When the locals start accepting it as the norm, we as a world have failed them

When man made fire
I don't think he knew it belonged inside woman.
It made her vulnerable
when she could not be his,
it made her nobody's nothing.

These boys know it, learned it
at the foot of their masters.

Here we worry about children
learning happy slapping and
GBH
from video games.

These boys games are games of war.

Do they learn rape
with their 5 times tables?
Who teaches this subject?
A strange and atrocious curriculum.

I worry one day my daughter
will meet a man with such qualifications.


Why Congo is the world's most dangerous place for women
Judith Wanga, The Observer, Sunday 28 March 2010
"The extent and extremity of the sexual violence that goes on, on a daily basis, was more shocking than I could have imagined: many women are gang raped, some are mutilated with sticks and knives, others doused in petrol and burned. Some of the attacks are performed by child soldiers, while their commanders urge them on, and some performed on children, even those as young as three. Aside from the horrific internal injuries sustained – as well as pregnancies, and the spread of HIV – there is a social cost; husbands regularly throw raped wives out of their homes, like soiled goods. There are no reliable statistics on rape in Congo. In one village we visited, the local hospital admits hundreds of cases in a year, but reported cases are the tip of the iceberg – many women keep rape hidden; some can't walk to the hospital.

All I'd seen and heard was hard to take back home to Kinshasa. It's a difficult subject to bring up with any men, let alone your own father. My mum, however, has met women who've been raped, and we agreed we need more people to feel rage and disgust about the situation there. When the locals start accepting it as the norm, we as a world have failed them."