A section of our male population believes it is acceptable to sexually harass, sexually assault and rape women and children. These degenerates have been raised to believe that women and children are objects to satisfy their misplaced lust and prolong the symptoms of their sickness. Guyana is a playground for sexual predators and paedophiles.
Guyana’s rape culture is encouraged by those who cannot comprehend or refuse to understand the devastation and harm it causes; those who think of it as an acceptable norm and have tied their hands from making any effort to be among those who advocate to change this culture. People in positions of power, the deranged, the immoral and corrupt of Guyana seem to love protecting sexual predators more than those they hurt.
Why is it that often, when rape allegations are made especially by children, there are those who are quick to first defend the accused rapists and not the children? The number of stories I have heard of parents protecting the sexual predators who molested and raped their children, of relatives being excused for violating the children in their families, of children being blamed for their molestation and rape, it is enough to kill the will and spirit of an entire generation.
The rape culture in Guyana is evidence that we embrace a broken and cursed society. The lack of empathy for children brave enough to speak when they have been hurt by sexual predators, the silly excuses when women remove the muzzles when they have been violated by sexual predators, the mockery when men speak about how sexual predators would have violated them, tells us that the empowerment of sexual predators is constant and the harm they cause will affect generations to come.
When a sixteen-year-old girl seeks to hold an alleged sexual predator in a position of power in Guyana accountable we should expect that the society would overwhelmingly support her. When she continues to stand even after alleged threats, we should expect that the society would embrace and protect her and not seek to violate her all over again. Have we asked, what would she gain by lying? Why would a sixteen-year-old subject herself to such public scrutiny, embarrassment, threats, and I am quite sure sleepless nights if there was not any truth to her story?
Could it be that the silent torture she endured was far worse than opening her mouth to speak? Could it be that she knows her future is at risk and without the effort to seek justice, other children are at risk? She is standing for many who have been silenced or are too afraid to speak.
We watch those who choose to stand by someone who has been accused of being a sexual predator in Indigenous communities for years. When allegations have been ongoing for years and attempts have been made before to expose this alleged perpetrator, we cannot truly believe that all the accusers are lying. But the protectors of sexual predators, the people who will gladly go further into hell with their leaders, would rather remain silent, deflect, or make excuses as they watch and applaud an almost 50-year-old man and his helpers who are seeking to further destroy a child of this nation.
Those culpable in helping to enable and prolong the suffering of our youth perhaps do not believe in judgement. They make a mockery of justice and righteousness. How can you have children and not feel for someone else’s hurt child? They continue to make the society unsafe for children. What a tragedy this is we call a society.
Allegations about the violation of Indigenous girls are nothing new. Last year when I visited Regions 1 and 9 to do research for a project I was working on, I heard stories of men who would visit Indigenous villages, ones who would rape underaged/teenaged girls, ones who would impregnate girls and often, would be never heard from or seen again.
For too long many Indigenous communities have been treated like a brothel where men of influence and even the ordinary ones would go and choose young girls to violate. For too long this exposed secret has been simply whispered about and nothing much has been done to hold the sexual predators accountable who violate these children. For too long there has been little effort to protect and empower the vulnerable girls. For too long families have failed and sold their children. For too long we have compromised investigations for the benefit of the accused sexual predators. For too long we have accepted a society where there are rapists who are found innocent even when they are guilty and are therefore emboldened to rape again. For too long we have accepted that rapists are normal people with a conscience, empathy, and love. They are not! It is never okay to violate another person’s body and even worse when it is done to children.
Do you hear the screams of Guyana’s children desperate to be heard? Do you feel them fighting against their own bodies that have been violated by a society? Touched too soon, brutalized by hands that deceived them, destroyed, and silenced where the scales are unbalanced in favour of the nefarious.
Do you see Guyana’s children crouching in quiet dark corners where their silent tears penetrate the earth? Do we not see how blood spills in this land and tragedies never leave us? Too many of our children are unprotected and hurt. Betrayed by their parents and guardians, betrayed by their teachers, betrayed by their neighbours, betrayed by the institutions meant to protect them and betrayed by their government. This is a society that claims the children are our future, yet our actions compromise their future. This is a society that claims it loves children, yet we seek to silence them when they are brave enough to speak.
It was not only the story of the sixteen-year-old that is accusing the minister of rape that was in the news this week, but there was also a story where a twenty-five-year-old man allegedly raped a five-year-old child in Bartica. When we think we have seen the worse of Guyana’s rape culture, something else happens to further expose how much of a hell this is.
To the parents who believe and protect their children, I applaud you.
To those who choose not to shame women and men who have been raped but instead embrace and fight for justice, we need more of you.
To the ones who have been standing with the sixteen-year-old through protests and calls for justice, Guyana needs more of you.
Guyana’s rape culture is the death of many of our youth even when they are still breathing.
