22574: Mambo Racine on Words and Acts, in Haiti and in General (fwd)

[Bob Corbett <corbetre@webster.edu>]

From: Racine125@aol.com

Mambo Racine on Words and Acts, in Haiti and in General

I've read a few posts lately on the topic of rape, which refer to mere threats of rape or violence against women as "bravado" or "idle talk".  The implication is that such words are "not serious", nothing to worry about or to be afraid of. I'd like to demonstrate how, in Haiti and in general, words and acts are linked.

A threat of rape is one of the acts which rapists generally commit as they escalate their behaviors.  That is, a man who rapes, whether in Haiti or in the USA, does not as a rule get up one day and just go rape!  Usually there is a series of behaviors that comes first - the use of pornography, sexually offensive or threatening comments to women, then inappropriate touching and using physical presence to make women afraid... all these things lead up to rape.

Little Haitian boys hear their older brothers threaten women, "M ap kwenyen ou", I am going to f--k you, and gain the approval of their peers for doing so.  Little boys want to be like their big brothers, right?  And when sexual aggression is rewarded or at least unpunished for their big brothers, who come home and brag of their exploits, then little boys learn rape behavior too.  And then they grow up to be men who rape.

I can't stress enough the positive feedback that Haitian men get from other Haitian men for violence against Haitian women.  Let me give you, gentle Corbetteers, an example illustrating this phenomenon.

One day a man and a woman were walking along the airfield here in Jacmel, it's a long, straight flat piece of land, obviously, and so you can see far, you can see everyone on the field.

Okay - so along they walked, the man and the woman.  I was on a little camionette running alongside the airfield.  Apparently the man and woman were arguing, and suddenly he began to beat her.  Every single solitary man on the camionette burst out laughing, and some began screaming, "Wi!  Bat li!  Fe l kaka!",  Yes!  Beat her!  Make her shit!  They were incredibly excited, totally adrenalized.  It's true they didn't hit her, but does anyone want to suggest to me that their words were mere "bravado" and "idle threats"?

I jumped up and yelled the abuser's name, and said, "You better quit that!  Stop right now!  Don't you dare hit that woman!"

A young man in the camionette stood up and towered over me, and literally screamed at me, "PE DJOL OU!", shut up!  He lifted his fist to me, and I honestly thought he was about to hit me.  If I were a Haitian woman he would surely have done so.  Of course I just yelled louder at the abuser on the airfield, who had knocked the woman flat on the ground, where she lay helplessly as he pounded on her.  Finally he left her alone and went on his way, leaving her on the ground.  Meanwhile the other abuser, the man abusing me in the camionette, made a few more threatening gestures.

Now listen to me - not one person, male or female, went to help that woman, not while she was being tortured and not afterward.  The camionette was standing up in a crossroads taking on passengers, and I watched as the woman slowly collected her beaten limbs, got up on unsteady legs, and limped away under her own power.

And not one person, male or female, in that camionette said or did one thing to help me.  They didn't in any way, by word or deed, do one thing to discourage that young man who was about to punch me.

Hate speech, whether against Vodouisants, women, or any other group, is not "mere bravado".  It's a prelude to, and a support for, violence.

In Haiti, impunity for violent behavior is epidemic.  The current government came to power through violence!  And as little as violence is punished, much less is hate speech against women discouraged!  It's not as though Haitian men are doing this blindly, they know that in the USA, for instance, threats of rape are taken seriously and a man who does so is apt to meet another man, or perhaps a woman, dressed in blue with a nightstick and a pair of handcuffs!  But here a man who rapes is as apt to be a police officer as not.  Rape by Haitian Army officers back when there was an army, rape of women prisoners by jailers in the Haitian penitentiaries, rape by police right here in my neighborhood, twice in three months now!

So please, let's not imply that any facet of violence against women is "bravado" or "not serious", because it is all very deadly serious.  Remember too that here in Haiti medical care for the majority is not so very wonderful, right?  So when your abuser is finished with you, the injuries you sustain are probably not even going to get appropriate medical treatment.

If you are a Haitian majority-class woman, your man can cheat on you, and if you complain he can beat you.  You can not refuse him sex.  You can not make him use a condom.  If he infects you with HIV, you can get no treatment.  If you make an uproar, he will claim that you gave it to him, and he will beat you half to death, and he will have the support of other men.  Their words, as well as their actions, will be employed to perpetuate your suffering.

Peace and love,

Bon Mambo Racine Sans Bout Sa Te La Daginen

"Se bon ki ra" - Good is rare
     Haitian Proverb

The VODOU Page - http://members.aol.com/racine125/index.html

(Posting from Jacmel, Haiti)