“Rape is being used as a ‘weapon of war’ to cower women in eastern Congo into submission. A society that does not value its women is an impoverished society.


For those of us who are active agents for change in the international community, we must support them by writing/ publishing/singing/painting their stories as a way of raising awareness about their plight in the international community. Today, Congolese women are engaged in peace-building, both in the DRC and abroad, in an attempt at moving them from victims to active and valued citizens with choices. Teir voices – inspired by different experiences and perspectives – deserve our greater recognition!”


NANA AYEBIA Clarke is a Ghanaian- born publisher specialising in African and Caribbean writing.


“Congo: We, Te Women, Speak. Te Protocol to the African Charter on Human and Peoples’ Rights on the Rights of Women in Africa was


adopted by the Assembly of the African Union in 2003. It is now 2011, and when I listen to the reports coming from the DRC, where rape is systemically used as a weapon of war, I resolve not to turn away, but to write about it and keep on writing about it, until it stops.”


ABIDEMI SANUSI is a Nigerian writer based in London and author of Eyo.


“Geographical distance doesn’t lessen our obligation to stand for what is just and right in this world... Take the first step, listen to their stories, read what is happening, reach out and ask what you can do”


“We need to work with the government. Appoint and elect a representative that will be supported by all the women that will ask the government to


legislate capital punishments for violence against women. Tey have to create the awareness to the world so that the government has no choice but to implement the legislation to avoid foreign intervention.”


STELLA DAMASUS is a Nigerian actress and champion of women’s rights.


“Sexual violence is a form of social control used to buttress the unregulated extraction of vital mineral resources to the international market. Any response


to end sexual violence must always include recommendations to G-8 governments for political and economic policy approaches that will stabilise Congolese society, provide diverse livelihood options, reverse the trend of hyper-militarisation, and challenge the history of foreign intervention into Congolese political and economic affairs. Influential women must use their position to present policy reforms and not humanitarian approaches as solutions to ending the gross injustice against Congolese women and children. Influential women must link with the Congolese Diaspora, Congo advocates and Congolese civil society to inform their messages to global leaders and multinationals. Influential women must reject media and popular jargon that the Congolese context is too complex. It is not. What is missing is the political will at the national and global levels. Sexual violence will stop when foreign governments who fund renegade armed groups in the Congo have their military aid cut by their bilateral partners. Sexual violence will stop when the perpetrators of rape are actually held accountable for their actions. Influential women must mobilise in large numbers in major policy spaces to insist on action and not empty proclamations which sit on dusty shelves in Geneva,


New York, Washington DC, London, Brussels, Addis Ababa, etc. Te Congo did not know systemic sexual violence prior to 1997 – we must ask ourselves why it is so prevalent now.”


MUADI MUKENGE is the Programme Director of Global Fund for Women in Sub-Saharan Africa and lead author of the report, Funding a Movement Against Sexual Violence in the Democratic Republic of Congo: 2004-2009.


“What is happening to the women of Congo is so horrific that any collection of words on a page cannot come close to describing it. If I told you that I met a


four-year-old girl, lying next to her mother in the rape ward of a Goma hospital, both mother and daughter torn to shreds by rape – would that compel you to act? If I told you that I met a 17-year-old girl who had been kidnapped and given as a ‘wife’ to an entire rebel army unit, who escaped, then was recaptured, then escaped again, only to find herself alone and pregnant – would that move your conscience? Te information about Congo’s devastating war is out there – we have all heard the statistics, cried at the stories. Words are not enough. Somehow, we need to close the gap between information and action. And there is action we can take. Te crisis in Congo is complex, but a key economic driver is a brutal war over Congo’s rich mineral resources – minerals that wind up in our daily electronics products like cellphones and laptops – you can email the 21 largest electronics companies directly. Each of us, as an individual and as a consumer, can let the electronics companies know that we would purchase verifiably conflict-free products when they become available. And we can pledge that we will stick with Congo for the long haul – do the hard work of restoring Congo’s security system and state infrastructure so that its women and children can live and thrive – in peace.”


NAAMA HAVIV is Assistant Director at Jewish World Watch, the NGO behind the film, Congo Women Rising.


WINTER 2011 | NEW AFRICAN WOMAN | 33


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