{"id":25536,"date":"2024-01-07T22:39:24","date_gmt":"2024-01-07T22:39:24","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/ethiopia\/all-news\/telling-unspoken-stories-of-sexual-violence"},"modified":"2024-01-07T23:46:01","modified_gmt":"2024-01-07T23:46:01","slug":"telling-unspoken-stories-of-sexual-violence","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/ethiopia\/all-news\/telling-unspoken-stories-of-sexual-violence","title":{"rendered":"Telling unspoken stories of sexual violence"},"content":{"rendered":"

Africa-Press – Ethiopia. <\/strong><\/span>The finest eloquence is that which gets things done, said former British Prime Minister David Lloyd George.<\/p>\n

In similar vein, the Ugandan Poets Against Sexual Harassment, Assault And Rape (UPASHASAR) has deployed the quills of its members to do battle with the ignorance, inertia and sheer criminality born of a conspiracy of silence around sexual violence.<\/p>\n

Using the power of poetry as their weapon of choice, UPASHASAR has taken the fight to the enemy.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe Unspoken Crime Scenes is an anthology that dares to confront the most harrowing facets of our existence: sexual assault, lack of justice, the agonizing struggles of survivors, and the prevailing stigma that haunts their very beings. Within these poems, we lay bare the raw emotions and unfiltered expressions of those who have borne the burden of violence, seeking to shed light on the unspoken stories that have been relegated to the periphery of consciousness,\u201d reads the book\u2019s somewhat accusatory Foreword, in part.<\/p>\n

With the stage and tone set, the writer of these words, a South African poet named Choene Alley Semenya, gets really dark indeed in her poem, \u201cThe Road To Recovery\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019m the girl who was violated by a gang of men in the bushes, stripped naked of my dignity, who knows the atrocious feeling of forced penetration, and remembers the sounds of breaking shrivelled leaves on the ground as gravity pulled me down,\u201d Semenya writes.<\/p>\n

After being gang-raped, the persona is counseled by her pastor and therapist (a word whose first syllable \u201cthe\u201d, which is pronounced \u201cther\u201d, may be detached from the other two syllables in the word to conjure the ironic words, \u201cthe rapist\u201d).<\/p>\n

As with other victims of rape, the persona suffers the psychological effects of rape which come with self-blame, self-loathing, feelings of severe anxiety and stress.<\/p>\n

Inside, she feels dead and is thus impervious to the exhortations of her pastor to live life anew, since she is not literally dead.<\/p>\n

Similar to American poet Sylvia Plath\u2019s persona in her 1962 poem, \u201cLady Lazarus,\u201d Semenya\u2019s persona is both dead and alive, leaving her at once triumphant, in that she survived rape, and tragic, for the same reason.<\/p>\n

Equally disturbing is the poem \u201cMy Name Is Nabagesera\u201d by Priscilla Kituuma.<\/p>\n

She was a faithful servant of the church from the age of 19; this is when she ripened into a nubile young lady.<\/p>\n

Her \u201cchest nuts\u201d doubled as boob eruptions which intruded upon the piety of men of faith.<\/p>\n

As a result, Nabagesera, the (in)famous altar girl at the archdiocese, was taken advantage of by those whose care she was entrusted to: the men of the collar or, as Ngu\u0303gi\u0303 wa Thiong\u2019o, the Kenyan author and academic, would describe as the collared men.<\/p>\n

Being an innocent, she surrendered to their sexual overtures, unwittingly thinking that she was serving the church. Until, one day, the road fatefully turned.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt felt right that I should serve all God\u2019s people\/Derived of wives and husbands. It felt an honour to please\/A whole seminary single bodily; Until the new priest spoke of harassment, Until a voice spoke of child molestation, Until a voice spoke of the sexual harassment. 40 years of age\/My dreams were trapped, My voice silenced…\u201d<\/p>\n

Trapped in the vortex of a sex ring, englobing the sexual indiscretions of the church, she is sacrificed at the altar of such perversions and is thereby sainted in sin.<\/p>\n

Simon Muhumuza in the poem \u201cI\u2019ll Speak\u201d refuses to go down the same road. The persona in his poem has been defiled, but silence about this crime is not an option. She will speak.<\/p>\n

\u201cI am just a minor. Mr. Junju says I can do nothing. I can\u2019t be listened to, Let alone be believed. If I speak, Hell will be my home on earth, Thus he says, I\u2019ll speak! He keeps on pulling me, As if possessed by the devil, Slaps my bums, Fondles my breasts, Forces his disgusting lips, Onto my innocent, juvenile mouth. I\u2019ll speak!\u201d<\/p>\n

Although the persona has the courage to speak up against the evils of defilement, she will have to address the suffering from the abuse she endured, which leaves deep emotional scars.<\/p>\n

The emotional trauma takes a lifetime to overcome. The persona, a young girl, will tend (thereafter) to look upon sex as a dirty and disgraceful act linked psychically to Mr. Junju, a demon possessed defiler.<\/p>\n

If you thought the sins ended there, sorry. The poem \u201cIncest\u201d by Macbeth Mwalim Banda, a Malawian, will pile on the misery that serves as your poetic company.<\/p>\n

\u201cI cry day and night\/Each night I\u2019m preyed on\/Pouncing on me violently Leaving my internals bruised. A demon inside a fatherly deity\/Maliciously exposed to torture\/Detrimental and a painful one\/As Kilimanjaro is placed on Nthawira Hills\/So sad! Shamelessly\/He says God feeds hard workers\/Making me dine after displaying parts private\/When I lose my sleep at a minute to midnight\/Why me?\u201d Banda writes.<\/p>\n

After these words, your heartstrings might as well form a noose that asphyxiates the life out of you. Not because the poetry is so brutally honest, but because the life it reflects is so brutally true.<\/p>\n

For More News And Analysis About Ethiopia<\/a> Follow Africa-Press<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Africa-Press – Ethiopia. The finest eloquence is that which gets things done, said former British Prime Minister David Lloyd George. In similar vein, the Ugandan Poets Against Sexual Harassment, Assault And Rape (UPASHASAR) has deployed the quills of its members to do battle with the ignorance, inertia and sheer criminality born of a conspiracy of […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":84,"featured_media":25535,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2,4],"tags":[233,277,235],"class_list":["post-25536","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-all-news","category-culture-and-art","tag-africa-press","tag-africa-press-ethiopia-2","tag-ethiopia"],"yoast_head":"\nTelling unspoken stories of sexual violence - Ethiopia<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"The finest eloquence is that which gets things done, said former British Prime Minister David Lloyd George. 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