Lessons from War Rape: How Can War Rape Help Understandings of Rape in South Africa?

Claire Stephanie Westman

doi:10.25159/2412-8457/10220

Authors

Claire Stephanie Westman Free State Centre for Human Rights - University of the Free State https://orcid.org/0000-0002-4779-5811

DOI:

https://doi.org/10.25159/2412-8457/10220

Keywords:

war rape, rape, South Africa, sexual violence, crimes against humanity, rape legislation

Abstract

Rape is often thought of as a crime that is incidental to the general violence of a nation. However, in order to understand the causes and consequences of rape more thoroughly, it is necessary to examine the ways in which rape is used systematically and strategically in the service of certain ideologies and national/group imperatives. It is also vital to comprehensively explore the collective or communal effects of rape. The extensive research into rape committed during times of war and/or conflict proves very valuable in developing understandings of the systematic and collective nature of rape. The aim of this article is, thus, to draw from the knowledge related to war rape to more thoroughly understand the ways in which rape in South Africa is carried out systematically and strategically in the service of developing a national identity and upholding heteropatriarchal ideologies, as well as to understand the communal effects of rape in this context. In so doing, the paper focuses on two main aspects of war rape and rape in South Africa, these being the socio-symbolic positioning of women as central to the efficacy of rape and rape as a form of social control. In addition, drawing on the correlations around war rape and rape in South Africa, the article argues that rape in South Africa could be classified and legislated as a crime against humanity, as is war rape.

Author Biography

Claire Stephanie Westman, Free State Centre for Human Rights - University of the Free State

Dr. Claire Westman is a postdoctoral research fellow at the Free State Centre for Human Rights. Her research interests relate to feminist philosophy, sexual violence, LGBTQI and women’s rights, and nationalism and democracy. She received a PhD in Philosophy from the University of Stellenbosch with a dissertation titled, ‘There’s no such thing as gay’: Black lesbians and nationhood in post-apartheid South Africa.

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