I was recently made aware of a viral social media clip about a festival in Delta State, southern Nigeria, called ‘Ozoro festival.‘ As much as I would love to give a detailed and accurate account of the origin and meaning, that’s not within the purview of this writing.
Summarily, this festival sponsors rape culture. It is, in fact, customary for men on this day to cease any woman they behold on the street and have nonconsensual intercourse (basically rape) with this woman in the name of culture. It is debatable whether the ambit of this event is limited to wandering women or some audacious rapists disguised as custom upholders do, in practice, raid unsuspecting women’s homes.
In this gruesome video, a woman dressed in a yellow top and jeans is seen being molested in the most animalistic sense by a gang of men, not less than a hundred (100). Hundred men who are sons to women, uncles, brothers, neighbours, friends, and in the most unfortunate sense, fathers.
Growing up, I remember some festivals that involved some form of sacrifice that ostracised women at the time. It seemed the gods were offended by the parading of women. So whenever these sacrificial festivals were being held, I remember having to duck in my father’s car on the drive to my boarding school, covered in scarves or wrappers so as not to be detected. The festival is called ‘oro’. I never found out what happened to women who were caught flaunting curfew, but I always imagined they got beaten and were allowed to go. Now, I wonder if I was just naive.
Back to this video, what struck me as very funny, not in the amusing sense, more like an incredulously ridiculous sense, were comments of certain men claiming ‘women are aware of the culture’. That is so rich coming from a rapist enabler. I don’t know if there is any justification for such traditional practices, I don’t even know if there is any sense to it, but I am sure that whatever it started as has surely become bastardised to perpetrate evil (criminality would be mild and belittling in this context).
I have no words for rapists. Their actions speak for themselves. However, the good men just giving opinions for ‘safety’ reasons are the ones I am coming for in this post. The reasonable men who have logical assemblages for mansplaining. The high horse within which they seat thinking that they are good men because they will never rape a woman as though it were a favor they were handing out to the undeserving.
It would have been laughable if not for the unfortunateness of the narrative. It is these men I am most afraid of. At least you can view a rapist in the proper light. Their statements are said so matter-of-factly that it almost seems reasonable at first glance. It is only upon inspection of wisdom that the folly becomes apparent.
These men are not different from the men who say ‘what was she wearing?’ when they first hear that a woman has been molested, assaulted, battered, and raped. I don’t think any of these adjectives are isolated from the others. They happen in continuity. They are also the same men who think women should be punished with sex because ‘she was asking for it’.
These are good men, well-dressed, seated on pulpits, in parliaments, collegues, judges, heads of homes that carry the weight of this prestigious rationality. I will tell you for a fact, quote me,’ they are no different from a rapist, they just haven’t had the opportunity’.
I remember when I was in my freshman year at the university. I, for some reason, contrary to my plan to maintain a low profile, became super popular in my first weeks on campus (orientation week). This popularity had a lot to do with the jovial and confident nature that made me strike up a conversation with anybody that caught my fancy, even beyond my faculty. A male friend of mine issued a warning that was sounded by a close friend of his ‘Warn her to be careful before she gets raped on this campus’. Till I graduated, I saw that guy as a potential rapist and treated him with as much respect as a rapist deserves. And of course, I was wary of this good friend of mine as well. It was not their hatred I was afraid of, but their protection.
Is it not interesting that when there is a crisis, men close to certain women are the first to rape them? Is it not interesting that when men decide to rob a woman, her body is also part of the spoil? I think it is equitable to kill a woman as you would kill a man in this context, that is, mercy.
It just shows that there is a part of the male psyche, even good ones, that view women as possessions, objects of pleasure and punishment. This is no surprise, though one only needs to look at world history.
I know and have encountered several women who have been abused by close family members, friends, and acquaintances, rather than strangers. Many of these women were raped at a time in their lives when they could not have been called women. They could not have been sexy enough, badly dressed enough to have contributed to the narrative of asking for it, not that there is ever a right age to consent to rape.
Interestingly, men pride themselves on being protectors. A title and function that would not have been necessary were there no existence of men that require protection from. Of course, when I use men here, it is a buffet term for individuals who share this rape explainability narrative. No one is asking for you to be a hero; you don’t even have to attack a known rapist. The least that is required is just to acknowledge that rape is rape, and where good men cannot even start on that premise, God save us from bad men!
There’s no fitting end to this post since it is a placard. Just several words long. In short, ‘RAPIST ENABLERS ARE RAPIST WITHOUT OPPORTUNITY. ‘
Signed,
Dcconoisseur.
Connoisseur of Memories 