80 Percent

This is a short essay by my friend and fellow Quthing PCV Colleen Thiersch, in response to a writing prompt to write about an interesting fact. It is an interesting take on a sad reality here. It contains some cuss words, so if you're sensitive to that kind of thing, toughen up and read anyway. It's important. 

80% of women in Lesotho were raped by a non-partner in their lifetime.

I unwrap this statistic as carefully as a Form A student unwrapping his first condom. With more disgust and without any of the laughs.

80%

EIGHTY per F U C K I N G cent. On the Lesotho grading scale an 80% is an A. A for rapists.

But how rare is that to get 80% of anything happening to anybody in statistics? Oh, whelp found one other: 80% of people look at their smartphones before brushing their teeth in the morning ok I know every one of you does that because when did you actually last brush your teeth.

(((There’s to be no more of that gdamn percent sign because it’s just balls and a penis that keep coming up behind these 80 percent of women)))

Of Women in Lesotho

The population of Lesotho is roughly 2 million. Estimating that half of the population is women, 800,000 of the 1 million Basotho women have been raped. And that’s all I have to say about women here. Look how this statistic is written. In passive voice with women as the subject. As with any crime, the subject, the one in the spotlight, must be the perpetrator. The rapists. Men. It can’t be that there are a few rapists roaming the country raping 800,000 women. There must be a terrifyingly high number of men who rape women.

Were Raped

Everyone and their nkhono [grandmother] knows that Lesotho is ranked second for HIV/AIDS prevalence, but that Lesotho is ranked number one in rape incidents is mentioned by no organization attempting to help this country. But rape is also an infectious disease. A cultural disease. Transmitted father to son. Peer to peer. HIV/AIDS is a very scientific, clinical problem which makes it, in a way, easy – here are the modes of transmission, here are the ways to stop the transmission. Find a stock photo of people in lab coats looking at test tubes or a frowning, malnourished child and throw a statistic about the disease on there – the donations come pouring. When you turn to rape, there’s nothing easy. There’s no one in a lab researching a cure for rape, no simple prevention (except maybe run/fight/scream). And as of late, rape has been brought quite uncomfortably to the fore in so many cultures. It’s an issue that’s very close to so many people that triggers feelings of shame and disgust for the prevalence of rape in their own culture. So when they come to a statistic such as this one, they move their attention to those causes more distant from themselves.

By a non-partner

In this stat we’re not even including those women raped and sexually abused by a significant other. It’s a thing, Donald Trump. This week at school, three young women reported to the school that they were pregnant. Two were expelled. The third, the school’s head prefect (#THANKSDUMBLEDORE), was not expelled because she is married. It’s her one month anniversary. “Her parents married her because they needed the lobola [bride price].” Now, I have no idea how this man treats her – I don’t mean to imply that she was raped or that she is abused by her husband – I’m just looking to point out that because she’s married there are no questions asked, she’s allowed to stay at school while pregnant, and culturally it’s Aokay.

Men buy marry women and they’re allowed to treat them however. Did she want to marry him? Did she want to become pregnant? I can’t say. She has about one month left of Form E when she’ll sit for exit exams and do damn well on them – she’s ranked third in the class. And last I spoke to her about her interests in May, she wanted to become a dentist. That is to say, she would have been one of the ones brushing her teeth before checking her smart phone.

In their lifetime

Rape has no cure. There’s no getting rid of it. A victim holds it for a lifetime.

Gone are the days when I’ll ever give a condom demonstration before a consent lesson in life skills.

Consulted my Basotho colleagues in the staff room at lunch time:

Teachers: *speaking lots of Sesotho words very quickly*

Me (casual): “Did you know 80% of women in Lesotho were raped by a non-partner in their lifetime”

Teachers:

Male Teacher: *shrugs* “Yeah, it’s like that.”

So idk maybe, this showing of silence and complacence is more of the fact that I’m sharing with you here.