Images of Rape in African Fiction: Between the Assumed Fatality of Violence and the Cry for Justice

Abstract

Manifestation terrible du patriarcat et de l’ideologie dominatrice, le viol a excite, ces derniers jours, autant l’interet de la societe civile que l’imaginaire des ecrivains. La frequence des viols, depuis la nuit des temps et en situations diverses (paix, conflits armes, accalmie, colonialisme, milieux traditionnels), semble suggerer l’inevitabilite de cette violence genree. Dans cet article, nous soutenons que les images fictionnelles du viol, quelque traumatisantes qu’elles soient, permettent aux ecrivains de sensibiliser le grand public sur ce crime, et ce faisant, sur l’imperatif d’arreter sa prevalence et de dissiper son aura de fatalite. Mots-cles : viol; violence; patriarcat; justice; societe civile; guerre; fatalite; sensibilisation A horrendous aspect of patriarchy and dominator ideology, rape has in recent times captured the attention of civil society and the imagination of creative writers. The frequency of rape in peacetime, traditional, colonial, liberation war, and civil war contexts, since the dawn of time, seems to suggest that this gendered violence is inevitable. The paper argues that in presenting various images of rape, no matter how traumatizing, writers seek to draw attention to the crime and even more importantly, to the need to halt its frequency and dispel its aura of fatality. Keywords: rape; violence; patriarchy; justice; civil society; war; fatality; sensitization