A Village Rape

About two weeks ago I was walking home from the market and I saw Ganga arguing with my new neighbor (who was at the time building his new mud hut). It seemed like an intense conversation so I decided to not approach the two but to ask Ganga later on. The next day during my nutrition workshop I asked him what had happened the day prior. He had explained that a man had raped a girl from his village and he had come across her crying along the road. I assume he has found her somewhat soon after the rape had happened. I was shocked and then ask/told him that I assumed he was going to go the the gendamerie(national police) in Zabre to report the man. Ganga informed me that he was first going to have a meeting with the rapist and the village chief to decide what should be done. I was flabbergasted and responded, “What?!? You are not going to the police! The man raped a girl and the gendamerie needs to be involved to prosecute the man.” Ganga replied that first there would be a meeting with the Chief of the village because that was the African way—to handle conflict at the village level and not involve the government/police. That night I was eating dinner at my friends house and I told her teenage daughters what had happened and I asked what would happen to the man now. They informed me that the chief would probably have the man beaten and that the man would have to pay a fine to the victim’s family. Then they told me if the girl became pregnant she would then marry her rapist. I quickly became angry and irritated and felt sick to my stomache. I had read about situations like this going on in the Middle East in one of my political science classes but I naively thought it didn’t happen in Burkina. I then asked the girls why she would marry the man who had raped her and they said no one else would want her because now she was pregnant. I then asked what happens if she does not get pregnant, would she still have to marry her rapist. They told me yes because she was now tainted(not a virgin anymore). I wanted to ask more questions but I thought that I would ask Ganga because he would know more than anyone. I headed home and mid way through the night a horrible thought popped into my head—why was Ganga arguing with my new neighbor about the rape. Was my new neighbor the rapist? The next day I found Ganga and told him, “Ganga, please tell me the rapist is not my new neighbor who is building his mud hut 25 feet away from mine.” Ganga started to laugh and told me not to worry that the rapist was not my new neighbor; however, he did not explain why he was arguing with the man about the rape. He told me the rapist lived in Koma--another quartier of my village. However, he did tell me the man worked at the market mill. This mill happens to be about a 3 or 4 minute walk from my house. Hmm…I then told Ganga about what the girls had said and asked if it were true. He told me yes the girl normally marries her rapist if she becomes pregnant because no other man would want to raise another man’s child (abortion is illegal here, regardless of incest, rape etc.,). He told me if she did not become pregnant she would not have to marry him. I asked if virginity here was important. He told me that in his mom’s time that virginity had been really important and that the girl would most likely marry her rapist but that it wasn’t as important now. However, he did tell me that this happens today with a certain tribe in the south of Burkina who places a high priority on a girl’s virginity. By then I was livid and Ganga could tell. I was like, “Ganga, that is the most asinine thing I have ever heard! Don’t people realize that once the girl marries her rapist, every time they have sex it is like reliving the rape all over again.” Ganga replied, “Todara, that is just the way things are done in Africa—it is the African way.” A few days later I was having lunch with the mayor of Zabre and I told him about the situation and asked if it was true what they had said. Desire had told me that it was not true and that the man would go to jail. This, however, was dependent upon the girl or her family lodging a complaint against the man with the gendamerie. Desire then told me that often times they try to settle the issue at the village level because the Chiefs of the villages have problems with giving their power and authority over to the government and other officials(in the past before police it was the Chief that handed out the judgment). He also said this was corrupt because sometimes the Chief may be friends with the rapist’s family or he worked with the man and so he would let the rapist off easy. His words appeased me for the moment but then I thought who was I more likely to believe—the mayor, who is a rich functionaire/ a parliamentary member who doesn’t know much about village life/politics, or the locals who tell me something completely different but who live village politics day in and day out.