The Unheard Voices in a Crisis Zone // Should Victims of Rape be Blame??

Steem greetings from the motherland-Cameroon to all friends on the Steemit platform. It has been a crazy week in my country with the recent outcry for justice for Jato Sonita (a 16-year-old Cameroon singer).

We are in a crisis zone and a lot of rape cases recorded by both separatist fighters and regular military servicemen. I followed up on several such cases with the National Commission for Human Rights and Freedoms and other NGOs. I offered psychosocial support and managed some of the cases. In most of these cases, the survivors suffered a lot from their host communities and some even preferred to commit suicide until our interventions.

Why am I writing about this now, as a GBV case manager, one of the principles of case management is that you guarantee confidentiality, protect and respect the survivor’s choices and rights, etc.

In the case of Jato Sonita, the principles of case management were not respected and I saw a lot of comments blaming her for dressing poorly with leaves.

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It has been her mode of dressing from the beginning of her singing career as she also champions the fight against climate change.

What even baffles me is that this child was raped 2 years ago, and resulted in a pregnancy. She gave to birth a baby boy and all was off social media. Until recently when some influencers and bloggers started to bring up allegations against the manager for impregnating this child.

Back to the main topic Should victims of rape be blamed for dressing poorly? It is NO… No matter how poorly dressed, you should never blame a victim of rape because it does not happen as you see someone poorly dressed up. There must be an intention which triggers the action. You do not just see someone for the first time and because of their mode of dressing, you go ahead to rape them. A rapist is to be blamed for their actions and not the survivor.

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In the case of Jato Sonita, she has been struggling to cope with the stigma from her host community for 2 years with no psychosocial counselling. Just when she moved out to a different region to pick up pieces of her life back together, Facebook bloggers used her story to fight battles with her manager who alleged he was responsible for the rape.

To prove his innocence, he was quick to call a press conference to further worsen the situation at hand. The press conference was uncalled for as the principle of confidentiality was not respected. The survivor after the press conference might face the worst from her perpetrators. This is one of the reasons why most survivors preferred to stay silent.

My advice to all is that when faced with an issue of rape, take the victim immediately to a healthcare service where a series of tests will be conducted and documented.

Secondly, report the incident to the police for proper investigations.

Thirdly, take the victim to a psychosocial support service where they will be able to counsel her properly.

In sum, Do Not in any circumstances, blame a victim of rape because they are not at fault. Perpetrators are to be blamed for their actions to become rapists.