Violence, the cry
of African women

You could be born in Madagascar or Kenya. In Nigeria or South Africa. In Burundi or Ethiopia. If you are a woman, your problems will be similar to those of your African sisters: you will struggle to receive an education, you will be at risk of experiencing violence within your family, and later at school or work, and you will have to fight for your share of inheritance.

The conclusions of a survey conducted by the World Union of Catholic Women’s Organizations (WUCWO) through its Observatory found, “In Africa, in most Countries, a patriarchal and sexist culture persists. As a result, almost all social structures tend to discriminate against and violate the human rights of women and girls. This is visible at all levels -be that at home, in school, and even the workplace- and unfortunately, women often resign themselves to it. These problems start in childhood and affect women of all ages and backgrounds, whether they stay in their villages or pursue careers”. Established in June 2021 with the motto “Listening to Transform Lives”, the Global Women’s Observatory, led by Maria Lia Zervino, was created to give visibility to the “invisible” women. Its mission is to inspire pastoral strategies by the Church, create synergies with NGOs in civil society, and promote public policies by states. In addition, to suggest contributions to the international agenda, and offer responses from all people of goodwill to foster the integral human development of women, their families, communities, and peoples.

Among the various initiatives launched in recent years is the project “Violence and Discrimination against African Women”. This project began by trying to understand the reality by listening to women through two channels, which are through expert meetings and the dissemination of a survey entitled “A Cry from the Heart of Women”. Over five months, 10,790 African women from 37 different countries contributed to the survey. Among them, 110 experts (59 laywomen and 51 religious women) who work closely with their communities shared their studies on violence and discrimination against women in their countries. The women surveyed, totaling 10,680, came from various social statuses, education levels, ethnicities, and religions. From their accounts, it became clear that violence takes many forms, from the psychological, verbal, physical, sexual, economic, and increasingly, online. Discrimination against women is also present in education, marriage choices, pregnancy, widowhood, work, and potential career growth. Poverty and the lack of basic necessities for a dignified human life exacerbate these problems.

The survey’s findings show that 54% of women report experiencing gender-based violence within their families, 39% have not, while 7% prefer not to answer this question.

Among the common problems many women in African countries face today, the most significant are forced and early marriages, isolation and abandonment, economic violence, human trafficking, domestic violence, and lack of access to quality education and vocational training. Furthermore, the survey results show that African women with lower levels of education experience higher levels of violence in general, regardless of the type of violence. At the same time, in percentage terms, Muslim women are the primary victims of violence, more so than Christian women are.

The testimonies collected exemplify, through the voices of the interviewees, the extent of the problems. “A woman is the property of a man. The wife must be submissive” is a Kenyan proverb that casts a dark light on the issue of marriage. These marriages, which are often early and forced, lead to early pregnancies and the need for mothers to abandon their studies. This is a problem that had affected 17% of the 10,680 women interviewed. “Many girls become pregnant, suffer greatly, and do not have the right to speak out or react” (Tanzania). Similarly, “forced marriages and traditional rites compel women to have sexual relations with their husbands, even when their health is compromised” (Benin). In Ghana, “child marriages are increasingly common because girls are forced to marry, especially to men old enough to be their grandfathers”. Zambian experts reported that “in rural areas, most girls are not educated because, at 15, they are exposed to married life, and this is when they suffer the most and feel the least valued”. Due to poverty, “some parents marry off their children early, thinking this will save the family’s finances”, as in the case of the Central African Republic. In Guinea-Bissau, the “Giving of one’s daughter in marriage to pay a debt” is considered normal practice, for example.
Public institutions are often identified by respondents as places of violence, “especially through omission and lack of services, resulting in impunity, which does not encourage reporting”, say the experts from Guinea-Bissau. In Zimbabwe, “corruption hinders women’s access to justice, and cases of abuse are swept under the carpet, leaving women little hope of seeking justice”. In the Senegalese education system, “Rape and abuse against female students are still prevalent and widespread”.

Women are considered second-class citizens. In Cameroon, “women do not participate in family decisions, nor do they have the right to inherit”. One aspect of the solitude and abandonment experienced by many women is precisely the issue of inheritance. Ten percent of those interviewed reported undergoing various widowhood rites as a form of cultural violence.

In Zambia, “when the man dies, all property goes to the man’s relatives, and the woman returns to her village with the children”. In the Democratic Republic of Congo, “women cannot inherit, even when their husband dies”. In Madagascar, “women have no right to inheritance”. In Kenya, “women own nothing in the household; everything is registered in the man’s name. In case of separation or divorce, women begin to live as if they never possessed anything, and they are often sent back to their husbands by their families, who assume the fault lies with them”.

Lesotho experts say that “the problems faced by young women due to high youth unemployment rates have led them to engage in commercial sex as a means of survival, with severe consequences such as unwanted pregnancies, rejection by perpetrators, families, and society at large. This leads to clandestine abortions or abandonment of children, high dropout rates at various levels of education among teenage girls, and high rates of sexually transmitted diseases, including HIV infection”. In other countries, like Zambia, “girls fall into the trap, leave home to seek comfort elsewhere, and unknowingly become victims of human trafficking”.

These facts call for immediate action. The goal of the project, according to WUCWO, is to bring visibility to the issue and then combat gender-based violence by networking congregations and organizations in society. Through webinars and workshops, the aim is to train women as co-responsible parties in preventing and caring for victims, as well as raising awareness about gender violence and discrimination. The idea is to foster sustainable links between secular institutions and religious congregations that constantly update social campaigns, promote projects, and carry out the various advocacy actions necessary to prevent violence and discrimination against women.

During the campaign, several recommendations came from the African women interviewed. For example, the importance of prevention and continuous awareness; the strength of network collaboration; the need to change certain laws; the value of empowering women to increase their autonomy; the key to greater access to education; and the scope of public policies that favor women. Thirty-three percent of the 10,680 women interviewed said that education and vocational training are the most important changes they wish to see for the full development of women in their country.

By Vittoria Prisciandaro
A journalist who writes for the “Credere” and “Jesus” San Paolo Periodicals

How to approach victims

“A major problem in the fight against violence and discrimination against women is the silence of the victims”. This is one of the most frequent statements given by experts. Through the World Women’s Observatory (WWO) of the World Union of Catholic Women’s Organizations (WUCWO), we have committed ourselves to “Listening to transform lives”. The first goal, which we achieved, was to collect responses to the survey “The Cry of African Women”, through which we listened to 10,790 women from 37 African Countries.

How did we manage to get women, who are used to remaining silent in the face of injustices, to talk about such intimate issues as gender-based violence or practices like female genital mutilation? In the WUCWO, we have thousands of women members of Catholic women’s organizations in 50 Countries who, starting from their parish or community, accompany the lives of their neighbors with mutual trust and friendship. Therefore, the challenge was to train the African women of the WUCWO network as social correspondents, who are capable of listening to the experiences of other women and transforming them into quantitative and qualitative results that could be analyzed within the framework of a research study. This research delves into women’s experiences of different types of violence, how it affects the development of their lives, and how resilience and solidarity are making possible thousands of stories of personal and community transformation.

In May 2022, 40 women leaders from Catholic organizations located in 16 African Countries participated in a workshop in Nairobi to train as social correspondents. They reflected on the “art of listening”, drawing inspiration from Jesus’ dialogue with the Samaritan woman and with the disciples on the road to Emmaus. A simple but effective methodology, which involved approaching people with empathy and offering them the assurance that everything they share will remain confidential.

With this approach, we were able to create a large network that was capable of reaching even the smallest village. Some women trained others as social correspondents, and together we managed to interview over 10,000 women. In this way, we achieved the goal we had hoped for. Today, we continue to walk together, and strengthen a powerful network of religious congregations and lay Catholic women’s organizations working together in hope as we do so.

by Adela González
*World Women’s Observatory UMOFC