A Pawn In A Man's Game

I'm taking an African Drama course this semester. Today we were talking about Ebrahim Hussein's Kinjeketile. If you're East African, you must know about Kinjeketile Ngwale, the guy who led the Majimaji rebellion against the Germans. So the play Kinjeketile  is pulled out from that guy.

Anyway, my lecturer and I begin to talk about rape in society. We talk about how soldiers rape women in Kenya - especially in those areas in which cattle rustling is prevalent - yet they go unpunished. We talk about the incident of Ngugi's wife being sexually assaulted during their previous visit in 2004. My lecturer argues that the assault was aimed at Ngugi and it was meant to humiliate and make him feel less of a man. I agree with him. The action was meant to hurt Ngugi and create a sense of helplessness, weakness and powerlessness.

He steers us back to the play. There is an episode where a female character is raped. The men silently watch her being carried away. They do not speak up. They do not fight for their daughter. They helplessly watch as one of their own is defiled. The mother of this character calls the men "women", stripping them of their masculinity. My lecturer argues that the rape scene is symbolic of the taking away the masculinity of a man. He argues that raping someone's woman messes up with the psychology of the man; it makes them feel less of a man. And that is the surest way of defiling a society; screw the woman.

He also mentioned something interesting. According to Freud, the male genitalia is the surest representation of the privileged sex and symbolizes the power that comes with it. Thus, men are always striving to become men, that is, to become powerful, just like their genitalia represents. Because of this power that men need to harness, women become important tools. They must be subdued. They must be controlled. They must be lesser beings. And if our enemy needs to be humiliated, defile and shame their women; leave them feeling helpless.

I feel like women have been pawns in men's power play, in their need to show who is stronger. I hate it. Is that all we are?