Feature

By Frazer Potani, Lilongwe, Malawi

One morning a teenage girl in Mzimba woke up, took a bath and breakfast ready to go to school as usual.

However, before reaching her destination a man abducted her and took her to his house where he repeatedly raped her.

Later, she fell pregnant and after delivery the man abandoned the girl.

In a separate incident, Iness Katondo from Dowa had her health deteriorating.

When her husband learnt she was HIV positive and had Tuberculosis (TB) he dumped her.

“My first husband told me in the face while I was battling with TB in great pain that he could not continue living with a sick person like me. He married another woman,” said Katondo.

She later recovered from TB and got married to Andrew Katondo, a teacher who was also HIV positive.

In Liwonde in Machinga, Abiti Umali, 45, struggles to look after eight children, and for her daily meal she sells fish at the road block.

Her late husband, Ishmael Amidu left five fishing boats, a grocery shop, two decent houses for rent, two vehicles that were all grabbed by the brother-in-laws.

Mangochi police also reported that 51-year-old Ngongondo Gawana of Misomali Village, Traditional Authority(T/A) Chowe in the district beat up his wife Alice before cutting off her head with a panga knife following rumours that she was seeing another man.

Hebert Mankhwala’s name also hit headlines of Malawi’s media houses after chopping wife Marietta Samuel’s hands using a panga knife.

Reports documented by the Southern Africa Research Documentation Centre (Sardc) in Gaborone, Botswana reveal shocking root causes of gender based violence cases across the southern Africa region.

“In general, in African societies boys and girls are brought differently and socialized to adopt different roles in accordance with norms, attitudes, cultural values, beliefs, practices in their societies,” reads one report in part.

The Women and Law in Southern Africa (WLSA) concurs with the centre saying in Malawi and other southern African countries more women are suffering at the hands of men in various forms of gender based violence at all levels.

The organization discloses that in Malawi for instance, a study revealed that on average, 32 women seek help, advice and assistance from it in 30 days meaning at least one woman complaining of her rights violations at WLSA.

“Twenty-eight of these cases in Malawi involve domestic violence. In South Africa one out of every three women is assaulted by her male partner while one in every four women is abused through other forms of domestic violence. One in every four women is also at some time forced to flee because of life threatening situations within the home,” says the organization.

A research by Germany’s GTZ Fund also showed that nine out of 10 gender based violence cases in southern Africa were to do with domestic violence.

The fund said, however, despite some women especially those married suffering at the hands of their husbands in the region they still clung to them because they depended on them.

“Women are economically dependent on their male partners. The society is also critical on women who stay on their own. Women almost always agree to reconciliation,” says the fund.

It adds that across southern Africa some traditions also encourage the justification of men to ill-treat women in one way or the other and call women to endure.

“There exists the common belief that it is the woman’s responsibility to make marriage work. If it doesn’t the blame is put on a woman,” says the fund.

Most women may not leave their homes despite being ill-treated by their spouses because the most dangerous time to leave home is also when acts of violence also increase.

The fund says domestic violence is a gender based violence mainly manifested by control and power.

“Men who beat their wives for being rude, for example, do so because they believe in the wife’s subordinate status and use violence to put her in place,” says the Fund.

Former Malawi Human Rights Commission (MHRC) Chairperson Reverend Father Alfred Nsope of the Catholic Church said violence between men and women in Malawi was increasing as evidenced by rampant gender based violence cases including rape, defilement captured by police and the media.

“Domestic violence and any other form of Gender Based Violence are all violations of human rights and affect the physical, mental, health, social and moral well being of a person,” said Nsope.

However, not only women are victims of Gender Based Violence.

Some months ago a man bravely stood out of a sweating crowd at Senior Chief Mazengera’s area in Lilongwe to tell his story.

“People think only women are suffering acts of gender based violence but the fact is that men are also suffering from these evil activities. I am not ashamed that I am a victim of this practice,” said the man while grabbing a microphone forcing the gathering to stop making noise.

He disclosed that he quarreled and fought with his wife one afternoon.

The wife threatened him by telling him that he would later pay a hefty price for their disagreement.

“I did not know what she meant until at night my wife refused to share the matrimonial bed with me. She even told me in the face that she was not going to allow me to have conjugal activities with her,” he said sending the crowd in an uncontrollable laughter.

Some months a go a man plying his trade as a truck driver also appeared in the local press complaining that his wife cut off his private parts after a quarrel.

His genitals were later re-attached at a hospital.

Almost a similar incident also happened in South Africa few years ago.

A man arrived home late at night and angered his sleeping wife by turning the radio on to a full blast.

In anger the woman woke up and emerged from the bedroom, quickly undressed her husband and bite off a portion of his penis with her teeth.

Later the detached organ was re-attached at a clinic. The man had to further be counseled to overcome the traumatic experience he went through.

Mazengera said men should speak out on acts of gender based violence perpetrated by women although it is atypical and not suffer in silence.

“It is not a secret that more women are suffering from acts of gender based violence in this country. However, there are men who are also victims as well and they need a voice,” he said.

The chief explained that some women are even rude to their husbands who later claim that this rudeness ignited their violent acts against their wives.

Mazengera said that in recent years there are many reports of gender based violence in his area.

“But the good news is that now there is a Victim Support Unit which is acting as a watchman against perpetrators of these atrocities,” he said.

Mazengera further said that he has acted as a marriage counselor by trying to reconcile couples trapped in marital disputes.

“But where I think the matter is too big for me and needs to be handled by police and the courts for example I have never hesitated to refer them to the proper authorities,” said Mazengera.


Civil Liberties Ciommittee (CILIC) Executive Director, Emmie Chanika, admitted that while more focus has been on women gender based violence victims in Malawi and southern Africa there were also men indeed suffering in silence at the hands of women.

“But research after research still reveals that more women are suffering from gender based violence than men in Malawi and across the region,” she said.

Deputy Board Chairperson for Action-Aid Malawi Dorothy Nyasulu said there is need for peace between men and women in Malawi and the region if social-economic development is to take place and eradicate poverty.

“Violence in whatever form and against anyone is an evil because it’s a violation of human rights. It infringes a lot of unbearable pain in the lives of victims.
“We have to find ways to eradicate this evil to empower especially women who make majority of victims to enable them fully deliver their efforts in the country’s social-economic development,” said Nyasulu.

Former Member of Parliament for Ntcheu Bwanje South Marjorie Ngaunje said Malawi’s future hangs in limbo if acts of gender based violence are allowed to continue because they also infringe rights of future leaders (children).

She said children brought up in a gender based violence addicted families are likely to indulge in the same practices and make bad leaders in society.

“Worse still, research reveals that women caught in gender based violence have a higher risk of contracting HIV and AIDS than those living in peaceful homes,” said Ngaunje.

She therefore, said gender based violence is also a threat to the country’s social economic development as women also make a greater part of Malawi’s population as compared to men.

President Bingu wa Mutharika said he is concerned that men in Malawi continue to ill-treat women and girls through various forms of gender based violence.

‘Women deserve respect in this country. There is no way we can achieve social-economic development as a country without their contributions. We need women in this country because they are very important. In fact we even exist because women [mothers] brought us into this world,” said Mutharika.

He also warns anyone indulging in any form of gender based violence against a man or a woman that the law will deal with him/her accordingly.

“Any form of gender based violence is both criminal and a violation of human rights that can not be tolerated at all levels by the state,” said Mutharika.

On her part, Gender Coordination Network (GCN) Chairperson Emma Kaliya said issues of gender based violence were complex.

“But it’s pleasing that the media is doing a good job in the fight against gender based violence through highlighting these cases.

“Unlike previously where by people suffered in silence, in recent years little by little people in this country are now speaking out against acts of gender based violence. They are even reporting them to human rights institutions as well as to the police. They are now even aware of their rights,” she said.