Corrective, Curative Rape: What a blasphemy!

Law Failing Lesbians on "Corrective Rape"

Nathalie Rosa Bucher

The 07-07-07 Campaign, named after the gruesome double murder of Salome Masooa and Sizakele Sigaza in 2007 seeks to end the targeting of lesbian women for their sexuality.

CAPE TOWN, Aug 31 (IPS) - "Women are getting killed in the Western Cape," says Ndumie Funda, who runs LulekiSizwe in her "cabin" in the township of Gugulethu near Cape Town.

The project is named after her late fiancée, Nosizwe Nomsa Bizana, who was gang-raped by five men and subsequently succumbed to crypto meningitis, and Bizana's friend Luleka Makiwane, who contracted HIV when she was raped and later died of AIDS.

The initiative provides support for lesbian women in the township, most of them teenagers and young adults, many in their final years of high school. According to Funda, young lesbian women aged between 16 and 25 are most vulnerable and often get evicted by their families.

"Police are often remiss in their investigation and victims are often subjected to secondary victimisation from homophobic police officials, the justice system is slow, struggles to cope with cases of gang attacks and it is hard to convince prosecutors of the importance of hate as a motivation for crimes," Emily Craven, Joint Working Group co-ordinator explains.

There are no authoritative figures on exactly how many incidents of hate crime are committed in South Africa.

The horrific levels of sexual violence in South Africa have been well documented and publicised. According to police statistics, 36,190 rapes and attempted rapes were reported to the South African Police Service (SAPS) between April and December 2007.

The number of unreported cases, however, is estimated to be ten times that. A study released by the Medical Research Council (MRC) in June this year found that of the 1,738 men interviewed 27.6 percent had perpetrated the rape of a woman or girl.

A crime with many names

There are no solid statistics for the frequency of what is known as "corrective rape".

"While the problem has most certainly existed for years, our recorded understandings of the problem has mushroomed over the last couple of years," Emily Craven of the Joint Working Group explains. While she has recorded an increase in reported cases - early June even saw the first trial for a rape case of a gay man - Craven suspects that this is still only the tip of an iceberg.

"There is no awareness around hate crimes and corrective rape," activist Ndumie Funda insists. "We need a programme of action, we need intervention and research, a budget to find out the problems lesbian women encounter."

Bernedette Muthien, co-founder and director of Engender, a Cape Town-based NGO, insists on the term "curative rape": "Curative is more powerful. It’s rape as a cure for your queerness," she says. The 07-07-07 Campaign, named after the gruesome double murder of Salome Masooa and Sizakele Sigaza on Jul. 7, 2007, used the term "hate rape" in a recent press release.

"From New York to Afghanistan, to the Balkans, across Africa, Latin America. I’ve been to many conferences and asked the questions. (Curative rape is) a global phenomenon and it’s often friends and family," says Bernedette Muthien, co-founder and director of Engender, a Cape Town-based NGO.

"It has always been in society since the onset of patriarchy and been used as a tool to control people’s sexuality, women in particular ways and also some men. Many, many of my women friends and comrades themselves are survivors of curative rape."

The MRC report urged a much broader approach to rape prevention. "This must entail intervening on the key drivers of the problem which include ideas of masculinity, predicted on marked gender hierarchy and sexual entitlement of men," it reads.

When the law is no protection

Craven said that one of South Africa's peculiarities is that legally-speaking, it is one of only seven countries in the world that allows same-sex marriage; its progressive constitution and laws were intended to protect LGBTI people but fear and violence reign in the LGBTI community. "People trust those laws and their decision to come out on the basis of them in fact places them in danger by making them targets."

Speaking at the Western Cape End Hate Alliance March gathered in St George’s Cathedral in Cape Town on Aug. 7, Nozizwe Madladla-Routledge, former deputy minister of health and still member of the African National Congress (ANC) National Executive Committee (NEC) said: "We don’t have enough understanding of the constitution especially around equal rights. Everyone has inherent dignity."

She also advocated guidelines to be developed. "We need to include these issues into the school curriculum, address issues around gender and sexuality we’ve avoided for too long."

A number of high profile cases, such as the murder of Eudy Simelane, a star player for Banyana Banyana, South Africa's national women’s soccer team, the murder of Zolizwa Nkonyana in Khayelitsha in 2006 or the double murder of Masooa and Sigaza, have resulted in campaigns to create more awareness and demand justice.

"These cases certainly have given momentum to our cause and they are very important to us not just in terms of getting justice for the victims involved - though this is of course a huge priority - but also in terms of setting some legal precedents around hate crime and hate motivation for crime and to send a strong message to the population that no matter how much you may hate gay people you will not get away with assaulting, raping, murdering LGBTI people," Craven states.

"There is no specific hate crimes legislation in South Africa and so setting precedent by getting a judge to find and record that homophobic hate motivated an attack is very important."

Justice delayed

Also speaking at the End Hate March, Craven stated that hate crimes were not "normal murders" and accused government of refusing to engage with the problem. "The police and prosecutors refuse to investigate on the basis of hate, the criminal justice system generally is slow and we live in a violent society. For every one murdered there are scores of victims," she said.

In the case of Nkonyana, the trial has been delayed 20 times.

"Zolizwa is certainly not the only one; people are reluctant to report cases," Funda says. "Cases are not taken serious, the police laughs, they’ll tell you ‘you’ve asked for it because you behave like a man’," she adds.

"Masculinity is key to our understanding of all homophobic hate crime and all gender based violence which we feel homophobic attacks are a part of," Craven elaborates.

Art against hate

South African kwaito singer Thandiswa Mazwai denounces rape and child abuse on her latest album "Ibokwe"; "same sex is shame sex, is assault with intent to grievous bodily harm, is justifiable homicide, constitutional suicide," rails poet Khadija Tracey Heeger in "Untitled Poem".

Dancer and choreographer Mamela Nyamza has conceptualised "Kutheni", a performance piece in which two women in love are faced with hatred and violence.

"Kutheni", Nyamza explains, means "why" in Xhosa. The piece was staged at the FNB Vita Dance Umbrella, South Africa’s premier dance festival earlier this year, and later – more pertinently - in the township of Gugulethu.

"I always wanted to do it and I was scared. But I saw the need," says Nyamza. "In the communities, some people didn’t know it was happening! I want the kids to be educated. The kids were explaining to me what they saw. I hope this can change these kids. Art is a way of changing one's life."

"I wanted to bring it to the people and where it all happened," says Nyamza. "People didn’t bring up issues, they’d say: "Well done, when are you doing it again?"

The piece was staged at KwaMlamli, a shebeen frequently turned into an art space by local art collective Gugulective.

Nyamza said that people were excited about a performance happening in their area. "The neighbours were so supportive, they watched the cars… They were seeing new art, not the African dance they’re used to - which I love, but let’s go beyond our roots," Nyamza explains.

"Kutheni" has since been performed at schools in other disadvantaged areas.

"We understand hate crime broadly - it’s not just about one person saying I am a lesbian and another saying I hate lesbians and killing them or raping them. It’s about gender presentation, it’s about subverting male power in society, it’s about women who don’t need men either for financial support or sexual pleasure, it’s about women who wear clothes that are considered unfeminine or drink in taverns late at night or fight back when attacked."

Asked what she thought was at the root of the violence against LGBTI people, Funda said that perpetrators of hate crimes were themselves scared of something they didn’t know, fuelled by the inability to accept their own sexuality.

Even out and outspoken lesbian say women must be careful. Butch lesbians challenge African patriarchal tradition. "I haven’t been to the bush (reference to Xhosa rite of initiation where young men get circumcised and spend time in the bush), I’m not a man!" Funda concedes.

"I’m very careful. I don’t go to the shebeens. I avoid notorious areas such as Nyanga (neighbouring township). I’m careful about who I sit with, who I talk to," Funda says.

"Townships and rural areas are seen as having higher levels of homophobic hate crimes," Craven explains. "This is where we find that schools show high levels of corrective rape and other abuses of LGBTI learners. Especially in rural areas, beyond the reach of LGBTI organisations and NGOs, the outlook with regards to support for survivors is bleak."

Media's role

Asked about the role of the media in creating awareness about the issue, Muthien thought that the media had helped by publicising the problem and making it more public. "The ways in which it has been reported in the popular media, however, is deeply problematic, either sensationalised or ripped out of context, there’s no exhortation when those cases come to the fore, for communities to take charge, to say that the lesbian who was so brutally murdered, has a mother, might have children, has a father, has brothers, sisters, had neighbours."

"In Khayelitsha you have sections where due to active community policing forums you have lower rates of violence especially gender violence and curative rape. We need to work more consciously at that level seeing that the criminal justice (system) has failed us."

"People hush but I’ve never been threatened," says Funda who has managed to gain the respect of some community members and insists that to do the work she does, she has to live in Gugulethu. Besides offering support, at times shelter to women in distress, she also runs a street soccer club and is affiliated to a range of other LGBTI organisations. "We even hosted Township Pride in 2005 and 2006 right here at the Gugulethu Sports Complex and received an amazing response from the community."

"Mandela said ‘my road is long’. Same here. Nobody knew Madiba. Or Biko. But we fought for them. I’ll fight until the last drop of my blood," Funda states defiantly.

(END/2009)

Thurs Afternoon

It’s a day of wind

and quiet thoughtfulness.

What is there to think about? A lot, I think. Just had a surprise encounter with a former boyfriend. The circumstances were formal, and interesting. And, they revealed something about him that I didn’t expect.

Ok. He is positive. HIV positive.

That revelation is always a threat. Knowing that a person is positive. Knowing that one is, or is not, or how they think about it. Why? Because I am human. Because we are all human. And sometimes, many times, we are confronted by our own fears and prejudices. Or remnants of the same.

So, didn’t talk much with the guy. Didn’t share, didn’t ask what has been happening. In truth, I was not tongue tied by the surprise realization. Was too brief an encounter. But it makes me remember myself. Who I am.

And the many ways that we humans exclude others, on the barest, most minimal grounds. So, it is a matter of fact that most HIV positive kuchus don’t want to come out. They don’t want other kuchus to know. Because they are also human beings, and they know that fellow kuchus will stigmatise them just because they are positive. Cant blame only Ugandans. Happens in other countries too. Life is rough, raw and interesting. Kuchu life that is. Always something small, interesting to throw into the fray.

Reminds me of Castor Semenye. A good, interesting, uplifting modern tale of good.

A nation has rallied around her. At the moment when she could have been shamed and thrown to the gossip columns, her country mates have turned the tables. World wide sympathy and an outpouring of love for the young lady has turned the IAAF into the ogre in this story. I laughed when someone sent me a petition to sign, to ‘keep the IAAF out of Caster Semenye’s pants’. Hilarious.

The anger, the outrage is justified.

No, I don’t mean the old catch all phrases, blaming ‘colonialists’ ‘racist’ etc. It is pure and simple a case of trying to throw out a member of the human race from the family of humanity. So, according to the IAAF, she may be too much woman. But most likely she is not man enough. She will not conform to the small labels of man, woman.

But, and this is the beautiful thing, a nation, her nation has come out to rally around her, to say, and demand that that doesn’t matter. Instead of it Caster languishing in bitterness alone, she has known the love of her family, her village, her town, her people. Surely, Caster will be strong whatever the ogre, IAAF decide. And, it will be a difficult decision, if Castor is inter-sex. They will have to stand up and tell us how Castor is neither man enough to be a man, nor woman enough to be a woman. But somewhere in the middle. Do remember that one Indian athlete committed suicide on being called neither man nor woman.

The question that pops into my mind would be, does the IAAF have any inter-sex category where she can compete?

But it is a beautiful story, a fairy story that is still on going, that has yet to get to a conclusion.

Have a wonderful day.

gug

Burundian Homosexuals Suffer Under New Anti-Gay Law

By Alan Boswell

Nairobi

03 August 2009

Homosexuals in Burundi say that their lives have been marked with increased discrimination and fear following the East African country's move to ban homosexual practices. Burundi officially passed the law criminalizing homosexuality in April this year.

The interviews conducted by the advocacy group Human Rights Watch documents the difficulties of being a gay or lesbian in Burundi, including instances of sexual violence, family rejection, police intimidation, and now the daily possibility of imprisonment.

Yves, an HIV-positive gay man who lives in Bujumbura, says that finding work has been a serious challenge for him since the law was passed. He also worries that the new law will discourage those in the gay community from seeking HIV testing and treatment for fear of scrutinization.

Another self-identified gay man from Bujumbura, Théophile, says that he was beginning to see increased tolerance among his friends and family before the issue became politicized. He describes the law as a "step backward."

Burundi received sharp rebukes from much of the international community following the passage of the law. Key donor countries Belgium and The Netherlands have been critical of the move.

Much of the region has laws which criminalize gay relations, but for Kenya, Uganda, and Tanzania, these laws were largely remnants of the colonial British rule. Burundi's actions received special attention from human rights organizations because under its Belgian colonization, no law existed against gay behavior.

The new law first passed the National Assembly in November 2008. Amid international pressure, the country's Senate overwhelmingly rejected the criminalization provision.

The Burundi National Assembly, though, refused to accept the Senate's rejection, and the law became final in April.

The action by the Burundi government to formally outlaw homosexual activity came as a small group of gays and lesbians began to bring the issue into the public spotlight and attempt to create national discussions about what had always before been a sensitive subject.

Encouraged by some of the recent gains seen globally by gay activists, the Association for Respect and Rights for Homosexuals was formed five years ago in Bujumbura to mainly serve as a support group for gays and lesbians

Since 2007, though the group began to do radio interviews and more actively make its case for increased homosexual rights to the public.

But the group's limited public exposure seems to have created an intense political backlash, at least for the short term.

According to Human Rights Watch researchers, Burundi President Pierre Nkurunziza personally led the charge to get the law passed. Following the Senate's rejection of the clause, his ruling party organized an anti-gay march in Bujumbura, bussing in protesters from rural areas. His office then reportedly phoned legislators individually to lobby for the April passage.

Some observers partly attributed the president's activism on the issue as a move to weaken political rivals within his own party who had made public statements seen as more liberal on the gay rights issue.

Boris Dittrich, head of homosexual rights advocacy at Human Rights Watch, which actively worked against the law's passage, says that his group has not given up its efforts to have the criminalization rescinded.

"After the next elections, there might be the possibility that new politicians will see that criminalization of homosexual conduct is a violation of human rights and it doesn't lead to anything productive. So we will continue trying to persuade politicians in Burundi to change course," Dittrich said.

The group says that it hopes that the international backlash Burundi received for its action will pressure the government to quietly seek to modify the law after the 2010 elections.

Human Rights Group researchers told VOA that, like similar trends seen in elsewhere in the world, there is a growing tolerance among the country's youth for gays and lesbians, while older generations are much more likely to consider it a taboo.

The progress that homosexuals have seen in the country towards acceptance, though, is mostly limited to its capital city, Bujumbura. The vast majority of Burundians live in rural areas.

Many of the those interviewed by the organization shared similar stories of banishment by family members if their sexual identity was discovered.

Seventy-seven countries in the world have laws against homosexuality, many of them in Africa.

The Positive Journey

Tuesday, we had a meeting.

SMUG organized it, but there was a difference in this one. We were to hear someone talk about her HIV positive journey.

A lady, a Dane. Infected by her Ugandan boyfriend. She talked about their relationship over the years, the times that she tested for HIV, and was negative. And the day that they both tested, and the news was given to them that they were both positive.

It has been a long journey for her. A white woman, positive in a country where the HIV positive were gay men. And even then, very few. A disease which by then was highly stigmatized, and with no cure.

She talked about the depression, and denial. The closet, hiding it from friends and family. The guy died, he was too advanced for the coming of treatment. She was luckier. The drugs arrived, she started treatment, and is alive some 20 years from the diagnosis.

She is now an HIV activist. Strong, articulated, and directed. She talked about what a life changing experience it has been for her, a life strengthening experience. From the despair of courting death on a daily basis, to the fire and strength of knowing that she is alive, celebrating that, and living it. And going out of her way to make sure that the erstwhile death sentence, for many others infected, is turned around.

Yet the day was not hers. Not by a long shot.

We do have a club for the positives. Kuchus living with HIV/AIDS. KULHAS, they call it.

It is secretive, and of them, only one person, a guy, a kuchu, is out and talks about the fact that he is positive.

I have known this guy for some time. I knew that he was positive, and the fact that he is Chairman of the club. Emboldened by the testimony, he also talked about being a kuchu, and living with HIV.

I was fascinated.

It is one thing knowing that someone has HIV. It is something else hearing it from his mouth. And as a kuchu, we related. He talked about his life before, discovering that he was gay, and the kuchu world out there. He talked of the days of partying, sex and high life. Drinking and dancing away life. He is young, I guess less than 25, but he had partyed.

He told of testing positive. Testing because he knew he had lived the life, and finding that he was positive. And the journey since.

The despair. The depression. Coming out (about the diagnosis) to his family. His mother cried, which made him cry too. The fear of telling other kuchus. The fear, stigma and despair associated with HIV in Uganda, but worse in the Kuchu community.

Yet he had turned it around.

Attacking, as a weapon. Embracing his HIV status, going ahead to disclose it. The reaction of friends, some drawing away, and the backbiting. And some drawing close.

He talked about the activism, and the turning around of his life. From hedonist to the person who strengthened others, positive and non positive.

It was an inspiring testimony.

Yet I realized that in this case, we were confronting a nemesis of ourselves, kuchus discriminating against other kuchus. Of the other members of the club, he is the only one who dare say that he is HIV positive. The others are too scared.

They are gay, and in the gay community. Kuchus. But they dare not disclose their status to the rest of us kuchus.

A sobering thought. We may be victims, but we are also oppressors, of those who are of our own kind, and weaker, because of illness. Living a double stigma, a closet inside a closet.

I was impressed. So were the others who were there.

It is early days, and I wonder what the impact will be on the rest of the community. But it is undeniable that we can also be as cruel as our homophobic friends. Even more cruel, because we can relate and understand with what they are passing through.

GayUganda