Gloria In Congo

While war in the DRC already created unpleasant outcomes, such as poverty and corruption, it also created cruel type of a weapon, humiliation and rape of women beside the guns and bombs. Meger asserts in her article that the majority of the rape crimes involve gang rapes, “with an average of 4.5 attackers per victim,” and they also tend to be systematically preplanned (127). Women depicted in Ruined are examples of rape victims. Salima’s story in particular demonstrates how violent and unforgiving it can be out in there. She was gang raped when she was in her garden and her attackers even ended up killing her infant. Not only was she brutally assaulted, but also neglected and abandoned by her husband and the village, which left her nowhere to turn to. Salima sees Mama Nadi’s bar as a place to live, but in an entirely new way of

Since the start of the Sierra Leonean war in March of 1991, innocent civilians have been the primary target of the Revolutionary United Front (RUF)’s wrath. The people of Sierra Leone have faced significant problems due to the invasions and attacks by the Rebel Forces and are the main population that is being affected by this group’s disapproval of the government. One person who experienced profound changes in her life due to the start of this war is Mariatu Kamara, a victim of a Rebel attack that cost her both her childhood and her hands. Throughout her memoir, “The Bite of the Mango,” she is faced with numerous traumatic events and meets an abundance of people who were very significant in her life and some of whom helped her survive the war. Kamara also gives the reader a variety of themes to use as a foundation to understanding war life, which also serve to help readers learn more about life, grow as people, and rise above to help others in need. Mariatu Kamara has not only changed the lives of people all throughout Sierra Leone by giving them a voice and an outlet to share their experiences, but has also proved to be an inspiration for countless amputees around the world.

“I had no idea what play I would find in that war-torn landscape, but I travelled to the region because I wanted to paint a three-dimensional portrait of the women caught in the middle of armed conflicts” (Lynn Nottage on Ruined). Lynn Nottage saw an aspect of human life that is not commonly dramatized. After her research, she wrote Ruined, a play detailing the many years of injustice women living in the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) have suffered. Through our analysis of sources regarding Nottage’s work as a playwright, the script of Ruined, and a production of Ruined, we found interpretations of this play may have different themes, but still focus on changing societal norms.

During the Rwandan genocide, some rapes occurred recurrently throughout a timespan. “Sexual enslavements occurred when a woman was detained, typically in the house of an Interhamwe, and subjected to repeated sexual assaults over a period of days,” (Mullins 727). These kinds of rapes belong in their own category because of the added element of confinement and intent to continually rape and therefore, harm. An Interhamwe soldier named Rafiki, personally sought out one Tutsi woman whom he had

Richard Connell uses mood and tone in "The most Dangerous game" to convey the theme of hunting which makes people better prepared for life. When people hunt for the first time there surprised on much they know about hunting and how good they are at doing it. How ever in the book the General hunts humans and kills them for fun he thinks it makes a great game. Richard Connell wrote the book "The most dangerous game". Rainsford falls off his boat and finds himself playing this game of survival for his life and for a way home if he wins the game he can go home and he gets to sleep in generals bed it's the ultimate game of survival.

According to ICRtoP, the Democratic Republic of Congo is reported to be the “rape capital of the world” with an estimated 15,000 rape cases in the Congo’s eastern provinces alone. Rape is a tool of war used by the various armed forces in the Congo in order to “create instability in

When compared to the living standards of people in so-called ‘first-world countries’ such as the United States of America or Australia, the trauma that the people of Haiti undergo in their everyday existence should be universally recognised, and humanitarian intervention should not be an option but rather a requirement. In an ethnography delving into the violence and trauma affecting the citizens of Haiti (James, 2010), anthropologist Erica Caple James provides an in-depth description of the suffering that Haitians endure, as well as the consequences of their social, physical, and psychological oppression. In an attempt to improve the way of life of the population of Haiti and combat the country’s corrupt social order (Gordon, 1996:52), a humanitarian

Isabel Allende once said, “A man does what he can; a woman does what he cannot,” and in the highly patriarchal society of the Congo, this statement especially rings true. In both Heart of Darkness and The Poisonwood Bible, the descriptions and testimonies of females and their interactions with the male characters reveal that although women’s actions are considered insignificant and unworthy of commendation by men, in reality it is the females who accomplish what needs to be done and keep the mens’ world from from falling apart completely.

To begin: a greater understanding of Susan Brison’s experience as detailed in The Aftermath. Susan Brison is a survivor of a viscous and nearly deadly rape encounter. She was attacked by an unknown man in the middle of France, forced into numerous sexual acts, was nearly beaten to death with a rock, and left to suffer in a ditch. Her personal experiences since that incident include PTSD like symptoms, anxiety, and depression, to name a few. Brison chooses to use her experience to fuel her work, making the storytelling of personal experience a major tactic in her narrative The Aftermath.

Women between the ages of 15 to 44 are at a greater risk of rape than cancer, malaria and a motor accident (Wood, 2009). According to Amnesty International (2014), 40 women are raped everyday in South Kivu regarding the on-going armed conflict in the Democratic Republic of the Congo. Sexual violence during armed conflict has historically been known as one of the legitimate spoils of war (Brown, 2011). Spoils of war result from defeating a population and claiming benefits due to its instability. Thus violence towards civilian’s asserts dominance, however the implications involved must be rooted to deeper consequences to a nation. In this essay I will argue that rape is perpetrated against women

Lynn Nottage’s play, “Ruined”, is an eye-opening story that takes place in the Democratic Republic of Congo during the Civil War. The play is centered around women who have been sexually abused, and are living and working in a brothel owned by the protagonist Mama Nadi. The play gives deep insight to the hardships women had to go through during that time. The play is a melodrama and a great example of a contemporary version of realism. This play also illustrates three important characteristics of storytelling we discussed in class: stories teach, stories allow us to personalize issues, and stories build compassion.

As soon as she arrived in Congo, Lisa began searching for rape victims and interviewing them. They were hesitant to share their experiences with her at first, but as she grew closer to them and told them that she herself is also a rape victim, the silence started to disappear. The survivors started sharing some rather disturbing stories about how they were raped and tortured. Many of the survivors state that their genitalia have been mutilated. They say that soldiers inserted wooden branches into their vaginas, and one was even forced to sit on burning coals, completely burning her anus and rectum. Many of the women are forced to spend the rest of their lives with incontinence due to fistulas, which are ruptures and tears to the walls of their

This essay will discuss about the problems within international law which revolves around sexual violence and using the Democratic Republic of Congo as a case study. In addition, the essay will explain about who is accountable, how to obtain witnesses and provide recommendations on improving international law to bring the perpetrators to justice and reduce crime overall. But primarily, the sexual violence has to be explained and how there is international law for this issue.

She first visited a National Health Service fertility clinic who declined her request for help in becoming a mother. Their reasons were that she was too old to deal with the physical and emotional stress. Eventually, because of her determination, she traveled to Rome and was accepted as a patient by Severino Antinori. Even in today’s society, most clinics in the United States will not allow women past their early- or mid-forties to be patients. Their reasons include low success rate of pregnancies, donor eggs should be reserved for younger women, the parents need to be physically and mentally active, and the parents may die which leaves the child

Lynn Nottage’s Pulitzer Prize winning play Ruined takes place at Mama Nadi’s brothel in the Congo where a civil war is being waged and coltan is the new gold being mined from the earth. Mama Nadi reluctantly takes Sophie and Salima into her establishment to work alongside Josephine as entertainment for miners and soldiers. Before coming to Mama Nadi’s, Sophie, Josephine, Salima all experienced rape. The word rape is so common in our society that it has lost its intensity and heinousness to a person who has not experienced it. Rape is a general term to describe what the women experienced but it does not give any hint to the struggle that comes after the event. For example, what it does to a person’s mind, the lasting scars on someone’s body, and how it can change a person’s personality. Many critics assume that rape is the tragedy in the play, but Nottage’s use of the word “ruined” emphasizes that the real tragedy is the consequences of those soldier’s actions on these women 's lives and how it affected their interactions with society.