South Africa: Everyday Activism Against GBV

opinion

When my poem Something Other was published, my family and I went out for dinner to celebrate. At the dinner table, someone turned to me and asked how I was able to write a poem about rape. I looked at him and said, "When I was eleven, I was sexually abused by a family member." An uncomfortable silence ensued.

There should not have been an awkward silence, but this demonstrates that a person who has been raped, abused or violated could very well be sitting right next to you, yet no one talks about it. The cold, hard truth of the matter is that gender-based violence (GBV) is everywhere. We need to acknowledge that when we look at our family, friends and colleagues, statistically speaking, half of them have been subjected to GBV- more often than not, in their homes perpetrated by intimate partners and family members.

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