The Sunday Mail
About one in four African women — and even more African men — say wife-beating is at least sometimes justified, according to the latest Afrobarometer survey.
In some countries, up to seven in 10 citizens endorse domestic violence.
While a sizeable majority (71 percent) of Africans say it is “never justified” for a man to beat his wife, 28 percent — including 24 percent of women — see wife-beating as “sometimes” or “always” justified.
Acceptance of violence against women is particularly widespread in Central and West Africa and among respondents with no formal education.
These findings are from national surveys in 34 countries.
With 2 400 interviews done in Zimbabwe, females who approved that wife-beating is “sometimes” or “always” justified were 12 and 2 percent, respectively. Of the males questioned, 22 percent felt wife-beating was sometimes justified, with 3 percent saying it was always justified.
Afrobarometer communications officer for Southern Africa Ms Gugu Nonjinge said the findings revealed that women in Zimbabwe were, by 11 percentage points, less likely than men to say wife-beating is sometimes or always justified.
Apparently, there are women who conflate violence with affection.
Gender Links Zimbabwe manager Ms Priscilla Maposa says she had encountered survivors of gender-based violence who believed that being beaten by a man was a sign that they were still loved and needed. This stems from the socialisation of women and men who were raised in set-ups where such violence was acceptable to both sexes, she observed.
“They are of the view that a wife must be beaten at regular intervals even if she has not done anything wrong. At first we thought that it was a joke, but it is happening. These men were socialised to be aggressive and if they had a chance to grow up exposed to love and an environment that does not tolerate wife beating, we were going to have a different story.”
Padare/Enkundleni Men’s Forum director Mr Walter Vengesayi said it was more shocking that there were women who still believed it was at times or always justified to be beaten.
He blamed this on patriarchy.
“Such thinking is there based on our social norms, sometimes cultural, from issues like lobola. What does lobola mean to certain men? Sometimes it means ‘I have bought this person and this person belongs to me and I can do whatever I please’.
“Sometimes in religion women are equated to children. We need to continue to raise awareness around the importance of women, around human rights pertaining to what must be done among men and women because at times women do not value themselves to the extent they think its justified for someone to raise their hand against them,” said Mr Vengesayi .
