Sunday 11 January 2015

Hush, Hush? I'l Pass!


Recently, I had a really inspiring conversation with an older friend who is a Sexual & Reproductive Health Rights enthusiast. This friend of mine wanted me to share my thoughts on the possible solutions to the sexual abuse of young girls in Nigeria (and Africa at large). Somehow, our conversation got to a point where we tried to get into the head of these beasts...the soul-less paedophiles. We came to the conclusion that many rapists/girl-child molesters have full confidence in the fact that their victims would never speak up. This is probably why most of them are emboldened to even go after their victims repeatedly.

This has been on my mind for a while. I mean, why would an innocent blameless young girl choose silence over exposing the perpetrator of an act so invading, so wrong, so criminal, so unjust? Before long, I got my answer - "Hush, Hush".

In this part of the world, we "Hush, Hush" everything about sexuality and sex to young people - especially young girls. Society, Parents/Guardians bring up girls to be ashamed to say "vagina" and to call their vaginas all sorts of funny names (I wonder if we should develop censor words for our eyes and arms too). Consciously and unconsciously, we breed shame and nurture disesteem in young girls.

"Don't let anybody touch your thing" - Mother calls out to daughter and walks away feeling like a veteran sex educator.

NO. This is shortcut, and shortcut does not change the fact that we have sexual predators hovering around. If you cannot talk to that daughter, niece, sibling or cousin of yours  about sex, sexuality and sexual abuse in clear, simple and non-hush, hush terms; you will need very potent shades of voodoo to have her trust you enough to expose anyone abusing/exploiting her sexually.

And so I'm leading the Anti Hush, Hush Campaign! Talk about sexual abuse with your young relatives today. Go HERE to learn how.

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