Festivals, Rape and the dehumanization of women
Yours truly grew up in delta state. Growing up in a small town where everyone knew everyone, there were times when our parents told us that such and such festival was coming up, we shouldn’t step outside. There’s the Eni Festival. The ophia festival. The Oko festival. There’s the midaka festival. There’s the emete festival. I know their names but don’t know what they are about except the “ore emete” which is a festival that celebrates virgins, I never been out to the festival , I just know what it’s about. On festival days, we can be in our compound with our gate locked playing outside, no harm came to us. So, imagine my surprise when I heard of the Ozoro rape festival. I had always been taught that festival grounds were dangerous to young girls, I didn’t know that the danger could come into your house. Imagine men breaking to shops, hostels, houses in the name of festival. And this incident started throwing light on some things that the women around did on festival days that I di...