Reporting Rape: Part Four in a Global Series
DOUALA, CAMEROON – Sophie Mixte, who is in her 30s, says she was raped three times while growing up in Douala, Cameroon’s largest city.
She was first raped at age 8 by a neighbor. Her uncle then raped her when she was 11 while she was living in his home. When she was 13, the brother of one of her classmates raped her.
She says she doesn’t remember much about the neighbor who raped her.
As for her uncle, she says she ran to her parents’ house after the incident. Her uncle told them she had run away because she didn’t want to do her household chores. Her parents believed him and sent her back to his house. Her parents didn’t seek their daughter’s side of the story, and Mixte says she was scared to tell the truth because her uncle threatened to kill her if she did.
In the third incident, she says she had gone to her classmate’s house to retrieve a book. The classmate’s brother answered the door and lied that her friend was inside the home. When Mixte walked into her friend’s room, the brother followed her and quickly shut the door behind them. Then, he raped her and ran off.
She says she screamed to the point that it caught the neighbors’ attention. Her entire neighborhood now knows about the incident, and she says people point at and whisper when she walks by.
“‘That is the girl who was raped,’” she says they whisper.
Mixte says she regrets that it wasn’t until this third rape that her parents found out and reported it to the authorities. But she says that justice was never served.
“The police started to play around the case with my mother, persuading her to drop the case,” she says.
She says that the police told her mother that the boy’s family offered to pay for damages, including Mixte’s hospital bill. They also told her mother that if the case went to court, her daughter would have to testify in front of everybody about how she was raped, which would be shameful. She says her mom was afraid of such a scenario for her daughter, so she agreed to negotiate with the boy’s family.
The case was settled when the family paid her mother 105,000 francs ($200), the equivalent of Mixte’s hospital bill after the rape.
In Cameroon, rape victims receive medical treatment in hospitals as well as a physical examination that can provide evidence in court. Victims then must file a report with police to commence the justice process, which is plagued by underreporting by victims and a heavy burden lying on them to prove that the rape occurred and was nonconsensual. The length and outcome of the justice and healing processes vary by case and by victim, with judges taking into account whether victims contributed to the rape. Nongovernmental organizations aim to help victims in both processes, although resources are limited, underreporting is rife and court cases are lengthy.
The Cameroon Penal Code defines rape as any female compelled to have sexual intercourse with a man “by force or moral ascendancy.”
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