Back to Index

Incest victims suffer in silence
Kamurai Mudzingwa, The Herald (Zimbabwe)
November 22, 2006

http://www1.herald.co.zw/inside.aspx?sectid=11610&cat=10&livedate=11/22/2006

INCEST (as in incestuous rape), according to researchers, is one of the most under-reported crimes in many societies.

In Zimbabwe, for instance, the Victim Friendly Courts released statistics to the effect that of the 1 571 child sexual abuse cases reported between January and August this year, only 56 were incest-related.

Heidi Vanderbilt, in the article Rape in America: A Report to the Nation, captures the nature of incestuous rape as "the sexual abuse of a child by a relative or other person in a position of trust and authority over the child.

"It is a violation of the child where he or she lives — literally and metaphorically. A child molested by a stranger can run home for help and comfort. A victim of incest cannot."

Therein lies the problem with incestuous rape.

Trusted protectors, both in the literal and metaphorical senses, molest the victim within the home.

Studies have shown that girls are more prone to incestuous violation than boys.

Usually fathers are involved and this makes the issue more complicated.

The non-incestuous parent — usually the mother — may be forced to collude with the incestuous activity or may deny its existence outright. In such circumstances, the victim has no other parent to turn to.

Mr Idene Magonga, the Victim Friendly Courts’ national co-ordinator, said in cases of father-daughter incestuous rape, the biological and socio-economic relationships compound the matter.

The father, he said, may emphasise the biological relationship using the "sorry-but-I-am-your-father-so-would-you-send-me-to-jail?" type of blackmail.

Such cases of emotional blackmail are common in cases of incest.

The father’s domineering role, both in the patriarchal and financial senses, may not make it easy for the victims to report cases of incest.

"The father, in most cases, is the breadwinner and other members of the family may pressure the victim not to report him as they would lose out financially," Mr Magonga said.

He cited two classic examples.

In the first case, he said, the victim, having reported the abusive father, was in trouble with other family members who told her that she should turn into the family provider since the father had been locked up for the crime.

The second example was that of a Mt Darwin businessman — a case reported in the media — who is alleged to have serially raped his daughter at gunpoint.

When the Victim Friendly Unit arrived at the homestead to take the allegedly abused girl for tests as agreed, the father had moved the daughter to Bindura.

When they followed to Bindura, they found the girl locked in a caucus meeting with members of the family bent on convincing her to deny the alleged incestuous rape.

"It was only after we had taken the girl aside and counselled her that she went against her family members’ wishes and opened up," said Mr Magonga.

What it means, as Mr Magonga went on to say, is that incestuous rape is committed on behalf of other family members, as it were.

At times, the victim is pressured not to reveal the offence by both family members and society in the form of traditional leaders and politicians. When fathers or other close male relatives molest children, the victims fear that if they tell they would be killed. They also dread that their mothers would be killed (especially if the culprit is the father.)

Culture also makes victims suffer in silence.

Incest in many societies, whether involving blood relatives or adopted relatives through marriage, is taboo.

Victims may be forced to conceal incest because they would be afraid of the stigma attached to the activity.

In societies that are superstitious, incest is closely linked to the myth of magic or goblins.

For instance, the Mt Darwin businessman, it is alleged, would repeatedly rape his daughter in the belief that such actions would enhance his business.

The problem here is that in superstitious communities, such people are usually "left alone" making the victim suffer while communities watch helplessly in fear.

Because of the fear of perceived repercussions caused by the abuser’s supernatural powers, the victim may suffer in silence.

Victims may also fear to cause what they perceive as "unnecessary family conflicts" or they may fear that people may not believe them.

Sometimes the victims would not understand that what the perpetrators would be doing to them constitutes abuse. Such victims would live with the haunting secret through adult life (when they understand what had happened to them).

Another aspect that makes incestuous rape victims reluctant to report cases is what Mr Magonga called a gap in the legal system.

Traumatised victims, he noted, usually have nowhere safe to go. There are very few safe places for victims because of lack of resources. He noted, for instance, that if the victim reports to the police, she would still go back to the home where she has suffered trauma sometimes to face hostile family members and a society that stigmatises her.

"The problem is that we have very few referral centres provided by the Girl Child Network and SOS villages where victims can be kept safely. We lack enough victim support systems. We need a one-stop shop for victims where there are police, counsellors, health personnel and shelter, among other things, ready for the victim."

Research has shown that incest remains the most dominant type of child sexual abuse but, paradoxically, the least reported.

Its gruesome nature is captured by Susan Forward, a child therapist quoted in the Wikipedia, who describes it as "perhaps the cruellest, most baffling of human experiences . . . (it) betrays the very heart of childhood — its innocence".

The Philippines Supreme Court, trying Felipe Sangil Snr for the incestuous rape of his four daughters that resulted in one of them falling pregnant, noted that incest is "the most perverted form of sexual felony a man can commit thereby reducing himself into a creature lower than the lowliest beast".

In Zimbabwe, the law takes very serious exception to incestuous rape.

"Under Criminal Law, it is taken as aggravated rape because of its violent nature. In such instances, life sentences are appropriate to exclude the perpetrator from society," said Mr Magonga.

Incestuous rape, it should be noted, is not society or class specific. It cuts across ethnic, class and social boundaries.

That reported cases of incest are few should not be taken as an indicator that the crime is not committed on a large scale.

It should always be borne in mind that perpetrators of child sexual abuse are mostly family members and girls constitute the greater number of victims.

Please credit www.kubatana.net if you make use of material from this website. This work is licensed under a Creative Commons License unless stated otherwise.

TOP