By Francis H. Murray & Mohamed F. Conteh
Sometime in May this year, the death of 5-year-old Kadija Saccoh was headline news in Sierra Leone and around the world. It was alleged that the lovely, promising little girl had been raped by a male relative. Her death sparked off demonstrations by hundreds of mostly women and children on the major streets across Freetown demanding justice for the poor girl.
Many were later surprised when it emerged that the deceased’s certified medical cause of her death was not rape as had been rumoured but rather as a result of manual strangulation leading to neurogenic shock. This incident would have gone unnoticed if not for the perpetual love of a father for her daughter. Mr. Saccoh who was in the U.S at the time had insisted that an autopsy examination be conducted on the remains of his daughter before her burial.
Her sudden predicament is almost similar to the story of a victim of early marriage. A 14-year-old girl in Port Loko, name withheld, was forced to marry a man that was almost three times her age. The husband already had two wives both of whom were almost twice the girl’s age. The joy of marriage was swept off her feet as she served as a maid to both her cowives. All ties to her family were cut off as she was miles away from home. Everything seemed gloomy for her except the nearby stream where she used to carry heaps of dirty clothes of the two other wives and the husband to wash. Her childhood was snatched away from her. She had a baby, and later fled the home after things got worse. Her whereabouts are still unknown.
In recent times Sierra Leone has witnessed a dramatic sudden rise in the number of reported cases of sexual penetration and other forms of sexual harassment of women and girls across the country. Quite worrisome is the fact that cases of sexual penetration of children have topped the list of crimes across the country with most of the victims below the age of 18.
These malevolent cases of sexual offenses, rape and child marriage have caught great attention in recent times, putting our morality on the edge.
The Rainbo Initiative, a local NGO established in 2002 to tackle gender-based violence in communities, acknowledges that they have had to support over 5,000 victims (mostly girls but some boys as well) of sexual and gender-based violence (SGBV). The organisation which is the only provider of free medical and psychosocial services for survivors of GBV documented that 93 percent of the 30,000 survivors are girls who are less than 17 years.
According to Dr. Olabisi Claudius Cole, founding member of the centre, there has been a surge in the cases of SGBV in recent times with a total of 3,701 sexual assault cases reported in 2019 and 196 physical assaults bringing it to a total of 3,897. In 2020, between January and May alone, they received 1,270 cases.
The spate of SGBV especially sexual penetration of children and rape is unprecedented to the extent that President Bio had to declare a state of emergency on rape and sexual violence on the 7th February 2019 followed by the launch of the ‘‘Hands off our girls’’ campaign by the First Lady. Although steps are being taken to curb the menace, the continuing trend at which cases of rape are being reported is still alarming.
As part of efforts to combat the sudden rise in the cases of sexual penetration as quickly as possible, the President through the judiciary launched a special court for sexual offense cases at the High Court in Freetown on the 24th July with a mandate to expeditiously try cases of sexual offenses and bring culprits to book. The court itself is designed in such a way that it helps to reduce if not eradicate secondary victimisation, increase victims cooperation and attendance at such trials, as well as ensure the timely conclusion of matters. Truth be told, the special model court has offered a new approach to court proceedings as demonstrated in the number of cases handled on a daily basis. Since its launch, the court has successfully delivered well over twenty judgments, a phenomenon that is quite new in judicial proceedings.
The Government of Sierra Leone has stiffened the laws that deal with rape and other sexual offences. The Child Rights Act of 2007 and the Sexual Offences Act of 2012 are, however, not as strong a force in battling this depressing scourge even though the latter was amended in 2019. Hence, most rape cases take a couple of years before justice is administered. For instance, alleged rape cases that happened as far away as in 2018 are still in the courts with victims awaiting justice.
It is irrefutable for one to hold the belief that rape and paedophilia are inextricably linked especially in the Sierra Leone context. This is presumably true due to the fact that a large proportion of rape victims are below the age of 14.
The disgusting practice of paedophilia is at times associated with witchcraft or fetish in which a soothsayer or witchdoctor hinges an individual’s success to sexually penetrating a child. This claim might be true since Sierra Leone is a nation with some proportion of people who are superstitious and even some lawyers have admitted to handling cases that arose as a result of ritual purposes.
One aspect of this phenomenon that often goes unchecked in Sierra Leone is that of the relationship between paedophilia and mental health. Much as many Sierra Leoneans will ignore this fact, it is in another vein important to have an in-depth look in this direction, since cases related to paedophiles are astronomically high. Paedophilia, in medical terms, is referred to as paedophilic disorder. Merck Sharp and Dohme, one of America’s leading global healthcare networks, defines paedophilic disorder as a syndrome characterised by recurring, intense sexually arousing fantasies, urges, or behaviour involving children (usually 13 years or younger). In lucid terms, when rape victims are 13 or younger, then it could be associated with paedophilic disorder.
Child marriage in Sierra Leone is a syndicate that is saturated in secrecy – hidden behind the curtains of customs and traditions. This holds true given the fact that the 14-year-old victim mentioned earlier prodded us to withhold the name of even the perpetrator. This fear is presumptive of the notion that Sierra Leone is a patriarchal society. Misogynists often perpetrate their injustice and equally go unpunished.
Child marriage has also an inextricable link with both paedophilia and rape, since some victims are as young as 13 years old, and some often experience non-consensual intercourse with their partners or so-called husbands. In other words, child marriage could be sandwiched between rape and paedophilia.
Child marriage is very much prevalent in the lives of many Sierra Leoneans, especially those in remote parts of the country. According to the United Nations Population Fund - Sierra Leone (UNFPA-SL), 38.9 % of 20-24 year old Sierra Leonean women were married before they turned 18. This is a staggering figure for a country that has around 7 million people of which the majority are under 30 years.
In addition, the United Nations children’s agency (UNICEF) in their 2013 State of the Children Report ranked Sierra Leone 15th out of 20 countries with the prevalence of early marriage. In plain terms, UNICEF concludes that 44% of girls in Sierra Leone were married before the age of 18. Amazingly, Sierra Leone has more women than men (Statistics Sierra Leone 2015 Census).
Early marriage has the concomitant severe health implications in Sierra Leone. Thus, it is a human rights violation to force a non-adult into marriage. Article 2 of the African Charter on the rights and welfare of the child clearly defines a child as anyone below 18 years old. Article 21 of the same Charter also categorically bars the imposition of cultural and social practices that may be harmful to the child. Invariably, Paragraphs a, b, and c, of Section 31(1) of The Child Rights Act of 2007 of Sierra Leone strongly condemn early/child marriage.
The banes of early marriage, rape and paedophilia are heart-rending and inhumane. While many girls in urban Sierra Leone might have the luxury of predicting their future, almost half of their rural counterparts are in jeopardy.
It is therefore a logical conclusion that in the new year of 2021, rape, paedophilia and child marriage are precursors for a dysfunctional society, which have prodded numerous local and international nongovernmental organisations. The lack of a working family structure, the prevalence of broken marriages and homes and the decay of morality, have all further heightened the situation.
The latest office to champion this battle is the Office of the First Lady. This was precipitated by the continuing sharp rise in cases related to sexual violence. Although their strides are enormous they face a herculean challenge against a culture that is patriarchal and misogynistic. The trek towards achieving that anticipated success is long and tenacious; hence requires perseverance and commitment from all and sundry to subscribe to the parameters of morality. That sense of morality that truly defines us as true Africans.
Also, sexual predators that rape girls 13 and younger should be required to seek medical attention. We are not in any way against the extreme loathing and anger that people feel against child abusers or paedophiles. We’re however imploring the concerned authorities to look at this issue with medical lenses. Once it has been medically proven that a perpetrator is a paedophile, a long-term process of psychotherapy and drug administering that alters their sex drive and reduces testosterone levels could serve as an ideal medication, according to Dr George Brown of the East Tennessee University.
The battle to contain the menace of rape and other sexual offences must be intensified in 2021.
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