Session 5: Masculinity, Abuse and the Private Domain

Session 5: Workshop: Masculinity and Abuse
Chair: Jessica Wolfendale

Violence in the Private Domain – The Abuse of Women and Children
Titi Lana
Access to Justice (A Non -profit,Non Govt. Organisation), Apapa, Lagos, Nigeria.

In the last couple of years the issue of violence targeted at women and children in the home, within the family unit has been a subject of interest and study. Studies and reports both in the print and visual media have shown the very currency of that state of affairs. The major concern has been to ascertain the very causes or factors responsible for it and therefore find a way either through institutional measures or otherwise to minimize or effectively bring it under control.
Violence in private domain can therefore be viewed from socio-cultural perspective. In certain cultures particularly in Sub-Saharan Africa, such violence has been used as an instrument of control and dominance of women by men/husbands through the ages. It is seen as the very evidence of masculinity for a man to beat an erring wife. It may take the form of caning, beating or other subtle forms of psychological violence by the husband against the wife. The larger society does not see it as objectionable but as part of measures of control necessary to enforce discipline in the homestead. In this regard as it applies to women so does it also apply to children.
This sphere of violence can also be viewed from the angle of moral degeneracy or perversion where a man or husband takes advantage of physical superiority to inflict pain and torture on his wife and children. This emerges in certain cases from deviant conducts such as drunkenness, drug abuse or even sheer sadism.
In all of these the woman and of course children being generally weak or considered the ‘weaker vessel” are at the receiving end. As mentioned earlier, the question is how do we attempt at controlling this kind of problem.
(a) The instrumentality of laws -here law can be legislated to punish such, again how can such conduct be policed to enable effective enforcement of the law.
(b) Enlighten/Awareness campaign – this requires education of the people to enable them appreciate the evil of such violence. Even here some sanctions is required to effectively control it.
Again, the incessant and abusive manner in which some parents ill-treat their children or wards, ultimately lead these children to run away from their homes and ultimately become street kids with no parental care or good upbringing thereby becoming delinquents on the streets and in the society.
These children are equipped with ‘street sense’ and are only wise in the ways of the world, become drop–outs or never even see the inside of a school and ultimately the society becomes  worse off.