Violence Against Women in Sub-Saharan Africa

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  Support professional training. Encourage training and education for religious leaders, lay leaders, religious teachers and seminary students to increase their awareness about sexual assault and domestic violence.
  

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  Address internal issues. Encourage continued efforts by religious institutions to address allegations of abuse by religious leaders to ensure that religious leaders are a safe resource for victims and their children.
  

A 2009 USAID¹⁹ report on the role of Religious Communities in Addressing VAW suggested the following:

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  Create support groups for victims of violence
  
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  Train religious leaders on GBV issues and how to respond to diverse situations
  
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  Advocate for enactment and enforcement of laws to protect community members
  
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  Create centers where people can receive help/legal assistance
  
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  Train paralegals to give free advice to victims
  
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  Sensitize communities on GBV and related issues
  
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  Conduct seminars, specifically targeting men on topics such as the effects and consequences of GBV
  
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  Provide shelter and counseling services to victims of violence at existing religious structures
  
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  Provide information on GBV issues, based on religious scriptures and teachings.
  

Based on the strategies of these various organisations and the roles proposed by them for churches it would seem that there would need to be five main thrusts to the Restored intervention in Sub-Saharan Africa. These five strategic thrusts could form the basis of a log frame for the work of Restored in Africa. Reference documentation is available on each in the Annexure section of this report:

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  Developing and disseminating a robust Afro-centric Theology of power, gender, marriage and VAW (including resources for theological education and local congregations) – see Annexure 1;
  

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  Raising Awareness of VAW (including education, campaigns, preaching and teaching as a means to shift churches and communities into action) – see Annexure 2;
  

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  Enhancing basic Social Service Provision (including legal aid, places of safety, counselling and health care) – see Annexure 3;
  

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  Seeking Criminal Justice Reform (including reforms to the legislative and policy framework, as well as to policing and legal proceedings) – see Annexure 4;
  

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  Seeking to Shift Cultural Norms (including cultures of silence, norms of violence, gender relations etc) – see Annexure 5.
  

Based on these five strategies the following 10-year objectives (outcomes) are proposed:

1. Developing and disseminating a robust Afro-centric Theology of power, gender, marriage and VAW	1.1 African theological institutions have mainstreamed gender into their curriculum. 1.2 African theological institutions offer specific courses on VAW. 1.3 AEA have policy frameworks on gender and VAW. 1.4 Afro-centric materials on gender, marriage and VAW are being widely used by local churches.
2. Raising Awareness of VAW	1.1 AACC and AEA actively drive campaigns on VAW. 1.2 The 16 Days of Activism Against VAW is a regular feature on the church calendar. 1.3 CCM action includes a strong VAW stream.
3. Enhancing basic Social Service Provision	1.1 Existing services (aimed at other sectors) are enhanced to include victims of VAW. 1.2 New services are launched by local churches.
4. Seeking Criminal Justice Reform	1.1 National laws relating to Domestic Violence and Sexual Assault are revised. 1.2 Criminal justice service providers (police, lawyers etc) are trained in VAW and gender issues.
5. Seeking to Shift Cultural Norms	1.1 Silence is broken – churches are seen as safe places where women can tell their stories. 1.2 Church structures have become more gender sensitive. 1.3 Norms of violence (relevant to the local context) are challenged. 1.4 Marriage relationships are changed.

6. African Reference Group

To a very real extent, Restored has arrived very late to the party. There are already a number of very well established networks in Africa that are seeking to end VAW. The most significant of these is the GBV Prevention Network²⁰ however it does not include the few obviously evangelical church-based initiatives. The major church networks in Africa are also already engaged in the issue. Again it is notable that the one obvious exception is the evangelical church and perhaps that is the role that Restored could play.

It seems to me that a primary role of Restored in Africa could be to help initiate an evangelical response and then connect the resultant evangelical initiatives with existing church and NGO networks on the continent. It might thus be more appropriate for Restored to join with others rather than to establish yet another membership organisation in Africa.
It will also be vitally important to ensure that Restored’s African campaign is seen to be driven by Africans. To that end it is suggested that an initial reference group be approached to advise how best to take our objectives forward. This reference group should include:
Church Networks

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  The All Africa Council of Churches
  
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  Fellowship of Christian Councils and Churches in the Great Lakes and the Horn of Africa (FECCLAHA) who developed the Tamar material
  
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  The Association of Evangelicals in Africa (although they do not have any VAW programmes at the moment)
  

Theological Institutions

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  Nairobi Evangelical Graduate School of Theology (NEGST)
  
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  Network for African Congregational Theology  (NetACT)
  
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  St Pauls University
  

NGOs

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  Sonke Gender Justice Network (SA)
  
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  Heartlines (SA)
  
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  Heal Africa (DRC)
  
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  Raising Voices (and by extension the GBV Prevention Network) (Uganda)
  

It is also proposed that the African Union, Directorate of Women, Gender and Development be included in this reference group. See Annexure 6 for information on each of these reference group members and Annexure 7 for an extended contact list.

7. Way forward

It is proposed that the following next steps be undertaken:

Theological Institutions

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  Complete a baseline survey of the known institutions (expanding on the initial research undertaken in this process)
  
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  Compile a reading list of textbooks and other literature that could be useful in a VAW curriculum
  
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  Engage with each of the primary theological institutions to establish a process of curriculum design
  

Local Church Mobilisation

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  Meet with AEA to establish if they would be willing to mobilise around the issue of VAW
  
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  Assess Raising Voices material to see if it could be adapted for local church use
  
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  Meet with Raising Voices to establish a partnership to develop local church tool kits
  
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  Meet with FECCLAHA to discuss expansion of the Tamar Campaign
  
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  Launch the church mobilisation process during the 16 days of activism
  

Restored Africa Reference Group

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  Initial exploratory meetings with each of the proposed “reference group members” to test levels of engagement
  
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  Revise the strategy and develop an actionable log-frame in consultation with the reference group and raise funding to implement the strategy
  
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  Identify partners who can implement the various aspects of the strategy and where none can be found consider establishing new organisations
  
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  Convene a meeting of founder members to launch Restored in Africa (if this seems appropriate)
  

Annexure 1: Afro-centric Theology

Theological work is required at two levels – theological institution and local congregation – and on three specific (yet overlapping) topics – Gender, Marriage and VAW.

Theological Institutions

I polled about 50 theological institutions in Africa on how gender and VAW is addressed within their curriculum. In reality, I got back so few responses as to make any baseline finding impossible. However, the following is an indication of what people are saying:

1. Is the issue of VAW addressed in the teaching at your institution? If so, where does teaching on VAW fit into the curriculum? (in pastoral studies, in gender studies, in applied theology)
University of Pretoria’s Theological department seems to have done the most work on this – they designed a 4th year course on trauma, combine with HIV/AIDS which addresses the issue of VAW. They also offer an MA in Trauma.
NEGEST do not have a particular course addressing VAW, however it is addressed under the general Biblical and Systematic Theology courses that focus on justice and community. Pastoral Care of the Family also addresses issues dealing with VAW in context. However, if students want to pursue this as an area of interest, the student will take the course as a Special Topic or Independent Study
Others mention that the issue is briefly looked at in Ethics but not in much depth and they do not seriously consider the role of the church in dealing with the issue. However, it seems like very few actually address the issue at all in their curriculum.
2.  If VAW is not addressed directly, what teaching is undertaken on gender issues more broadly?
Again the University of Pretoria seems to be a leader in this – they offer pre-grad courses in pastoral care and Sociology of Religion. They are also currently finalizing a gender insensitivity course for churches in collaboration with the World Alliance of Churches. The material is based on several workshops on this issue in five countries, namely South Africa, Kenya, Malawi, Fiji and India.
While some of the more liberal colleges infuse gender throughout the curriculum, most only touch on it briefly. As one frustrated respondent said “Women in ministry is what the male leaders are more interested in than dealing with VAW.”
3. Could you send me any course outlines you might have on VAW and gender. This would help me to understand the scope of what is being taught. What material are you using to teach this course / element? (textbooks, readers etc) Where were they developed? (In-house, in Africa, in the West, elsewhere)
The University of Pretoria was the only institution to indicate that they made use of setbooks. These included:

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  The works of Christie Neuger and Jeannie Stevenson-Moessner (USA
  
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  Pastoral Care in African Christianity by Waruta & Kinoti (Acton Books, Kenya)
  
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  Moral and Ethical Issues in African Christianity by Mugambi (Acton Press Kenya)
  
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  Videos like Yesterday and Rape in Congo
  

Sadly, no one other than the University of Pretoria seemed to identify any lack in their current curriculum in this area.

Theological Curriculum Development

A number of institutions have spoken of initiatives to develop curriculum on the topic of VAW. There is an opportunity for Restored to play a role in shaping this development. See NETACT proposal in Annexure 8 as an example.

Local Church Resources on VAW

By far the most readily available and useful work that has been done in Africa on the issue of VAW is the Tamar Bible Study resources. Tamar invites participants to consider Gender-Based Violence from a biblical perspective as it relates to ones life and context. It has been prepared under the guidance of the Fellowship of Christian Councils and Churches in the Great Lakes and the Horn of Africa (FECCLAHA) on behalf of the Tamar Campaign Working Group. Twelve women and men living in very specific and diverse countries and contexts have been asked to provide a personal perspective on the given Biblical passages. (Currently only available in English) A copy of the Tamar Bible Study Series is attached as Annexure 9.

Local Church Resources on Marriage

Vincent Munyosi (an Inspired Individual from Uganda) developed a training manual on marriage when he was with Navigators. The material draws heavily on I Married You by Walter Trobisch. The material paints a traditional view of marriage and then contrasts that with a biblical view. The introduction reads:

[The traditional view of marriage] conceive of the man as the sower of the seed and the woman as the soil, as the garden. Man plants his seeds in the woman. The woman’s body nurtures the seed as the soil nurtures the grain of rice. Just as the plant grows out of the grain, so the child grows out of the man’s seed. The child is the man’s child, his ongoing spirit, his continuing life.
This is inaccurate and bad biology. Yet the consequences of this garden way of thinking are tremendous. Let me state them briefly:

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   Men are more important than Women.
   
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   Sons are more important than daughters.
   
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   The relationship between husband and wife is the same as one between a possessor and his possession.
   
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   A childless marriage is as useless and senseless as a barren field.
   
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   The garden concept explains the practice of divorce and polygamy.
   
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   The bride price is not the price for the garden, but for the fruits that the garden is going to produce.
   
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   A woman is more reproached for adultery than a man.
   
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   There is no place whatsoever within the garden for the unmarried girl.
   

This manual could potentially form the basis of a training resource that could be developed and used across the continent.

Local Church Resources on Power and Gender relationships

The whole gender debate and the role of women within society in general and within the church specifically is a huge issue. One would need to tread carefully as one develops material to be used. A lot of very useful work has been done by Raising Voices in Uganda. While their material is not aimed at the local church, it could very easily be adapted for that audience. See Annexure 11 for a sample of the Raising Voices material.

A very powerful documentary was made a number of years ago in South Africa looking at VAW within various faith communities. The film, The Other Voices, can be ordered from Melody Emmett, Sacred Cow Productions, [phone] [e-mail]

Annexure 2: Raising Awareness

Around the world the most high profile campaign on Violence Against Women is the 16 Days of Activism Against Gender Violence Campaign from 25 November – 10 December each year.

The 16 Days of Activism Against Gender Violence is an international campaign that was started by the Center for Women's Global Leadership (CWGL) in 1991. The 16 Days runs from November 25, International Day Against Violence Against Women to December 10, International Human Rights Day to symbolically link violence against women and human rights and to emphasise that such violence is a violation of human rights.

Since it began, the 16 Days of Activism has been used as an organising strategy by women’s groups to call for the elimination of violence against women by:

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  Raising awareness about gender based violence as a human rights issue at the local, national, regional and international levels
  
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  Strengthening local work around violence against women
  
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  Establishing a clear link between local and international work to end violence against women
  
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  Providing a forum in which organisers can develop and share effective strategies
  
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  Demonstrating the solidarity of women around the world organising against violence against women
  
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  Creating tools to pressure governments to implement promises made to eliminate violence against women
  

The campaign has been gaining momentum over the years and around 2,000 organisations in approximately 156 countries have taken part since 1991! While this is a “secular” initiative there does seem to be a renewed (or possibly new) effort on the part of the church to also raise awareness of Violence Against Women. The following significant events / initiatives reflect the move:
ANGOLA: Speaking in Angola during a weeklong tour of Africa in March 2009, Pope Benedict XVI condemned sexual violence against women.
EAST & CENTRAL AFRICA: In 2007 the Fellowship of Christian Councils and Churches in the Great Lakes and The Horn of Africa (FECCLAHA) launched the Tamar Campaign – a series of contextual bible studies on gender-based violence.
EAST & CENTRAL AFRICA: In November 2009 Seventh Day Adventist churches from East and Central Africa joined with global Adventist churches in supporting Enditnow – a campaign of the Adventist Development and Relief Agency (ADRA) and the Women's Ministries Department of the Seventh-day Adventist Church to raise awareness and advocate for the end of violence against women and girls.²¹
ZAMBIA: In December 2009 churches in Zambia pledged to address VAW. Significantly the initiative drew together the three main church umbrellas, the Evangelical Fellowship of Zambia; the Council of Churches in Zambia, representing traditional Protestant and Anglican churches and the Zambia Episcopal Conference, representing Roman Catholic bishops.²²
WEST AFRICA: The UN launched the Directory of Human Rights and Gender Organizations in West Africa in Dakar, Senegal in February 2010. The directory intends to map out initiatives and to facilitate information sharing in order to encourage networking on the issue.²³
It is proposed that the Restored awareness campaign be built around the 25 November – 10 December. One could develop bible studies and sermons and host prayer days and vigils within this period.

Annexure 3: Social Service Provision

To some extent, this is the area that is most well developed. Tools like Umoja can be used to mobilise the church into action – however, if the underlying issues of silence and degradation are not addressed then the CCM process would fail to see the need for services to address VAW.

I would propose that a partnership be established with Raising Voices to adapt their material as a supplement to the Umoja tools.

Annexure 4: Criminal Justice Reform

Both the Protocol to the African Charter on Human and Peoples’ Rights on the Rights of Women in Africa and the African Charter on the Rights and Welfare of the Child place duties on individual Africa states to take “affirmative action to eradicate violence, including by means of legislative, social and educational measures.”

In 2007 the Committee on African Affairs of the New York City Bar commissioned an extensive review of Gender-Based Violence Laws In Sub-Saharan Africa²⁴. The report undertook and extensive review both of the legislative framework and of the criminal justice system specifically with reference to rape and domestic violence. The report would be an invaluable resource to any legislative change strategy. The New York City Bar findings are echoed by many other reports on the status of criminal justice systems in Africa – while in many cases laws do need to change, the much bigger task is one of effective application of the legislation – in short most countries do not have the capacity to effectively provide a function criminal justice system – especially not to women who suffer violence which is often condoned by society. The recommendations made by The Committee on African Affairs of the New York City Bar included:
Changes to rape legislation

The report makes the following recommendations with regard to reviewing rape legislation:

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  The legal definition of ‘rape’ should be as broad as possible and should encompass the elements of “penetration,” “lack of consent” and “force” / “violence” / “coercion”.
  

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  The legal definition of “penetration” should be as broad as possible, encompassing penetration of any bodily orifice not only by the genital organs of one person but also by any foreign object.
  

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  A clear definition of “consent” should be provided, to prevent ambiguity and subjective interpretations of the term. The burden of proving a lack of consent should not be placed on the complainant.
  

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  Legal definitions of “rape” should explicitly include situations that do not involve the use of actual force, but do involve threat, coercion, fraud or incapacity.
  

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  The defense of rape within marriage should be abolished.
  

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  The defense of marrying the victim should be abolished.
  

Changes to the way rape is handled by the criminal justice system

The report proposes the following changes to the way that the criminal justice systems of many African countries handle rape cases:

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  The judicial framework should accommodate the challenges of facing social pressure and stigma in setting evidentiary standards in rape and sexual assault cases. Rules as to collection and admissibility of testimony and evidence in rape and sexual assault cases should take into account the sensitive nature of the charges as well as the difficulty of collecting evidence in a timely manner.
  

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  Legislation should provide for prompt access to the quality medical care necessary after an incident of sexual assault or rape (such as emergency contraception and post-exposure prophylaxis for HIV).
  

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  National policy guidelines for medical professionals, police officers, prosecutorial staff, and welfare and correctional should be developed to help create uniform procedures for sexual violence cases.
  

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  Barriers or disincentives to bringing claims of sexual violence should be removed.
  

Changes to domestic violence legislation

The report makes the following recommendations with regard to reviewing domestic violence legislation:

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  The legal definition of domestic violence should be as broad as possible, encompassing physical, psychological, economic, and social abuse. General “catchall” provisions may be useful to allow judicial discretion and provide protection for the largest pool of potential victims.
  

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  National legislation should refer to “intimate partners” or use similar terminology that encompasses non-familial relationships. Romantic relationships outside of marriage should be explicitly included.
  

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  States should provide training to police and security forces to assist in recognizing patterns of behavior associated with domestic violence.
  

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  Police should be required to take all necessary measures to protect the victim (i.e. arrange for transportation, assist in obtaining a protective order, etc.)
  

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  Third parties should be able to bring a complaint of domestic violence.