often told to keep quiet about their attacks. This is a culture where, despite their daily backbreaking work to support their families, women are dependent on men for their economic and physical security, so speaking out against the sexual violence performed by men is a risky proposition. Those who do speak up are often rejected by their husbands, kicked out of their villages, and turned into beggars. And until recently, little would have been done even if they had dared to speak up. In this region where sexual vio-


Turn static files into dynamic content formats.

Create a flipbook
Issuu converts static files into: digital portfolios, online yearbooks, online catalogs, digital photo albums and more. Sign up and create your flipbook.