Africa's Shame

It's always been clear to me that rape is a crime of violence. But unlike other forms of violence, this one has no positive face. There is no defensible rape. No rape that can equated with the violence of a defender. Unfortunately, rape also has a rare power and is a singular terror. Living the life I have, I have endured my share of beatings but I've never ben raped and I can't imagine it.

It is also the ultimate act of power. It so invalidates the existence of the other person that without an active support system, full recovery (emotional) becomes impossible. That is why it so prevalent among primative culture conflict. Rape hurts 2 people intensely. The woman who suffers most must live with its physical and emotional consequences. Her man or father must deal with the fact that he wasn't man enough to protect her. In cultures where manhood is important, being found wanting in such a way is ample cause for suicide.

Recently, there has been much attention brought to the systematic rapes occuring in the Democratic Republic of Congo and rightly so. But crimes such as these are happening in Nigeria, Sudan, Somalia and many other African nations. Rapes in these countries aren't just standard rapes. There are usually multiple assailants with various penetrating implement including guns and knives, taking place over several days. Surely this is a crime against humanity. If oil is a good reason to fight (and I believe it is), then this has got to be a good reason too. This doesn't require a huge policy shift or a nation building action. It would just require a group of hand picked American men willing to mete out the ultimate punishment for those who would treat women in this way.

And that's the real question. What kind of man would treat of woman like this? What kind of moral code, social engineering, creates beasts that thing nothing of a 3 day rape fest? Again, because of the collective and genetic guilt of White America, we fail to address these issues clearly. A culture that promotes actions like group rape is not equal to my culture. There is no cosmic arbitor of justice that would find our cultures the least bit relative.

There are those who deserve to die. The vicious rapists of Africa are first on my list.