ABUSE: An impediment to African woman’s development and empowerment

Every now and then, within our immediate environments, women cry for help, from situations of abuse.

Abuse is the denial and the deprivation of an individual’s worth, freedom or rights. It is the manner of treating women as lesser humans. It is an act which degrades the dignity of the human person.

Research has revealed many despicable ways in which women are abused and exploited from time to time. The unfortunate thing about these forms of abuse is that they are perpetrated by people who should not have done so. Such as friends, guardians, even members of families. In fact, in most cases people get trapped in abusive situations generated by their loved ones. Women and children are the most vulnerable of all. Abuse of women is overwhelming in Africa. It is assumed that women are prone to abuse from cradle to death.

In some African communities, a girl child is less appreciated than a male child. In practice, she is denied quality education and equal opportunities with the male child. At this stage, two fates await her. It is either she is forced into marriage or she is given out as house helps for domestic servitude were she is sometimes abused physically, sexually and emotionally.

Another prevalent form of abuse is human trafficking. Human trafficking is a modern day slavery, where women are recruited and moved, by means of deceit, threat or force for the purpose of exploitation. Presently, women are trafficked to many parts of the world especially to Europe for prostitution. Prostitution has been claimed to be one of the oldest profession in the world. It is assumed to generate a lot of money to those who indulge in it and because of the huge financial gain, women are forced into it by some dubious people in order to make money for themselves. Women who which to migrate to places for greener pastures are more vulnerable. (However, at the southern part of Nigeria, some parents encourage their girls to migrate for prostitution) It is only by getting to the destination (sometimes unknown destination) that they realise that they have been trafficked. If it is to a foreign country their passports are seized at the point of entry to avoid escape. From there they get to know that the promises of good work and study abroad are all lies. They are forced to scout for punters of which the money paid goes to the pimps or the bosses, until they offset the travelling expenses made on their behalf.

Another reason for trafficking women could be for domestic servitude where they are often sexually assaulted in the course of their duty. Women can be trafficked for organ transplant. At the Northern part of Nigeria, women are induced to travel to Saudi Arabia in pretence of Hajj only for their organs to be severed from them and sold for rituals. In other circumstances, they are sold for surgical transplant. In some cases they are forced to get pregnant and after which the baby will be sold off. (It’s called baby harvesting). Other reasons could be for cheap labour where they are forced to work in sweater factories for little stipends.

Moreover, if the girl child happens to get married, another form of abuse crops up. She is denied equal rights with her partner. As far as African custom is concern she is an inferior human being and must be treated as such. She is confronted with physical, sexual and psychological abuse. Women are battered in their homes every now and then. Nobody gets to query the abuser because he has bought the woman with the “Bride Price”.

She does not have right over her reproductive health. She gives birth to as many children as her husband wishes, even against her health or else she faces rejection or battery.

As a widow, she goes through horrible widowhood rites. She is most times accused of the husband’s death and forced to drink the water used in washing the husband’s corpse or made to crawl over his corpse. She is expected to sit on the bare floor without having her bathe for a month. Often times she loses her right of inheritance if she lacks a male child or even forced into another marriage with the dead husband’s relative.

At her old age, she has to make sure that her children, grandchildren and daughter in laws are prosperous or else she will be accused of bewitching them and causing their ill-luck. These might lead to her abandonment and rejection by the children.

In some areas of the Eastern part of Nigeria, a woman who dies during the mourning period of her husband is doomed to have been cursed and so does not deserve a decent burial but instead will be thrown into the forest for birds to feed on her carcass.

These are the humiliations an African woman goes through from her time of birth to death. This is as a result of the cultural belief that women are evil and so need to be tamed. Civilisation has reduced but not eradicated these practices. It is still at the height of it in many sub-urban and rural communities of Africa.