Tag: travails

The first time Nneka was raped, she got bruised in the hips by her only grandson. Nonso, 21, had visited her room the third night after she celebrated her 85th birthday; “He said he came to shut my windows and I seized the opportunity to thank him once again for the role he played in making my 85th anniversary a memorable one,” said Nneka. That fateful night, Nonso offered to apply sheabutter on his grandma’s ankles and wrists like he usually did since she developed joint pains. “It was soothing the way he rubbed it in my joints but just as I was drifting off to sleep, his grip became fierce on my wrists. Suddenly, he climbed over me and covered my mouth with his left palm. With his right, he yanked off my wrapper and rubbed sheabutter on my private part. I warned him that what he was about to do was an abomination but he ignored me and shoved his groin against me very roughly. I told him, ‘My child, my body is too old for you; my bones will break under you’ but he ignored me and warned me to cooperate and he would be gentle. But he was not gentle,” said the 85-year old. Thus when her entreaties with her grandson failed, she resigned to his power and lust.

As she recounted her experience, Nneka’s eyes glistened with tears she would not shed. Fighting back tears, she reached for a fresh orange in a bowl on a stool by her bedside and sucked on it with conquering immersion, all the piteous miseries of her life seemingly summoned in her toothless mouth. Her face, hard and pear-shaped provided a soiled, pale background to her sunken eyes; her eyes, twitching open and close in rhythm with the groove where her mouth met with the fruit rind, seemed in search of something; comfort perhaps.

Soon she lifted her mouth off the orange to emit a yawn, her mouth straining wide open like she meant to vomit in one breath, the agony interred in her buried narratives. With submissive sternness, she said: “That was only the first time. Nonso visited my room thrice afterwards. The fourth time he did it, Jecintha, his mother, and sister were awake in the living room. They were watching television. I was sore all over and I hurt in my private part but he didn’t care. He said he was only taking compensation for the stress he goes through living with me and caring for me…But I never requested that he come live with me. In fact, his mother came to dump him with me few days before he turned 15. She said she couldn’t handle his frequent tantrums and disrespect to his stepfather. Nonso’s father had died and when his mother remarried, he couldn’t get along with his stepfather.

“So, tell me, how did I do wrong by accepting him? The fourth time he raped me, I told him to be gentle but he wasn’t. When my entreaties failed, I begged him to use the sheabutter. In his haste, he used the one that had been mixed with a very searing mentholated balm. This caused my private part to bruise and by the time he finished, I was smarting from within and outside my genitals. When he finished, he cleaned my vagina with a wet cloth. I am sure he intended to use my body fluid for money ritual. But he has failed. It won’t work,” said Nneka.

The situation persisted until Chiamaka, Nneka’s second daughter and Nonso’s aunt came visiting. Chiamaka, who had been shuttling between Lagos and their family house in Enugu in preparation for her marriage discovered blood and pus stains on two of her mother’s wrappers and the genital area of her pants. Worriedly, she asked her mother if she had suffered any wound on her private part or if she was experiencing any bacterial infection in her genitals but the 85-year-old responded in the non-affirmative, stressing that the bloodstains were probably from bruises she sustained from washing her private part too vigorously with local sponge.

“But mama stopped using local sponge a long while ago. After she told me, I visited her bathroom and discovered that she had only the foamy sponge I bought for her few months earlier,” said Chiamaka. At that point, she suspected that something foul was going on. She did not want to believe the suspicions coursing through her mind hence she invited their family doctor, a distant cousin who pleaded anonymity.

Following tests conducted on the grandmother, the doctor invited one of her colleagues, a resident doctor in a teaching

hospital, to reexamine the 85-year-old. To their chagrin, the results showed that their frail 85-year-old mother had suffered severe vaginal scarring and bacterial infection in her genital area.

Hell broke loose and Nonso fled from their Enugu abode. Although Nneka initially declined to talk, “Due to my persistence, I was able to force the truth out of her. My poor, old mother cried uncontrollably like a baby as she recounted her ordeal in the hands of Nonso. That boy had been defiling my dear mother, his grandmother at will. She was terribly bruised but he continued raping her until her genitals started emitting pus and a foul odour. The stench was so great that mama had to be subjected to a heavy dosage of antibiotics which was too much for a woman of her age…Now I know that the world has turned upside down. All Jecintha (her elder sister and Nonso’s mother) could say was that we needed to investigate further. She said we should look for Nonso first instead of accusing him in his absence. Can you imagine? Why did he run away if he was not guilty? She said she did not raise her son like that,” said Chiamaka.

Chiamaka subsequently relocated their mother to live with her and her fiancé at her residence in Ogba-Aguda, Lagos. Efforts to get in touch with Nonso proved unsuccessful; when The Nation visited two of his friends he reportedly squat with whenever he visits Lagos, the duo claimed they did not know of his whereabouts. His mother on the other hand would not “make any hasty conclusions on the issue” until she sees her son. “I have to see Nonso and hear his side to the story. They claimed he ran away because he is guilty; what if he ran away because they threatened him to confess to what he didn’t do. Mama is old now. She had been having trouble with her memory and sight; what if it was someone else that did it (raped her)? Youths in the area have been raping elderly women for a while now, for sport and money ritual; my Nonso would never do that to anyone. Why would he do so to his grandmother? My son may be a hard guy but he is no rapist,” said Jecintha.

The jury is surely out on Jecintha’s take on the ugly incident, while her argument in defence of her son seems tenable to her, not a few relatives and family friends have frowned at her insistence on her child’s innocence. Chiamaka argued that she is living in denial claiming that Jecintha will never understand the gravity of her son’s transgression “until he rapes her like he raped mama.”

Living in denial oftentimes leads to grievous consequences. “When families of elderly rape victims live in denial, they aggravate the severity of psychological damage inflicted on the poor, old women,” noted Bilkis Hussein, a psychiatrist. According to her, elderly victims of sexual abuse or rape become even more vulnerable to further abuse and even death if their families or care-givers fail to support them with the necessary aid and protection.

Take the case of Rebecca a.k.a Iya onidiiri (hair weaver), a 91-year-old widow who lived with her widowed daughter and her live-in lover in Atan, an Ogun State border town. According to Adenike, 23, her grandma got disabled by rheumatoid arthritis few months before she clocked 91. She was also cognitively impaired and deaf. “Earlier, she was taken to a nursing home but when the bills became too much, mother had to withdraw her and bring her home. I advised against it but she wouldn’t listen to me. She was hell bent on following the advice of her toy-boy (live-in lover) who was only concerned about saving my mother’s money so that she could have more money to spend on him. I knew grandma would not get the care she deserved at home so I made it a point of duty to always come home on weekends to check on her,” said Adenike.

The 23-year-old revealed that on one such visit, her grandma tacitly told her things that led her to suspect that she was been sexually abused. “We had only one male in the house and that was my mother’s toy-boy. I confronted my mom over mama’s claims but she slapped me and told me I was an evil child. She said grandma was a witch who was going senile and she wouldn’t let both of us ruin her life just when it was beginning to get rosy,” said Adenike.

Adenike later admitted that at some point, she also became confused over the veracity of her grandma’s claims and that was because she had lost her sight and her memory seemed too far gone. But when suddenly she received a call that her grandma was seriously ill, Adenike rushed home to meet her lifeless body. “She died before I got home and the neighbour who bathed her told me that she found what seemed like fresh male semen on her thighs and genitals. I could say nothing because it would give our family a bad name but when I told our pastor about my fears after grandma’s funeral, he advised me to forget the incident and say nothing about it. He said I should let the dead rest in peace…I hope my mom suffers the same fate as her mother,” said Adenike.

In another incident, Mabel, 78, lived with her youngest son, Vitus, in relative peace in their Umuahia, Abia State residence until the 36-year-old college dropout decided to turn her into a sex toy. Vitus, unskilled and jobless, was forced to live with his mother by necessity and Mabel had no choice but to give him shelter even though many of his childhood friends had moved from home to seek a livelihood and start their own families. The 36-year-old’s two elder brothers are resident in Amsterdam, Netherlands hence Mabel also felt she could use the company. Trouble, however, reared its ugly head to ruin their picture-perfect life when Vitus developed a drinking problem. The 36-year-old, according to a neighbour, had too much money at his disposal for someone who was unemployed. Vitus reportedly lived on money remitted back home by his siblings. Mabel, his mother, disclosed that things worsened after Vitus’ visa application to Europe was denied. Heartbroken, the 36-year-old took solace in drinking. According to Mabel, she struggled to condole his drunkenness to no avail. Soon, Vitus, severely drunk, hung-over and angry,  began to walk around the house naked.

“Twice, he masturbated in my presence; the first time, I walked in on him doing it in the living room. He knew I was at home but he made no attempt to relocate to his room even after I saw him. The second time he did it, he came to meet me in the kitchen stroking his organ. He said he came to ask what I had prepared for breakfast. That day, I lost my cool and slapped him. I told him he was a bastard and that I would report him to his brothers abroad. Normally, he would beg me not to report to them but he told me to go to hell. He said he didn’t care what I told them and accused me of treating them as my favourite sons because they were doing very well abroad.

“I couldn’t tell his brothers. If I did, they would have dealt with him severely. They would cut him off. He later came to apologise to me and told me he was turning a new leaf,” said Mabel.

If she believed his show of remorse, it was to her own peril. Vitus soon began to take pictures of her while she took her bath and dressed in her bedroom with his phone.

“It was easy for him to get in my room at will because the lock was bad. I was worried and scared stiff; so, I decided to get a lock fixed on my door on a Friday afternoon while he was away. He had gone partying and clubbing as usual and he came home very drunk at midnight. I knew he was around because he kicked the door open and broke the lock from the hinges. I startled awake but I could not shout because it was very late and I didn’t want the neighbours to find out what was happening in our home. They had always known me and my late husband to be disciplinarians.

“When he got inside, he blamed me for ruining his life and accused me of not doing enough to help him. He said he was going to punish me for my wickedness. As he spoke, he unzipped his trouser and urinated all over my bed, bathing me with urine as he did. He called me a witch claiming he was peeing on me to neutralise my evil powers.

“I tried to get off the bed but he shoved me back and pinned me to the bed. He punched me on both shoulders and my knees. The pain shot through my whole being and it was unbearable. He mounted me roughly. I was too weak to resist; then he tore my panties off and raped me. He raped me twice on that night,”  revealed the 78-year-old.

Mabel is convinced that Vitus acted so because he was under a spell. “I had never seen him like that. He was very agitated and his eyes were glazed over. He raped me like he was on drugs. The following morning, I was sore all over,” she said.

Things, however, got to a head when Vitus raped his mother just before her childhood friend came visiting. Mabel tearfully confided in her and the latter in turn, alerted Vitus’ two siblings abroad. Pleading anonymity, the woman, a retired school principal who claimed to have taught Vitus in high school, said she was worried that the community would impose severe penalties on Vitus given rising resentment against incessant rape of elderly women in their community. No sooner she informed her friend’s older children than the eldest son, Christopher jetted back to the country. But just before he arrived, Mabel reportedly gave Vitus a sizable sum of money and urged him to flee. “I wasn’t in support of her action because that boy, (Vitus) needs help. But she said she was scared of what his brothers might do to him,” said the retired school principal and the victim’s childhood friend.

 

When the rapist is family…

The Nation findings revealed that older women without intimate partners may be particularly vulnerable to abuse by other family members. Sons and grandsons, for instance, have been implicated as perpetrators of sexual violence against their mothers as exemplified by the cases of 85-year-old Nneka and 78-year-old Mabel.

Further findings revealed that sexual abuse of elderly persons and outright rape in most cases are rampant yet under-reported by victims and their family due to fear of stigmatisation. According to a victim of elderly sex abuse, “When you are a mother, left behind with children who are boys, there is one amongst your children … he wants to sleep with you and wants that you must not talk about it. … You are afraid because you do not have the strength. He does that thing as he pleases.”

Elders assaulted by spouses as well as other family members, including adult children or grandchildren, face a host of problems.“Victims of familial elder sexual abuse frequently rely upon their abusers for care and assistance. During later life, need for assistance generally increases. It is natural to prefer to receive help from family members rather than strangers. This interdependency makes victim self protection via separation from the offender quite difficult. Without separation, continued sexual abuse is likely.

Assault is more psychologically injurious when inflicted by someone expected to provide love, protection, and support. Many elderly victims of familial sexual abuse experience powerful ambivalent feelings towards their abusers. These feelings complicate the trauma response, and make it difficult to accept intervention. Many victims fear that intervention will lead to negative consequences for their abusers – perhaps consequent homelessness or even criminal prosecution and imprisonment. Familial bonds of attachment make it difficult for victims to trigger such consequences, according to

Although studies have shown that sexual abuse against elderly women is usually perpetrated by a relative, it can also be inflicted by unrelated domestic caregivers or by random assailants. While many people think that rape is a “sexually motivated crime” that affects only younger women, it is also, in fact, perpetrated against older women, whose perceived or actual vulnerability makes them likely victims.

 

Profile of the rapist as a random culprit

In several other cases, the rapist turns out to be a neighbour next door or someone living few blocks or streets away. Take the case of Abdullateef, for instance, the skinny, 16-year-old and Senior Secondary School (SSS1) student cut the picture of an innocent boy; he looked pretty odd to be a suspect undergoing interrogation at the anti-robbery section of the Department of Criminal Investigation, Ogun State Police Command. But the allegations against him are quite damning.

Abdullateef was arrested on January 18, 2015 at Lambe area of Ajuwon, Ogun State, after he allegedly entered the residence of a 52-year-old neighbour late in the night to rob her of the sum of N16,500. After dispossessing her of the money, he went ahead to rape her, not minding the age difference between them. Abdullateef allegedly threatened to hurt his prey with an iron rod and warned her to keep her mouth shut, claiming he had a vicious gang waiting for him outside. Of course, she complied and even though she was visibly shaken and mortified by his decision to rape her after robbing her off her money, there was nothing she could do about it. Thus the 52-year-old lay quietly, without a fight, as the 16-year old mounted her to satisfy his carnal lust. Even though she knew her assailant to be a neighbour’s son, she did not let him know lest she put herself in even greater danger.

At day break, she put a call through to her husband to inform him of her experience. The husband in response rushed back home but not until he visited the Ajuwon police station to report a case of robbery and rape. During interrogated, the teenager confessed his deeds and was promptly transferred to the Department of Criminal Investigation, Eleweeran, Abeokuta, for further interrogation.

Nnanna on the other hand operated in a more organised and dangerous manner until he got caught. The native of Opi community in Nsukka Local Government Area of Enugu State recently stunned security operatives and other inhabitants of the agrarian community when he revealed his delight in raping elderly women. Jobless and in his 30s, he claimed to nurture a lust for elderly women because they are better than most young ladies of his age group. According to him, due to his impoverished status, he could not afford to woo girls below his age group or his age mates hence he resorted to raping old women and grandmothers in his community.

For several months, Nnanna had successfully raped about a dozen elderly women whose ages averaged 60 years. Luck, however, deserted him when his last victim defied his threats to kill her with a knife and raised an alarm. This drew the attention of passersby who rushed to the elderly woman’s rescue.

Nnanna was apprehended and given a sound beating before he was handed over to the police. He was later transferred to the Enugu State Criminal Investigations Department. When confronted with the allegation that he was using the women for rituals, he denied the allegation, claiming he only ‘used’ the women to satisfy his sexual urge.

 

Why rape elderly women?

Although “gerontophilia” (defined as an age-discordant sexual preference) has long been known to exist, gerontophilic rape has rarely been subjected to empirical scrutiny. The analysis of rapists’ attraction to elderly victims raises the question of whether or not such sex offenders constitute a separate type of paraphilia, that is, the need for an extreme or dangerous stimulus such as a sadistic or masochistic practice in order to achieve sexual arousal or orgasm.

The issue with rapists of elders may be polymorphous sexuality where the person is not only aroused by non-social objects but also age-inappropriate persons. The critical point is that the offender is acting on his impulse, has a loosening of internal and external controls, and has proximity to a vulnerable victim. As observed in Nneka and Mabel’s cases, the perpetrators exhibited disregard for getting caught. The urge, impulse, desire and actions come quickly. This is a matter of understanding the conditions of the actions not condoning the actions. As noted with the dynamics of rapists, there is a strong element of power combined with the abuse according to Ariyike Bello, a consultant clinical psychiatrist.

Bello acknowledged that sexual offenders are attracted to vulnerability. Perpetrators seek out potential victims who they perceive as easy to overpower and manipulate. They look for those who would be unlikely to report the assault and who would not be deemed credible if the assault were reported.

There are a number of reasons to support the inherent vulnerability of elder women when compared to younger women as a factor to place the elder at risk for crime occurring at her residence. Firstly, if elderly women are not dependent upon care, they are more likely to live alone due in large part to a longer life expectancy and higher risk for widowhood. Secondly, vulnerability is related to physical size and strength and elder women are perceived to be less capable than younger women to flee or resist a physical attack.

Thirdly, as women age, there are changes in skeletal, neuromuscular, and other systemic changes that restrict mobility and thus reduce their abilities to defend themselves. Elderly women are less likely than younger counterparts to have guardianship of a younger male or partner and more likely to be perceived by motivated offenders as suitable targets.

Older adults are especially vulnerable to sexual violence, and elder sexual assault is one of the  most hidden crimes. Unfortunately, while elder sexual assault victims may require more assistance and specialized help, they often receive less services and intervention than younger victims for a number of reasons. Certain factors associated with the aging process put the elder population at heightened risk. In some cases, people of advanced age need others to provide basic necessities and assistance with daily functions. These circumstances increase one’s risk of sexual assault; elders are often victimised by those assisting them or those closest to them. Reduced cognitive or emotional functioning may also render older people more susceptible to sexual assault. Even for well elders, the social stigma of old age make them an easier target for perpetration and more likely to remain silent if victimised.

 

Study identify boys and young adults as major perpetrators of rape

In a study conducted last year, 2014, by Dr. Uchendu Obiorah Jude of the Department of Pathology, Delta State University Teaching Hospital, Oghara and Dr. Nwogoh Benedict of the Department of Haematology and Blood Transfusion, University of Calabar Teaching Hospital, Calabar, Cross River State, perpetrators of rape were identified in the lower age group. The study which was conducted over six months at the central hospital, Benin City, Edo State, aimed to analyse the demographic parameters of perpetrators of rape, the instruments of abuse and the environment of the assault. A total of 100 cases were documented during the study period and the mean age of assailants was 20 years with peak age range of 21-30 years. Neighbours were the highest culprits and majority of abuse were carried out during the day.

 

Impact of rape on elderly victims

Problems confronting elderly victims of rape and sexual abuse include feelings of shame, humiliation and fear of repercussions for disclosing abuse or seeking help. Often times, however, problems experienced by elderly victims of sexual assault are even more challenging according Seun Taiwo, a psychiatrist. Taiwo noted that given the social climate in which many seniors were raised, feelings of shame and self-blame for sexual abuse are often more intense than those felt by younger victims. “Many of them grew up in a world of sexism, where even the rape crisis movement discriminated on the basis of age, race, and gender. This affects how elders experience and view sexual victimisation, and how society and professions dealing with crime victims respond to elder victims, “she said.

A battered or raped woman suffers much deeper wounds than the immediate physical effect of the trauma. The testimony of Roseline Ugwuunwoli, a rape victim and widow in her late 70s, captures this feeling. Ugwuunwoli, who has a daughter and seven grandchildren, narrated her ordeal thus: “It was only one person that attacked and raped me. It rained heavily that night but he came when it was drizzling. I don’t know the exact time. He kicked and pulled down the door before he came in. I shouted and called on Jesus to come to my aid as I looked and saw a young man standing naked by my bed side, wielding a knife and torchlight. He jumped on me on my bed and held my throat as if he wanted to strangle me to death. He warned me to keep calm or he would kill me. I kept quiet and he descended on me. People in my neighborhood who heard the sound of the door when it was violently pulled down and my cry for help woke up their grown up sons to come to my rescue. But it was late as my attacker had fled before they arrived. I was already unconscious; so they carried me to their house and started searching the entire neighbourhood but they could not find him.

“I was living with my only grandchild and when the child wanted to shout, he warned her to shut up or he would stab her to death. My relations came the next morning and took me to hospital for treatment. As it is now, I cannot hear properly as a result of the beating I received from my attacker before the actual rape. If you are talking to me and you don’t speak louder, I won’t hear what you are saying. He thoroughly beat me before he attempted strangling me because I resisted him initially, but after much beating and the attempt to strangle me, I surrendered and he pounded me to unconsciousness before help came my way. Even after the hospital treatment, I still couldn’t sit down properly; local herbs were collected, boiled and used to massage me just like woman who just gave birth to a new baby.

“It was after the local massaging that I started sitting down without much pain. My case was one of the worst. The knife the attacker came with was found on my bed the following day and it was taken to my church. All I am saying is that nobody but God gives life and only he can take it when it pleases him. Now, I feel dizzy sometimes. I also feel somehow inside of me but I can’t describe the kind of feeling. All I can say is that the effect of the incident is still very much with me.”

 

A worrisome epidemic

While speaking on the rising incidence of rape in the state, the Edo State Police Commissioner, Foluso Adebanjo, linked it to money rituals, wealth, power, longevity voodoo, cultism and psycho-social problems. And despite dearth of adequate data, information from states and non-governmental organisations, show that rape is a nationwide epidemic across Nigeria. The Ondo State Police Command, for example, said it recorded 45 rape cases in 2013, but did not state the number of prosecutions or convictions. In Edo, 96 rape cases were recorded between January 2012 and August 2014. Ninety-two of those cases were prosecuted and nine convictions secured.

Hospital reports in Edo, however, show that majority of the cases are not being reported at the police station. While the police reported 96 cases in 32 months, the state-owned Central Hospital in Benin City disclosed during a recent workshop that not less than 80 cases of rape were treated in eight months between March and October 2013.

In Jigawa State, an average of 10 cases are reported monthly, according to the Commissioner for Justice and Attorney-General, Yakubu Ruba. In Enugu State, not less than 51 minors and 45 adults were raped between April and August 2014, according to the Women Aid Collective, a non-governmental organisation. In Lagos State, the office of Youth and Social Development of the Ministry of Youth, Sports and Social Development said it recorded 244 child rape cases between January and October, 2011. It listed the most prevalent areas as Yaba, Agege, Ikeja and Surulere. In 2012, the figure increased. The state government listed 427 child rape incidents and admitted that perhaps more were not reported to authorities.

The Lagos State Attorney-General and Commissioner for Justice, Ade Ipaye, while speaking of the challenges in successfully prosecuting rape cases said of the 427 cases reported in 2012, only six have ended in convictions. Ipaye identified  lack of reliable evidence as a major cog in the wheel of securing convictions.

The punishment for rape as spelt out in Section 358 of the Criminal Code is life imprisonment, while an attempt to commit rape attracts 14 years imprisonment. In spite of the penalty for rape, it still thrives due to impediments occasioned by legal technicalities and unwillingness of victims to press charges due to shame and fear of stigmatisation according to Abayomi Sanya, a lawyer.

 

The Opi-Nsukka malady

Incidences of sexual assault of elderly women have made the news in recent years, particularly in Opi, Nsukka Local Government Area of Enugu State. It would be recalled that two years ago, over 100 women from Ogbaozalla and Ibeku communities in Opi, Nsukka LGA, Enugu, thronged the streets to protest the incessant rape of old women by young men in their community. The perpetrators, aged between 17 and 25 years, had been caught raping old women of 60 to 80 years, including blind women in the area. The protesting women told members of Umuada Igbo Nigeria (UIN) that out of the 13 rape victims, one had died because of bleeding induced by tears she sustained when some sex-hungry boys raped her.

During the protest, which lasted for more than five hours, the women appealed to UIN to intervene to save them from further harassment as they no longer sleep at night. They said they had reported the cases to the police for action, but regretted that the situation had not changed.

The Founder and President-General of UIN, Dr. Uzoamaka Ezeofor, who addressed the aggrieved women, expressed disappointment with the attitude of the young boys. She wondered what form of sexual satisfaction they wished to derive from old women between the ages of 60 and 80 years.

Three years after the protest, serial raping of old women in Opi has continued. Worried about the sad turn of events, women of the area recently called on the relevant security agencies to provide them with adequate security in order to forestall further occurrences in recent times.

The women who made the appeal recently in Nsukka during a public hearing by the Enugu state House of Assembly Seven-Man Adhoc Committee on the alleged continuous raping of women old women in the community lamented that despite their outcry over the matter, serious measures have not been taken to address the situation.

They said young boys in the area have continued to rape old women in the area, including those aged above 70 years, stressing that the situation had made life uncomfortable for them. Speaking on behalf of the women, Ngozi Agbo, a women Leader in Ogbozalla-Opi said some of the youths who are involved in the act were after their lives.

Agbo told the committee that most of the women in Ogbozalla and Ibeku Opi no longer sleep in their houses at night because of fear of being raped or killed by some youth rapists. “We are calling on government to come to our rescue as our lives are no longer safe. Against the feelings that the situation had been brought under control, I can tell you that raping of old women by youths is still on in Opi…The worst is that our traditional ruler is not living in the Ogbozalla community. He lives in Enugu with his family and that is why he is not concerned over our plight,” she said, stressing that the criminal act escalates because “some wealthy people are supporting this evil, as they go to police station to bail these criminal when arrested.”

The women and grandmothers of Ogbozalla, Ibeku Opi and several other neighbourhoods grappling with the plague of teenage and youth rapists might have to seek self-help like the Kungfu grannies of Korogocho, Nairobi, Kenya. At the Streams of Hope and Peace charity training centre in the slum of Korogocho, Nairobi, over 30 local grandmothers enrolled for a free martial arts course to protect themselves from a recent spate of  house robberies and rapes.

Aged 50 to 100 years, the “Cucu Takinge” meaning: “Grannies defending themselves” in Swahili  learn the basics of karate and kung fu, along with “dirty tricks” such as pokes in the eyes and kicks to the groin. The course aims to equip the old ladies with necessary self-defence skills to defend an attack. There are even specific techniques conceived for blind people. At the centre, some of the aged participants  appear strong and fit while others struggle to lift their legs, hampered by age and their long gowns.

The threats elderly women face are indeed real. According to the Gender Recovery Center of the Nairobi Women’s Hospital, 223 out of 2,300 rape  cases registered in 2009 by the hospital concerned women over 60. Perceived as weak and defenseless by their assailants, grannies are also believed to be untouched by the high rates of HIV infection among young women. Since 2008, the situation has gradually deteriorated: old ladies are now openly threatened during the day, in crowded places like water collecting points or main roads. Avoiding going out of the house is however, not an option, because many old ladies don’t receive any pension and live off the limited money they make by selling groceries or keeping small shops.

In Nigeria, some victims and their families that spoke with The Nation on condition of anonymity stated that many of the attacks are carried out on old women by assailants whose intention is to use them for fetish money-making rituals.

 

Protecting our mothers and grandmas

The threats elderly women face are indeed real but while rape of minors and middle aged women frequently make the news, violent rape or sexual attacks against elderly women are hardly reported. Besides terse newspaper reports of incidences of rape of elderly women in the country, there is no dependable statistical base or data of rape or sexual assault against the elderly in the country.

The situation, therefore, calls for urgent steps by the government, law enforcement agencies and civil societies in the country to remedy the situation. “Friends, family and social workers can help to stop abuse by reporting suspected cases to the police and state officials as required by law,” said Abiodun Ishola, a secondary school teacher and social worker.

Investigation and prosecution of an elder sexual crime present unique challenges to victim, the providers, and the criminal justice system. When criminal conduct occurs, rapid detection, sufficient documentation, and referral are critical to permit effective development of cases. After an occurrence of the crime, all necessary elements, including perpetrator identification, must be proven. The competency of the victim to provide evidence must also be determined. These issues are very important with the older adult victim who has physical or mental impairment. It is recommended that a reliable and valid national source of data about the sexual abuse of elders be available to set standards from which prosecutors can base assumptions to secure the prosecution of offenders, according David Ukaga, a sociologist and Managing Director (MD) of City Sentinel, a private securities services provider.

Sade Afuape, a sociologist and geriatric home administrator however, suggested that the government should establish and fund well administered geriatric homes. “After establishing these homes, the government should employ highly qualified staff through a vigorous screening process. Care-givers at the homes should be adequately trained to care for elders and sensitise them on issues of sexual abuse,” she said.

In the case of interventions in established cases of sexual abuse, however, social workers must be trained to avoid actions that cause evidence of sexual abuse to deteriorate. For example, social workers practicing in geriatric nursing homes should educate staff that potential victims of sexual abuse should be referred for forensic evaluations immediately. Alleged victims should not be bathed and clothing and bed linens should not be laundered prior to evidence collection.

Another important part of intervention is supporting elderly victims during and after civil and criminal sexual abuse investigations and criminal prosecutions. Social workers may also play important roles in contributing information to investigators. Intervention may involve helping victims to access court orders designed to increase safety and protective orders may be obtained on behalf of victims who lack mental capacity, according to Afuape.

In a nutshell, forensic nurses, community and healthcare practitioners, family and other caregivers need to become better informed about interpersonal violence, including sexual assault, perpetrated on elders, and how to support and provide opportunities for enhanced comprehensive assessment, medical, legal and psychotherapeutic intervention.

But as the government and other stakeholders return to the drawing board, they will do well to include severely damaged and disillusioned grandmothers like Nneka and Mabel in their loop of schemes.  A journey through Nneka’s mind for instance reveals world-weariness characteristic of the aged who considers hope inconsequential after suffering too many tragic disappointments in her lifetime.

Nneka hurts severely every time she remembers her first experience in her dimly lit room where Nonso, her 21-year-old grandson forcefully pried her wrinkled thighs apart driven by a raging libido in a sexual frenzy. Nonso was terrifying; venomous threats and inexcusable rationalisations sprang from his lips in a torrent of spittle and measured terror; the effect was frightening. It kept Nneka from screaming and putting up a feeble attempt against his youth and power. Nneka occasionally descends into a labyrinth of pain and pitiful paranoia. These days, she talks and curses at no one in particular, disclosed Chiamaka.

“Just recently, I was sitting with her, trimming her toe nails in the verandah, when she started crying and cursing for no reason in particular. It is even more painful to hear her cry in her sleep.  Recently, I heard her call someone bastard in her sleep. She said it in a very mean tone… My mother has not healed at all. Sometimes, I am forced to think she relives every brutal moment of that rape. She is still living in that brutal nightmare,” she said.

And thus is the tragedy of an 85-year-old rape victim; now 86, several months since her rescue from sexual assault by her grandson, “she is still living in that brutal nightmare.”