We continue our “difficult conversation” about domestic abuse in the Afrikan community.
Although statistics can provide a context for what is going on, it was accurately affirmed in the previous show that official statistics, being conducted by external agencies tend not to capture the nuances of certain experiences within the community. However, grassroots activists through their daily work can provide a wealth of insights – even if it is not ‘official.’ One example of this is the work of independent midwife Sis. Elsie Gayle who was a guest on Afrika Speaks in May, highlighting the issue of maternal mortality (and related matters) among Afrikan women in the UK, as she had been doing a decade before the breakthrough report on the subject came out in late 2018 (https://www.mixcloud.com/AfrikaSpeaks/can-we-be-liberated-if-black-maternal-mortality-rates-are-so-high-130519/).
Another, pertinent example is that of Sistah Space, set up in 2015 to cater for the specific needs of Afrikan (African/Caribbean) suffering domestic abuse/violence (https://www.sistahspace.org/). As they shared on the previous show, their caseload reveals community dynamics largely untouched by official statistics (https://www.mixcloud.com/AfrikaSpeaks/domestic-abuse-how-widespread-is-it-08072019/). So, when we examine government data, we should be cognisant of the fact that the workers on the ground are not only able to contextualise the findings they are also part of the solution to whatever challenges are highlighted. So with this in mind, we delve once again into the statistics…
Looking the most recent figures from the Office for National Statistics, the national average for the prevalence of any sexual assault (including attempts) is 3.8% of all women. The proportion for Afrikan women (comprising “Black /African /Caribbean /Black British”, “Black – African” and “Black – Caribbean”) is more than 50% more than the national average at 4.7% with the Caribbean women alone more than double at 7.5% (only “Mixed” women had a higher proportion at 8.5%). (1) Whatever the veracity, or otherwise of the statistics we do know that it goes on and has been going in the community for decades. In fact, in the 1980s when there was arguably even less discussion about abuse in the community, artist Sonia Boyce put the issue squarely in the public domain with her 1985 work, ‘Mr close-friend-of-the-family pays a visit whilst everyone else is out’. (2)
Further research shows a 63% increase in domestic abuse offences over the last seven years in London alone, reportedly partly driven by better recording of offences, as well as more victims coming forward following the launch of Operation Yewtree, the investigation into historic sexual offences. (3) Nationally, the total number of rapes reported has almost doubled since 2013-14 and Last year saw police-recorded rape increase by 15%. (4) Yet at the same time new Home Office figures show the proportion of rapes being prosecuted in England and Wales has plummeted to just 1.7 per cent, meaning that the alleged perpetrators of more than 98 per cent of rapes reported to the police are allowed to go free. (5) This is amid media accounts that the Crown Prosecution Service (CPS) is urging prosecutors to drop ‘weak’ cases (or being “risk averse, in CPS-speak) to try and improve prosecution rates. (6)
However, as previously affirmed, the statistics, such as they are, only represented reported offences with an estimated 80% of victims not reporting their assaults to the police. (7) Due to the nature of the global oppression of Afrikan, interacting with repressive elements of the state carries additional anxieties.
The limitations of official statistics as well as the paucity of data emanating from the community in the UK has already been discussed. However, there are many parallels in the experiences of Afrikans in the UK and those in the USA, where there is a larger body of grassroots research. In an article for the L.A. Times entitled ‘For African American rape victims, a culture of silence’, staff writer Gayle Pollard-Terry reveals that:
“Rape is one of the most underreported violent crimes, according to the Department of Justice, regardless of the victim’s sex, age, race, ethnicity, religion or class… But as a group, African American women are the least likely to break the silence.” (8)
She quotes activist Terry L. Stevens, who works with the Family Service League in Iowa who states: “The sisters don’t want to report the brothers because we know what’s going on in penal institutions.” (9) Indeed, the National Organization for Women For every cite that for every 15 Black women who are raped, only one reports her assault. (10)
Trauma psychologist Dr. Jennifer M. Gómez, highlights the additional pressures placed on Afrikan women:
“Why, when held accountable for sexually abusive behavior, do some Black men bring up lynching comparing Black women and girls they have victimized with murderous White supremacists?” (11)
Dr. Gómez made her points within the context of a discussion about the (belated) backlash against R&B singer R. Kelly after the airing of the Surviving R. Kelly documentary series in January 2019 alleging a decades old track record of abuse. For some observers, it was also a chance to be heard through articles, essays and blogs with titles like: “R. Kelly story makes us realize that no one cares about black women”, and “Black women have been calling out R. Kelly for years. Nobody listened.” (12) In fact, R. Kelly’s alleged abuse (and the ‘responses’ to it) had become so embedded in African-American culture that it was even satirized by cartoons likes The Boondocks and comedian Dave Chappelle. (13)
For most commentators the current age of “#Me Too” has been a watershed for encouraging survivors of abuse to come forward. The pivotal moment for the movement is regarded as the slew of allegations levelled against movie mogul Harvey Weinstein in 2017. (14) Although it is frequently reported as an imperative of certain white women, the #Me Too movement was actually founded by an Afrikan woman, Tarana Burke, back in 2006 (when Weinstein was still the toast of Hollywood).
The basis for Burke’s work was trying to address the needs of high school girls in her community, “more than half of whose lives have been touched by sexual violence.” And she recalled some of the responses she received:
“We heard every manner of excuse ‘It’s really about white supremacy because our folks don’t have a history of that kind of thing back in Africa’ or ‘the real issue isn’t sexual violence, it’s false accusations against black men’ or my personal favorite ‘This is not a social justice issue; this is a social work issue.” (15)
For her efforts, Sis. Tarana has garnered death threats, from within and without the community, indicating the level of resistance to advocating for the survivors and victims of sexual abuse. (16)
In trying to make sense of the situation Dr. Jennifer Gómez developed what she calls cultural betrayal trauma theory:
“The general idea of cultural betrayal trauma theory is that some minorities develop what I call “(intra)cultural trust” – love, loyalty, attachment, connection, responsibility and solidarity with each other to protect themselves from a hostile society. Within-group violence, such as a black perpetrator harming a black victim, is a violation of this (intra)cultural trust. This violation is called a cultural betrayal.” (17)
She further, explains that, in addition to the trauma of the abuse, the effects of cultural betrayal and (intra)cultural pressure are akin to Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder and are “unique contributing factors of mental health problems in ethnic minority college women.” (18) Other manifestations are what’s known as the “the Sex Abuse to Prison Pipeline,” in that some studies have found an intrinsic link between the incarceration of young women of colour and sexual assault:
“A study done on the Oregon justice system, seventy-six percent of the young women were survivors of sexual abuse by the age of 13. This same trend held in South Carolina, with over eighty-one percent of girls reporting a history of sexual violence.” (19)
In other words, another consequence of sexual abuse is that it fuels the prison-industrial complex:
“When we speak about the prison-industrial complex, we are talking about the overlap in interests of the government and private companies that profit from social, economic and political problems through surveillance, policing and imprisonment. The UK has 14 private prisons, currently holding just under a fifth of its prisoners.” (20)
Thus, the battle against sexual abuse has many consequences and many fronts, but is it a battle that must be joined. As Dr. Jennifer Gómez asserts:
“The past decades, the past few years, and again now, we are faced with a choice: engage in White patriarchal norms that further degrade Black women and girls while sustaining the sexist, unequal, and fracturing status quo within the Black community. Or recognize that the fight for civil rights can no longer be at the expense of Black females. We must instead decide to give the weight of sexual violence the attention, sensitivity, action, and solutions it deserves. In doing so, we can foster a unified Black community that is not divided across gender lines through violence… I can only hope that this time, we choose us.” (21)
What must be startling for many is that there could possibly be an option not to “choose us” if the well-being, safety and survival of Afrikan women is at stake. So we need to tackle it head on. Sistah Space is a community based initiative that supports Afrikan heritage women and girls to bridge the gap in domestic and sexual abuse services as well as raising awareness within the community. In advance of the show, guest Sis. Ngozi Fulani, founder the Sistah Space said:
“CAUTION!!!! we will be speaking about issues some may feel disturbing. Extreme CAUTION, we have no control about how graphic the subject may get, we give survivors the voice to Express freely.”
So the conversation may indeed be difficult but it must be had. In fact, it’s long, long overdue.
(1) Office for National Statistics (02/02/18) Sexual offences: appendix tables. https://www.ons.gov.uk/peoplepopulationandcommunity/crimeandjustice/datasets/sexualoffencesappendixtables
(2) Arts Council Collection (2017) Artist of the Month – Sonia Boyce. https://www.artscouncilcollection.org.uk/explore/artist-month/sonia-boyce.
(3) Justin Davenport (27/02/19) Domestic abuse offences rocket by 63% in 7 years. https://www.standard.co.uk/news/crime/domestic-abuse-offences-rocket-by-63-in-7-years-a4077716.html
(4) Alexandra Topping and Caelainn Barr (26/09/18) Rape prosecutions plummet despite rise in police reports. Rape prosecutions plummet despite rise in police reports
(5) Lizzie Dearden (25/04/19) Only 1.7% of reported rapes prosecuted in England and Wales, new figures show. https://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/crime/rape-prosecution-england-wales-victims-court-cps-police-a8885961.html
(6) Alexandra Topping (24/09/18) Prosecutors urged to ditch ‘weak’ rape cases to improve figures. https://www.theguardian.com/law/2018/sep/24/prosecutors-rape-cases-cps-crown-prosecution-service-conviction-rates
(7) Alan Travis (08/02/18) One in five women have been sexually assaulted, analysis finds. https://www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2018/feb/08/sexual-assault-women-crime-survey-england-wales-ons-police-figures
(8) Gayle Pollard-Terry (20/07/14) For African American rape victims, a culture of silence. https://www.latimes.com/bv-news-aarapes072004-story.html
(9) Ibid.
(10) National Organization for Women (2018) Black Women & Sexual Violence. https://now.org/wp-content/uploads/2018/02/Black-Women-and-Sexual-Violence-6.pdf
(11) Jennifer M. Gómez Ph.D. (31/01/19) Who’s Betraying Who? R. Kelly, Sexual Violence, & the Dismissal of Black Women and Girls. https://culturalbetrayalrkellyblackfemales.blogspot.com
(12) Soraya Nadia Mcdonald (19/07/17) R. Kelly story makes us realize that no one cares about black women. https://theundefeated.com/features/r-kelly-cult-accusations-no-one-cares-about-black-women/; Feminista Jones (09/01/19) Black women have been calling out R. Kelly for years. Nobody listened. https://www.vox.com/first-person/2017/7/21/16008230/r-kelly-surviving-sex-cult-abuse-john-legend-chance-the-rapper
(13) Zack Sharf (10/01/19) Over A Decade Ago, ‘The Boondocks’ Ridiculed Everyone for Ignoring R. Kelly’s Abuse. https://www.indiewire.com/2019/01/the-boondocks-r-kelly-episode-abuse-trial-1202034304/; Katie Scott (18/01/19) Dave Chappelle says R. Kelly wanted to fight him after ‘golden shower’ skit. https://globalnews.ca/news/4863934/dave-chappelle-r-kelly-wanted-to-fight-him/
(14) Silke Wünsch (15/10/18) One year of #MeToo: A timeline of events. https://www.dw.com/en/one-year-of-metoo-a-timeline-of-events/a-45763400-0
(15) Rochelle Riley (16/11/18) #MeToo founder Tarana Burke blasts the movement for ignoring poor women. https://chicago.suntimes.com/2018/11/16/18468730/metoo-founder-tarana-burke-blasts-the-movement-for-ignoring-poor-women
(16) Jennifer M. Gómez (13/05/19) The unique harm of sexual abuse in the black community. http://theconversation.com/the-unique-harm-of-sexual-abuse-in-the-black-community-114948
(17) Ibid.
(18) Ibid.
(19) National Organization for Women. Op. cit.
(20) Jasmine Ahmed (25/09/18) Prison is not the answer. https://www.redpepper.org.uk/prison-is-not-the-answer/
(21) . Gómez Ph.D. (31/01/19) Op. Cit.
we ask the question:
Domestic Abuse: How widespread is it? Pt. 2
1) Is the CPS “risk-averse” approach giving license to abusers?
2) Is it true that no one cares (enough) about or listens to Black women?
3) Are suffering from cultural betrayal trauma?
4) Do we need our own #Me Too Movement within the community?
5) Are there any effective ways of dealing with perpetrators of abuse without going to the authorities?
6) How can we “foster a unified Black community that is not divided across gender lines through violence”?
Our Special Guests:
Sis. Ngozi Fulani (CEO, IDVA, ISVA): is the founder member of Sistah Space & is the senior member of staff in charge of day to day running. Ngozi qualified as an Independent Domestic Violence Advisor (IDVA) & an Independent Sexual Violence Advisor (ISVA). Ngozi handles all the case studies and one to one surgeries. https://www.sistahspace.org/
Sis. Rosanna Lewis (IDVA): Chief Volunteer at Sistah Space
Bro. Aaron Highly: Independent Domestic Abuse Advisors (IDVA) with Sista Space