[M. Akosa]

Thank you Danny for writing this article.

Myself as a gender issues specialist, I am compelled to contribute on this dreadful Black and African problem of rape. I am also a survivor of a previous dysfunctional marital relationship. I survived and it made me what I am today, with a better understanding of those issues.

Most Nigerian men feel they own a woman, or can always have access to her even when no longer in relationship. They can always use their children or all sorts as excuses for those contacts. Their sense of boundary is non-existent.
The highly prevalent cases of masters raping their housegirls and maids is also troubling in Nigeria. Also cases of "uncles" abusing younger family members who are vulnerable or dependent is also a very worrying issue in Nigeria.
When discoveries are made about these perverse sexual relationships within Nigerian families, all they do in Nigeria is to chase the poor innocent girls away, often penniless, to wander about hopelessly for the rest of their lives.

I am very thankful to South Africans, always our continent's pace setters in advancing the rights of women, for this wonderful world class research and findngs they have on the issue of rape.
This report came at a very good time, when South Africa has Jacob Zuma as President. A man who all knows too well about those issues.

Rape is by far the greatest threat to the development of African women and girls than anything else.
The world watches as rape is systematically utilized in Congo and Darfur to destroy entire families and communities.

South African rape is also worrying, although it is not a tool of warfare, but we can can term it as social carelessness among many female victims of rape. They tend to easily compromise themselves when socialising with men.
It is also part of their culture to have women and girls dancing half naked for drunk men to oogle at their breast. Young boys even feel no remorse in selecting their targets, as it their culture to express their manhood through consensual sex or even rape girls who they deem as too difficult.

Overall, African girls and women needs to be seriously educated and awareness raised on social skills and how to relate to males in potentialy compromising environments, in order to reduce those dreadful social or date rapes and so on.