Namibia’s rape culture

AFRICA’S patriarchy, customs and traditions largely promote rape culture.

And Namibia has not escaped this, according to figures the Namibian Police recently revealed.

Namibia’s Oshana, Omusati, Oshikoto and Ohangwena regions, have the highest incidence of rape in the whole country.

The Namibian Police’s crime investigations division recently revealed the Oshikoto region recorded 224 cases of rape, Ohangwena 226, Oshana 134, and Omusati 126 between January 2019 to and September this year.

This brings the total number of rape cases in the four regions to 710 for this period.

Many victims, however, do not report cases, which means the actual figures could be much higher, the police say.

Some cases are also withdrawn due to the victim being threatened, or negotiations between the perpetrator and the victim’s family – often without the victim’s knowledge.

Rape culture refers to the prevailing environment in which rape is not only prevalent, but is also normalised or trivialised because of societal attitudes about gender and sexuality.

In some Namibian-based Angolan communities at the Evululuko and Oneshila settlements at Oshakati in the Oshana region, young girls between 12 and 13 are sold off to older men as ‘wives’.

Negotiations involve the exchange of money and cattle.

Once married, these underage girls are subjected to sexual assaults by their ‘husband’.

“As soon as a young girl gets her first period she goes through a ritual which allows her to become a woman, and she is no longer a child.

“This means your parents and relatives secretly plan the ceremony without your knowledge,” says Franscisca Mbedu, a young woman in this area.

“… it is then the man’s choice whether he will wait until you grow older before indulging sexually..,” Joslinda Silvio says.

Maria Fernando (25) says she was only 13 when she was sold to an older man.

“I didn’t understand what was happening, I was just told I would be taken to be married off in some ceremony … I managed to evade getting married, because I went back to school and decided I wasn’t going back to visit my parents again. Eventually they gave up on the idea,” she says.

The Ovamhimba people of the Kunene region also engage in arranged marriages, with girls married off as young as five and eight years old.

Inspector general Sebastian Ndeitunga says the issue of rape is of serious concern to the police – especially in the north.

He says the police have received reports of child marriages in the Kunene region.

“This is statutory rape … and those involved in these types of ceremonies can be charged with being accessories to rape,” he says. “There is a need to sensitise the communities – especially in these regions,” Ndeitunga says.

He says a strategy to sensitise communities has already been rolled out in the Khomas region.

Clinical psychologist Shaun Whit-taker explains how the history of Namibia’s northern regions contributes to the country’s rape culture.

“Northern Namibia was the most militarised zone in the world in the 1980s during the horrors of colonialism. This meant the area experienced an extremely high level of violence for a very long time. For example, the militarist male gender role, which is the most dangerous patriarchal male gender role, was upheld as normal for men, resulting in male domination being actively encouraged,” he says.

“Needless to say, this was a disaster for women and girls as it manifested in tremendous patriarchy-based violence. This is tragically seen in the way that young girls are trafficked or married off at a young age. It should be compulsory for all girls to finish high school,” he says.

“This kind of patriarchal violence is also justified by the Christian idea that the man is the head of the household and that women should be submissive … Christianity is merely an ideology and we need to develop a democratic ideology rather,” he says.

Furthermore, northern Namibia is still an underdeveloped region, which leads to structural violence in the form of unemployment and significant social inequality.

“I am also of the opinion that a ban on spanking of children would lead to a huge decrease in patriarchy-based violence. Re-search suggested that a boy raised with spanking is four times more likely to rape,” he says.

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