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UNIVERSITY OF KWAZULU-NATAL
BELIEFS AND ATTITUDES TOWARDS MALE DOMESTIC
VIOLENCE
IN SOUTH KIVU
By
Mugisho Ndabuli Théophile
209 526
069
A dissertation submitted in fulfillment of the requirements for the
degree of
Master of Commerce in
Conflict Resolution and Peace
Studies
School of Economics and Finance
Faculty of Management
Studies
Supervisor: Dr Sylvia Kaye
Declaration
I, MUGISHO Ndabuli Théophile, declare that
(i) The research reported in this dissertation, except where
otherwise indicated, is my
original research.
(ii) This dissertation has not been submitted for any degree or
examination at any
other university.
(iii) This dissertation does not contain other persons' writing,
unless specifically
acknowledged as being sourced from other researchers. Where other
written sources have been quoted, then:
a) their words have been re-written but the general information
attributed to them has been referenced;
b) where their exact words have been used, their writing has
been placed inside quotation marks, and referenced.
(iv) This dissertation does not contain text, graphics or tables
copied and pasted from
the Internet, unless specifically acknowledged, and the source
being detailed in the dissertation and in the references sections.
Signature:
Dedication
I humbly dedicate this research to my Beloved Family; that is my
dear wife Bahati Valérie, our tender daughter and our lovely son,
respectively Jemima Shengamungu and Samuel Mugisho.
Equally, I devote this effort to my late father Laurent Ndabuli
and my mother Laurentine M'Nyabagugu who gave me the very first courage and
chance to attend school and so discover the scientific world.
Finally, this research is dedicated to all the women of the
Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC), particularly those of South Kivu Province
who experience their husbands' domestic violence.
With gratitude, respect and love.
Acknowledgements
I would like to thank and appreciate the different people and
establishments that in a way or another encouraged and assisted me in the
completion of this dissertation. I primarily am very grateful to the Almighty
God who created me and provided me with the strength and the occasion to engage
in postgraduate education. I am convinced that without these supports my
studies could not have been successful at the University of KwaZulu-Natal in
South Africa.
My simple expression cannot fully explain the gratefulness
that I am to express to my supervisor, Dr Sylvia Kaye of the aforementioned
university. Her untiring intellectual cooperation and friendship throughout
this dissertation needs more than many thanks. She courageously assisted me to
make this research stimulating and great deal of fun. I thank her from the
bottom of my heart for so many constructive corrections and pieces of advice
that I acquired from her. In fact, if she was not supportive and committed to
this dissertation, it would not be possible for me to write and complete it.
Dear Dr Sylvia Kaye, millions of thanks go to you for your understanding and
kindness.
In the same vein, I would like to convey my sincere thanks of
gratitude to the Academic and Administrative personnel and all professors of
University of KwaZulu-Natal in the Faculty of Peace Studies and Conflict
Resolution for having taught us the nonviolent methods of seeking and achieving
peace and social harmony. As a person living in a community that is greatly
affected by domestic violence, the principles of conflict transformation and
making peace allowed me and still empower me with the force to work together
with people in order to walk towards a culture of peace for providing
constructive and assured future to future households and to develop peaceful
and united societies in the world and in the DRC in particular.
I am thankful to the South Kivu leadership that allowed me to
conduct this research in the province in a safe way. I am also very indebted to
the South Kivu men who accepted to participate to this research. Their
willingness to spend their time, despite their many occupations, during the
different lengthy interviews and to share their personal experience
about beliefs and attitudes of male domestic violence in the
province of South Kivu were very important. Without their input, this
dissertation would not have been complete.
Last but not least, I am thankful to my dear wife Bahati
Valérie, our daughter Jemima Shengamungu and our son Samuel Mugisho; my
brothers and friends Aganzemungu Theo, Bahemuka Gedeon, Boney Nyamugege,
Byabushi John, Cishugi Nyangezi, Pascal Birindwa, Juvenal Shemamba and many
others for their loving and encouraging ways through which they have supported
me, shouldered great responsibilities and have borne the heavy consequences of
my absence in our family when I used to be far away from them in South Africa
attending Summer School activities.
You are all greatly thanked here.
Mugisho Ndabuli Théophile
Abstract
Domestic violence is a branch of Gender Based Violence (GBV).
Domestic violence is directed towards family members, particularly the wife and
so it is rampant in the world. This research delves in the beliefs and
attitudes towards male domestic violence in South Kivu province of the
Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC). It also provides a comprehensive
understanding of some different factors, forms, reasons and consequences of
such violence in the province.
This research used qualitative approach with focus group and
in-depth interviews with adult men in the mentioned province. There were
organised two focus groups and two in-depth interviews. Fourteen men
participated to these interviews. The researcher selected them with the help of
the provincial authorities.
The dynamism of men's beliefs and attitudes towards domestic
violence in this province is of paramount importance to understand. The
research found that South Kivu men believe that asserting power and masculinity
in the family in general, particularly to the wife is their right. This
connectivity promotes the widespread of GBV in the province. The participants
also revealed that society fosters men's power and masculinity over family
members. This actually makes domestic violence become a culture in the area.
In combating domestic violence through means of education,
awareness raising and law reinforcement and its fair implementation, families
can be harmonious. This is possible if society motivates men to use their power
and masculinity in a constructive way, and if the victims are helped to restore
their self esteem, regain hope and break the silence.
List of acronyms and abbreviations
AIDS: Acquired Immune Deficiency Syndrome
CEDAW: Convention on the Elimination of All forms of
Discrimination Against
Women
COFAPRI: Congolese Females Action for Promoting Rights and
Development
DRC: The Democratic Republic of the Congo
FAO: Food and Agricultural Organisation of the United Nations.
GBV: Gender Based Violence
GLR: Great Lakes Region
HIV: Human Immune Deficiency Virus
HRW: Human Rights Watch
ICRW: The International Centre for Research on Women
IRC: International Rescue Committee
IVAWA: International Violence Against Woman Act
MONUC: Mission des Nations Unies au Congo (United Nations Mission
in the Congo)
MSF: Médecins Sans Frontières (Doctors Without
Borders)
n.d No date
NGOs: Non Governmental Organisations
PTSD: Posttraumatic Stress Disorder
STDs: Sexually Transmitted Diseases
SWFW: Safe World For Women
UN: United Nations
UNAIDS: United Nations programme on AIDS.
UNDP: The United Nations Development Programme
UNFPA: The United Nations Population Fund
UNICEF: The United Nations Children's Fund (former United Nations
International
Children's Emergency Fund)
UNIFEM: United Nations Development Fund for Women
USA: The United States of America
VAW: Violence Against Women
WFP: World Food Programme
WHO: World Health Organization
WPC: Women Power Connect
WTBTS: Watch Tower Bible Tract Society
TABLE OF CONTENTS
Declaration iiDedication iiiAcknowledgments. iv
Abstract viList of acronyms and abbreviations.
viiTable of contents ix
CHAPTER ONE: GENERAL INTRODUCTION 1
1.1 The context and research rationale 1
1.2 Brief presentation of South Kivu province 3
1.2.1 Geographical situation 3
1.2.2 Historical situation 6
1.2.3 Cultural situation .7
1.3 Problem statement 9
1.4 Global objectives and specific aims 10
1.5 Structure of the research 11
1.6 Population of the study 12
1.7 Difficulties encountered 13
CHAPTER TWO: LITERATURE REVIEW ON DOMESTIC VIOLENCE
14
2.1 Introduction 14
2.2 Overview on violence 14
2.3 Theoretical framework 15
2.4 Domestic violence 17
2.4.1 Definition 17
2.4.2 Forms of domestic violence 17
2.4.2.1 Domestic emotional violence. 18
2.4.2.2 Domestic physical violence 19
2.4.2.3 Domestic sexual violence 19
2.4.2.4 Domestic economic violence 21
2.4.2.5 Domestic spiritual violence 21
2.4.3 Grounds for domestic violence 22
2.4.3.1 Cultural imbalance and social customs 22
2.4.3.2 Abuser's emotions 23
2.4.3.3 Abuser's past history 23
2.4.3.4 Media and parents negligence 23
2.4.3.5 Substance abuse 24
2.4.3.6 Influence of sports 25
2.4.4 Effects of domestic violence . 25
2.4.4.1 Social effects .. 25
2.4.4.2 Effects on the victim . 26
2.4.4.3 Health effects 26
2.4.4.4 Sexual effects 27
2.4.4.5 Economic effects . 27
2.4.4.6 Damage on marriage 27
2.4.4.7 Effects on children 28
2.4.5 Culture of domestic violence . 28
2.5 Prevalence of domestic violence . 29
2.6 Link between masculinity, power and GBV 30
2.7 Conclusion . 32
CHAPTER THREE: RESEARCH APPROACHES . 33
3.1 Introduction... 33
3.2 Approaches for data collection and procedure 33
3.2.1 Approaches for data collection 33
3.2.1.1 Documentary approach 35
3.2.1.2 Focus group 36
3.2.1.3 In-depth interviews 37
3.2.2 Procedure 39
3.3 Sample . 41
3.4 Data analysis 42
3.5 Ethical issues. .... 44
3.6 Limitations of the research 45
3.7 Conclusion... 46
CHAPTER FOUR: RESEARCH DATA ANALYSIS 47
4.1 Introduction . 47
4.2 Sample characteristics 48
4.3 Key determinants of males' beliefs and attitudes 48
4.3.1 Society 48
4.3.2 Masculinity. 57
4.3.3 Power assertion 59
4.4 Men's beliefs of domestic violence. 61
4.4.1 Women like abusive men. 61
4.4.2 Women attract violence on themselves. 63
4.4.3 No woman can leave her home because of violence. 65
4.4.4 Women fear to divulge husbands' abuse. 68
4.5 Men's attitudes of domestic violence. 70
4.5.1 Men support domestic violence. 70
4.5.2 Friends' pressure and domestic violence. 73
4.5.3 Dowry entitlement and domestic violence. 78
4.5.4 Domestic violence is man's self protection... 79
4.6 Conclusion 81
CHAPTER FIVE: GENERAL CONCLUSION AND RECOMMENDATIONS.
83
5.1 Research synopsis. 83
5.2 Recommendations. 87
5.2.1 To the government. 87
5.2.2 To community. 87
REFERENCES 89
APPENDICES 102
Appendix 1: Focus group and in-depth interviews... 102
Appendix 2: South Kivu authority permission to conduct research
103
Appendix 3: Interviewees' forms of consent. 104
Appendix 4: Protocol reference letter 107
CHAPTER ONE: GENERAL INTRODUCTION
1.1 The context and research rationale
The spread of violence, domestic assault towards women in
particular, in the South Kivu province of the Democratic Republic of the Congo
(DRC), results in severe outcomes. The domestic abuse that is directed towards
women in this province is shocking and unreported, so much so that it has
become the tradition of the whole country as well as its provinces, including
South Kivu. Based on the writings of Mirindi (2007:54), we learn that Gender
Based Violence (GBV), in its form called domestic violence, remains widely
undocumented because most of the victims, who are women, are reluctant to tell
of the abuse they experienced in their homes. Congruent with Hatari (1999:98),
the household members who are abused cannot report the assault since they are
scared of the imminent reprisal of the abusers and fear to break social
traditions. This implies that the victim will not be supported by the social
justice in place. In other words, the abuser will not be sanctioned as the
justice system in this area believes this is a domestic issue that concerns the
couple and therefore, not a crime. However, Strongman cited in Mirindi
(2007:63), concludes that South Kivu domestic violence towards women alone
covers 12% of the abuses that are committed against people countrywide and 92%
of the abusers are men responsible for households.
The prevalence of domestic violence infers that any person in
the home may either perpetrate or suffer it; but in most cases husbands are to
blame (Boonzaier, 2008:67). Despite this opinion, some women abusers exist,
though in small numbers, who assault their husbands and other members of the
family.
Many writers have investigated the kinds of violence men cause
women in the home, but fewer have dealt with men's beliefs and attitudes
regarding domestic violence in South Kivu (Hatari, 1999:103). This indicates
the clearly disparate balance of social power between men and women, and the
unfair social power depicts men's domination in households and the development
of social behaviours. According to Leonard and Quigley (1999:78), men acquire
and strengthen behaviours in order to endow themselves with defensive arguments
for their abusive manners. It is in this context that GBV is fostered in order
to hinder the rights of the victims.
The DRC so called liberation war of 1996 was headed by the
former president Laurent Désiré Kabila. In 2001, he was
assassinated and his son Joseph Kabila succeeded him. As these wars have never
stopped during both regimes, their atrocities grew in the context of
violence.
People have been killed, others taken hostages;
infrastructures looted if not destroyed or burned and the ecosystem immensely
devastated. These wars' aftermaths were odious and the most serious one that is
still prevalent in the country is the problem of GBV. As for Cherie (2006), the
`consequences of these wars mostly affected the eastern province: at least
40,000 female civilians have been raped over the past ten years that the DRC
conflict lasted'.
Although the above figure represents the whole country, the
United Nations reports 27,000 sexual assaults in South Kivu province alone
(UNAIDS, 2005-2006). This situation depicts how GBV is used as a weapon of
women destruction; it is used to destroy the social fabric that women work
tirelessly to maintain. Besides, UNFPA (2006) reveals that more than half a
million of women have been raped; thus the DRC becomes the capital of rape on
the planet and leading to the most horrendous rape of the world. As a result,
Barron (1990:104) describes how women were publicly and atrociously gang raped
and had bayonets inserted into their genitals. The same writer reveals that
`many more others have had guns shot inside them, destroying their lower
bodies, mutilated and gravely wounded'. Even baby girls have never been safe
with this violence; they also have been raped pitilessly. The victims of these
atrocities suffered tremendously physical and psychological wounds. Although
formally the warfare ended in 2003, violence and particularly GBV continued in
the eastern part of the country.
Looking at the risks of GBV, the facts are persuasive.
Research conducted by UNAIDS (2007) show that there is a direct link between
DRC conflict and GBV. This said, women and girls who were raped got unwanted
pregnancies, contaminated HIV, were vaginally wounded and suffered
psychological trauma. According to Hatari (1999:32), in South Kivu alone, HIV
infection among females who are victims of GBV is up to three times higher if
compared to
women and girls who have not been subjected to aggressive
behaviours. In addition, some men benefited of the situation of war to apply
GBV in their homes. Ongala (1993:51) confirms that the DRC conflict has
affected households as women who were raped were repudiated by their husbands.
Other women who were gang raped several times could not return to their
families once they have been released by the rapists for fear of shame and
social blame.
The present research centres on the beliefs and attitudes of
carefully selected groups of men in order to learn more about the issue of
domestic violence against women in South Kivu. For men, the culture of domestic
violence greatly favours them in asserting power in their households. Since
most men have control of everything that happens in their households, Barron
(1990:97) notes that significant progress of scaling down domestic abuse can
take place only if their beliefs and attitudes are taken into consideration;
this particularly concerns men's opinions about the steps to take in order to
bring peace in the homes, which is a good reason for eschewing domestic
violence. The subsection below concisely presents the South Kivu province to
the reader.
1.2 Brief presentation of South Kivu province
1.1.1 Geographical situation
South Kivu is one of the eleven DRC's provinces; it is located
in the eastern part of the DRC. In 1986, During Mobutu's era, Kivu was the
province and it comprised 3 sub regions (in French, Sous Régions) that
were North Kivu, South Kivu and Maniema. But later, these sub regions became
considered as full provinces. The capital city of South Kivu is Bukavu where
the local government that manages the province is based. South Kivu is one of
the richest provinces of the country, its land is very rich for cultivation and
mostly, it engorges a lot of minerals. The latter are very envied by
neighbouring countries that have always invaded this part of the DRC under the
pretext that they are hunting down the Interahamwe, the Rwandan militia who
committed the 1994 genocide.
As for its size, South Kivu has a total area of 65 070 Km2 (25
120 sq mi). Its population,
based on 2010 estimates, is 4 614 768. The
province borders Kivu Lake to the North East
and Tanganyika Lake to the South East; North Kivu to the
North, Maniema to the West and Katanga to the South. It shares its borders with
the countries of Burundi, Rwanda and Tanzania in the East. It is composed of
seven territories that are Fizi, Kabare, Kalehe, Mwenga, Shabunda, Uvira and
Walungu.
Map 1: Map of South Kivu province (Source: The world facts book,
2007)
1.1.2 Historical situation
The DRC got its independence from Belgium in 1960. After
independence, the country experienced vast political and social troubles under
President Joseph Kasa Vubu. This situation pushed the young Colonel Joseph
Désiré Mobutu to overthrow him in November 1965. As Mobutu became
president, he decided to make different changes in the country and one of them
was to change names inherited from the colonizer. In this context, the Country
became Zaire and the names of the provinces changed as well. Thus, South Kivu
originates from Kivu, one of the 9 provinces that the country was composed of.
The Capital city Costermasville changed into Bukavu. In 1986, Mobutu decided to
make more provinces and so they became 11, of which there is South Kivu.
The history of this province is particular to the DRC. Since
Mobutu took power, the country was attacked three times and all the combats
were launched from South Kivu. It is in this context that in 1964, the first
invasion of the country was lead by a former minister of education, Pierre
Mulele. Three years later, that is 1967, another group of rebels among whom was
Laurent Désiré Kabila had hired the French mercenary, Jean
Schramme to combat Mobutu's administration but they were defeated. Mobutu
enjoyed presidency for 32 years and in May 1996, Laurent Désiré
Kabila toppled him and his regime by a rebellion backed by Rwanda and Uganda.
Kabila came to power but had a lot of contentions with his former allies from
Rwanda and Uganda. Finally, in 1991, he was assassinated in his office by his
own body guard. This situation lead his son Joseph Kabila to become president
but his regime also knew a lot of troubles and different rebellions were
created and the turning point again was South Kivu.
Regrettably these different wars, mostly lead by men
combatants and based in mineral areas, were the origins of violence and rape of
women and girls in South Kivu. Kabila's death and the takeover by his son did
not result in the regulation of GBV. On the contrary, men's violence in the
province worsened. Accordingly, raped women and girls contaminated HIV/AIDS,
others died of vaginal wounds and many more were repudiated by their husbands
as they were considered as social shame and cast in South Kivu (Amnesty
International, 2007).
1.1.3 Cultural situation
Culturally, the DRC is a very diverse country with a lot of
ethnicities, each with its customs. Accordingly, there are many tribes in South
Kivu but the most important are the Bashi, Barega, Babembe, Bahavu and
Bafulero. These tribes are made of families that abide by traditional values by
respecting social customs, beliefs, traditions and norms. As this is a
paternalistic society, these values are therefore protected by elders who are
old men.
South Kivu ethnicities are very complex. There exist many
languages in the province and people are likely to identify themselves in
relation to their ethnic groups rather than to their nation as a whole. Tribal
names continue to be significant as a way of identifying people with their
province, and social standing. Relations between ethnic groups vary greatly.
Hence, Hatari (1999:36) deduces that politicians, foreign powers and
multinational companies have sought to exploit ethnic tensions in order to gain
control over the province's abundant natural resources.
The different tribes of South Kivu use different languages, of
which Kiswahili, Mashi, Kirega and Kihavu are the most eminent. In addition to
these languages, each tribe has its own dialect. Although French is the
official language used for education and local government, the majority of the
people use Kiswahili in their daily different activities.
The attitudes and beliefs of individuals reflect upon how
their families are viewed in the community. Based on South Kivu family
traditions, men have more power, rights and respect than women. Accordingly,
boys are more advantaged than girls in all aspects of life because there is
gender misbalance that is expressed through discrimination between the sexes.
This impels that, `men do not regard women as their equals in terms of
education, employment or decision-making' (Hatari, 1999:29). Such GBV depicts
clearly how men and women have designated gender roles that dictate what they
do in the home and community. Women are primarily responsible for caring for
the family and maintaining the household.
South Kivu tribes regard women differently; the woman's
freedom is dependent upon the community in which she lives. This infers that
her behaviour is often restricted by social norms. As an illustration, Ongala
(1993:56) states that in South Kivu rural areas, many married women still seek
their husband's permission to travel or complete routine legal transactions.
As regards education, boys are more encouraged to attend
school. In rural areas, most girls and women did not study and those who did
are traditionally refused to work outside their families. Culturally, this is
due to harsh traditions that stipulate that women must look after kids and take
care of the home. Although emancipation is occurring slowly, women remain at a
disadvantage in law and society.
Domestic violence is not uncommon in the DRC and in South
Kivu, in particular. South Kivu is a patriarchal society. Erturk (2007:24)
assumes that it is often acceptable for men to resort to violence, assault and
verbal abuse in the home. Culturally, women will not refute domestic violence
because they see it as an extension of male authority in the home. The law does
not address the issue of GBV although it contains nice paragraphs dealing with
it. This because domestic violence is often viewed as a personal problem in
which others should not intervene.
As for marriage, the legal age for marriage is 18 but in rural
areas, it is common for girls to be prepared for it at a much earlier age. In
some cultures, people get married at an advanced age but this makes them lose
respect. Some parents make pre-arranged marriage for their children and this is
quite normal since `culturally, it is the parents who pay the dowry for their
sons' (Ertürk, 2007:38). In very few areas, children make their own choice
for whom to marry. Polygamy is not legal but men decide to marry as many wives
as they can for procreation, popularity and power. Marriage customs vary
depending on tribal traditions. The whole family is involved in the marriage
process but men are the most important persons as they are given word in
public. Divorce is not common in the province because marriage is seen as a
union between two families and divorce therefore divides communities (Mirindi,
2007:66).
The religious beliefs in South Kivu dominate people's minds.
Mirindi (2007:36) found that the main religious groups are Roman Catholic
(50%), Protestant (20%), Kimbanguist (10% 10) and Muslim (10%). A further 10
per cent follow traditional beliefs, whose customs and rituals are often merged
with other faiths. There has been a major Christian revival in recent years,
which has had an impact on every aspect of life. Religious groups have also
played an active role in the provincial social life and development. Some
churches build healthcare centres, schools and other services and help couples
to live harmoniously (Mirindi, 2007:43).
As for leisure, South Kivu people like seeping on beer, enjoy
music and sports, particularly football. The consumption of alcohol is
culturally acceptable although the Muslim and protestant population does not
drink it. In literacy levels, very few people accede to newspapers. Radios are
widely used in the province as a source of public information. Most radio
stations are privately owned, however church radio networks are developing.
People are familiar with televisions although reception is often very bad. The
internet also exists but the government does not restrict its use. Mirindi
(2007:54) presumes that `its uncontrolled use among the youth pushes them to
see pornographic movies'. Such films daily proliferate GBV as they teach them
how to sexually harass and dishonour young girls. Libraries are not well
stocked and textbooks are outdated.
1.3 Problem statement
Violence is an undeniable world plague and domestic violence
is part of it. To Walby and Allen (2006:139), domestic abuse affects many
households across all societies; it deprives the people of all ages, both
genders and all social statuses of their human rights. Congruent with Krug et
al. (2002), domestic violence is severe because it is one of the most
underreported crimes worldwide. In particular, women, children and relatives in
the home witness domestic violence because of their dependence on the household
leader, who is usually a man (Tjaden et al., 2000:47). Domestic violence is a
danger for household members. It is fostered by cultural values and norms
differences, which are the primary factors male abusers use. Based on the
magnitude of domestic abuse, its consequences are critical to the victim, the
abuser, the family and the nation.
We find that in some developed countries, the situation
remains extremely disheartening. Accordingly, Olson and DeFrain (2000:42) note
that, in homes of the United States of America (USA), more than 6 million women
are abused by their partners annually. Burton (2004:67) and Er Turk (2007:23)
also ascertain that in the USA, a husband or a partner physically assaults a
woman or a girl every nine seconds. All the above writers conclude that 95% of
domestic violence victims are women and children who are exposed to violence by
family members living in the same house with the victim.
In the developing world, domestic violence is also a very
common practice and has even been considered as a cultural norm. Consequently,
its prevalence in the homes proves very high. As an illustration, in Kenya,
India and Bangladesh, the documented prevalence of domestic abuse committed by
male partners towards women ranges between 46% and 72% (Olson and De Frain,
2000:78).
In the DRC, the frequency is not encouraging either. We learn
that almost 60.7% of the reported domestic violence is committed against women
and children by the male heads of family (Hatari, 1999:14). In addition, there
exist many other similar cases that are never reported and they are higher in
rural areas compared to urban ones. The Congolese Females Action for Promoting
Rights and Development reveals that this situation remains very alarming in
remote villages where most population, particularly women and girls are
uneducated (COFAPRI, 2010). This is supported by Humphreys and Thiara (2002:33)
as they ascertain that in most African villages, men make the law as they are
the customs-makers and protectors and the women have nothing to do but to obey,
even blindly, what the man has said.
Considering this high occurrence of domestic assault in the
world, and particularly in the DRC, one wonders if the abusers are aware of the
social destruction this odious and shameful practice causes the victims,
families and the nation. Therefore, this research intends to discover the
beliefs and attitudes towards males domestic violence in South Kivu,
particularly abuse directed against women.
1.4 Global objective and specific aims
The overall aim of this research is to identify and analyse the
beliefs and attitudes that move South Kivu males towards domestic violence.
The specific aims of this research are:
· To review relevant literature concerning domestic abuse
and men's beliefs and attitudes toward it in South Kivu province.
· To work with men to document their beliefs and attitudes
regarding domestic abuse in South Kivu.
· To investigate the origins, categories and consequences
of violence in the home.
· To suggest some practical ways to seek peace in South
Kivu households.
1.5 Structure of the research
This dissertation is composed of five chapters. The first
chapter deals with the general introduction. This concerns the overall
dissertation as it discovers the key issue for the research. This means that
the beliefs and attitudes of male regarding domestic violence are compared with
the culture of violence and the current situation of domestic assault. The
chapter investigates the context in which the research was relevant to South
Kivu.
The second chapter concerns the literature review. Literature
emphasises some empirical studies that have dealt with domestic violence in
general and in South Kivu, in particular.
The third chapter outlines the methods that the researcher
used in this research. Essentially, this discusses how the study was conducted.
It explains and confirms the choice of data collection methods that were used
for gathering the information and results analysis.
The fourth chapter discusses the results of qualitative data
analysis. It reports and reviews the responses of the key informants to
questions about beliefs and attitudes towards male domestic violence.
The fifth and last chapter is the general conclusion. It
gives the research synopsis and provides some practical recommendations for
further study and for scaling down the rate of domestic violence in South
Kivu.
1.6 Population of the study
The research has focused on beliefs and attitudes towards
male domestic violence in South Kivu. Mirindi (2003:341) believes that, in
life, men are early initiated to domestic violence. Considering this point of
view, men play a role of fostering violence in general and to domestic violence
in particular.
The choice of the sample of respondents to work with in a
focus group is not done in an unprepared way (Parker and Tritter, 2006:27).
Based on this consideration, the researcher selected a sample of fourteen men
whom he worked with. He conducted two focus group interviews with them in order
to collect information regarding male's beliefs and attitudes about domestic
violence towards women in the province. The information that the researcher
collected and the level to which all respondents contributed their views and
shared their personal beliefs and attitudes about their knowledge or life
experiences about domestic violence towards women was of paramount importance
for this research. This choice was facilitated by the local leaders of the area
in which the research was conducted and finally the selected respondents were
invited and briefed about the research.
Gergen (1996:66) recognises that sampling issues are key if
their relation to the form and quality of interaction among the informants of a
focus group is to be considered. The informants to this research originate from
DRC, the province of South Kivu, rural or urban men. These participants belong
to different social statuses, different religious beliefs and tribes, different
levels of education and their ages range between 26 and 69.
The outcomes of this research added to the others that have
been conducted before as to
solidify the understanding of male's beliefs and
attitudes regarding domestic violence
towards women in the province. The
results that have come out from this research should not
be understood beyond the above described margins. This
research is not exhaustive and it can still be dug deeply for a better
understanding of the motives that are behind men's attitudes and beliefs that
fuel violence in the homes.
1.7 Difficulties encountered
Like any research, this research project about the beliefs and
attitudes of South Kivu men towards domestic violence could not be conducted
without difficulties.
Among the teething troubles the researcher encountered during
this research was time shortage. In fact, if there was more time allocated to
this research project, the researcher would organise many focus group and
in-depth discussions in different areas and with more individuals than he
currently did, which would enrich the data to this research. But the researcher
had to abide to the university allocated time regarding dissertation
writing.
The other problem the researcher faced was that some
respondents' opinions were not clear enough. This situation could generate
difficulties for him to better interpret their views. Ultimately, this obliged
him to meet them after the interview in order to get common understanding of
the information that was provided in an unclear way.
And finally, some of the respondents would be absent the day of
the interview, which made it a bit difficult to organise.
CHAPTER TWO: LITERATURE REVIEW ON DOMESTIC
VIOLENCE
2.1 Introduction
Literature review, according to Terre Blanche and Durrheim
(1999:79), helps to integrate the results of previous researches on a topic.
Therefore, this section provides the literature on domestic violence towards
women. Nevertheless, it also overviews violence in general and tackles the
different forms, causes, damages and the culture of domestic abuse. It
discusses its prevalence and finally, it details the link between power,
masculinity and GBV.
2.2 Overview on violence
Violence is a premeditated response an individual chooses to
bring to a problem. It includes various aspects such as domestic violence,
cultural cleansing, political violence and environment devastation (Harris,
2008:2). The full understanding of how these factors interplay with violence
can help move toward its reduction in society (Krug et al., 2002:346). When
facing a contentious situation, many people choose to be violent. The use of
force refers to tangible and sometimes presaged physical or psychological harm
to the other (Frieze and Browne, 1999:32).
Violence is prevalent because several traditions and cultures
support male's beliefs and attitudes of violence, as commented by Kent
(1993:102). In addition, Harris and Lewis (1999:32) state that the
proliferation of violence stems from social, political and economic
compositions in an area that neglects it.
Violence has many forms; it ranges from macro level where
government makes people suffer in different ways. This is referred to as
structural violence: the `quiet process, working slowly in the way of misery in
general and hunger in particular, erodes and finally kills human beings'
(Galtung, 1990:145).
Another example is GBV. This kind of violence can be
perpetrated by a sex on the other; thus both men and women can be victims
(Arias and Pape, 1993:33). Generally, gender inequality causes men to abuse
women and girls without fear as the latter are considered as `objects'
(Ewing, 2003:74). However, occasionally, women also abuse
family members by revenge. For instance, violent women have caused awful
injuries to their victims by burning, biting or cutting them with a sharp tool
and at times they refuse food to children and husbands (Nangolo and Peltzer,
2003:34).
Physical assault is another illustration of violence. This is
the acute form or abusive stage of violence, as argued by Nangolo and Peltzer
(2003:37). In this form of violence, serious bodily injuries are inflicted to
the victim.
2.3 Theoretical framework on domestic violence
In order to explore violence against women in the context of
family, it is important to examine some theories on it. The family's everyday
settings about GBV in its form of domestic violence, have taken many different
paths. Therefore, I will attempt to sample and outline the theories below as
they pertain to domestic violence and are relevant to this research.
The theory of the culture of domestic violence
conveys the idea that in big and pluralistic societies, some
subcultures develop norms that permit the use of physical violence to a greater
degree than the dominant culture (Arias and Pape, 1993:24). Thus domestic
violence will occur more frequently in violent societies than in harmonious
ones. Peer-relationships that nurture patriarchal authority in the family and
use of violence to support it are typical of this subculture. For this reason,
this `theory has also produced the theories that examples from pornography and
violent images on television can back a culture of domestic violence' (Adams
and Fortune, 1995:15).
The theory of ecological attempts links
violence in the family to the broader social environment. This includes the
culture, the formal and informal social networks of the family, the closer
family setting, circumstances and history (Krug et al., 2002:332). This type of
context sets up a starting point for a model of domestic assault based on the
given principle.
The theory of feminist stipulates the
existence of many different ideas within feminist
theory of domestic
violence. However, Bograd quoted in Adams and Fortune (1995:39), has
identified four common strains that are the dominant class
where men have differential access to material and symbolic resources and women
are devalued as secondary and inferior. The second class is where intimate
partner abuse is a predictable and common dimension of normal family life. The
third stipulates that women's experiences are often defined as inferior because
male domination influences all aspects of life and finally, the feminist
perspective that is dedicated to advocacy for women.
There is also the bio psychosocial theory.
According to Adams and Fortune (1995:39), this concept ties together
biological (testosterone levels, alcohol abuse) factors and social factors that
move an abuser toward violence in the home. These comprise the level of social
stress, quality of the relationship, the income and extent of social support
available. The above writer shows that these factors are also psychological as
they are concerned with antisocial preferences, aggression, egocentrism and
need for gratification or attention.
The theory of resource posits that the
decision making power within a given family derives from the value of the
resources that each person brings to the relationship. This may indicate
financial, social and organizational resources. Since these means are mostly
supplied by man, they consequently give him additional power over family
members.
The marital power theory is the assumption
that shows how power can be classified into three categories that are power
bases, power processes and power outcomes (Olson and DeFrain, 2000:254). Power
bases consist of the assets and resources that provide the sources for one
partner's domination over another. The same writers confirm that power
processes also include the interactional techniques that an individual applies
to gain control, such as negotiation, assertiveness and problem-solving. Power
outcome refers to who actually makes the decision in the home. Based on this
theory, the partner who lacks power will be more likely to physically be
abused; and in most cases, the man will abuse the woman but on few occasions
the opposite proves possible.
And finally, there is the traumatic bonding theory.
This concept seeks to explain why
women remain with men who beat
them. To Olson and DeFrain (2000:259), two features
have been recognized: the existence of a power imbalance
within the relationship, so that the domestic abuser perceives him or herself
as dominating the other, and the sporadic nature of the mistreatment or
exploitation. This theory postulates that as these power relationships polarize
over time, the powerless individual in the relationship becomes increasingly
dependent on the dominator. In addition, moments in between abuse are times
when positive displays of love and affection cement the legitimacy of the
relationship. Vuningoma (2003:66) lists a series of widespread experiences: the
domestic abuse victim, here the woman, is deeply pleasant for small sympathy
the abuser shows to her; the victim rationalizes acts of domestic violence,
victim denies her own anger; the victim feels the need to get inside the
abuser's head in order to know how to please him; the victim often sees the
world from the abuser's perspective and last but not least the victim shows
signs of post-traumatic stress disorder.
All the above theories are related to violence and the category
of violence this research discusses is domestic violence.
2.4 Domestic violence
This section highlights what domestic violence is. It also
focuses on its different types, causes and outcomes. It discusses what makes it
a cultural norm in men's minds.
2.4.1 Definition
Several attempts have been made to define domestic violence.
Adams and Fortune (1995:15) view domestic violence as coercive manipulation
that a family member asserts over another with the aim of dominating or getting
and preserving power and control.
Domestic violence means learned behaviour that violent people
acquire to abuse family members. The abuser's aim is to confirm and uphold
power over family members. Violent men learn this behavior via observation; for
instance, Levy (1991:46) notes that boys who witness domestic violence by their
fathers assaulting their mothers and sisters are seven times more likely to
apply the same to their own spouses once they are married. This explains how
domestic violence is leaned through exposure to social values and beliefs
regarding the
appropriate roles of men and women. Besides, violent behaviour
is reinforced when peers and authorities fail to sanction batterers for
applying violence.
In the same vein, the World Health Organization underscores
that domestic abuse in the home is a crime that manifests itself differently in
interwoven and sometimes persistent forms (WHO, 2009a). Furthermore, Olson and
DeFrain (2000:516) state that domestic violence is the condition in which a
family member decides to willingly intimidate a member of the household who
lives with him. In this way, the domestic abuser voluntarily manipulates the
victim physically, sexually, psychologically or economically.
Domestic violence goes beyond applying physical force to the
victim. According to Arias (1999:12), it has no limits and its victims have no
specific profile. This is to say that anyone can perpetrate or suffer it but
women are the most exposed. In their research, Arias and Pape (1999:33), for
example, found that 85% of women suffer domestic violence, but mostly young
couples between 18 and 30 years old are highly at risk of critical spousal
assault.
2.4.2 Forms of domestic violence
Domestic violence has different forms. They vary depending on
the environment and the abuser, and they interrelate.
2.4.2.1 Domestic emotional violence
Eigen (1996:74) defines emotional violence as the abuser's
intentional infliction of psychological and emotional agony via humiliation or
threat, including verbal or non-verbal behaviour to the victim. These
psychological and emotional abuses put down a household member as the abuser
wants to have total control over what the victim can or cannot do, withholding
information from them and limiting their acquaintances (Saltzman et al.,
2002:42).
2.4.2.2 Domestic physical violence
The abuser will physically assault a household member once a
conflict is overt. It is in this context that severe harm, injury, disability
and occasionally death may follow. Bartels et al. (2009:101) reveal that South
Kivu men have often caused indelible physical scars to the victims and others
have been burned parts of their body for maintaining their power in the family.
Conversely, Vuningoma (2003:68) notes that, some women are more violent than
their abusers as `they even happen to cut their husbands sex off'.
Children also are involved in domestic violence. Some
cultures condone that parents apply force to children for correction, but the
opposite is not allowed. However, nowadays families are witnessing children
committing abuse to their parents in the home. A survey conducted by Vuningoma
(2003:66) in South Kivu showed that almost 2% of the parents admitted to have
suffered violence caused by their own sons. They pushed and beat their parents,
burned the house with the parents inside it and attacked parents with machetes,
spears or knives in an attempt to wound or kill them (Longa and Bulonza,
2006:33).
2.4.2.3 Domestic sexual violence
This is another form of abuse that the abuser applies by
forcing another person, adult or child of different or same sex, to be involved
in a sexual act without consent (Olson and DeFrain, 2000:314). In many
countries, one of the root causes of sexual violence is the subordinate status
of women and girls. Itano (2009:32) considers discrimination and unequal power
relations in families as exposing women greatly to sexual abuse. Evidence by
Jewkes (2006), quoted in Zihindula (2009:14), reveals that South Africa ranges
among the countries with the highest rates of domestic sexual violence in the
world. As a matter of fact, the same writer adds that in 2001 alone about
50,000 women and girls were sexually abused in their families.
As regards sexual violence directed to children, the abuser
may be a parent or any other family member. Olson and DeFrain (2000:512) found
that sexual abuse on children is a serious problem that is on raise although it
is underreported. In line with Holmes (2003:72), teenagers and children may
suffer different domestic sexual abuses. The incestuous abuse is also known as
intra-familial sexual violence. Actually, incest recalls sexual activity of
any
category that is done by the individuals who belong to the
same wide or nucleus family. Furthermore, there also exists non-incestuous
abuse. It is also called extra familial sexual abuse. Such an abuse often
arises with the individuals who do not belong to the child's family. In South
Kivu, the incestuous abusers may be `grandparents, adopted children,
stepparents and in-laws' (Ruhamya, 2007). Incest remains a kind of exploitation
of teenagers by a family member. Such a sexual abuse is often committed between
`brothers and sisters, fathers and daughters, stepfathers and stepdaughters,
and uncles and nieces than between mothers and sons' (Russell 1996:43). On its
own, incest greatly damages the victim's psychology and so it fosters
persisting, long lasting sexual and social problems. Gorman (1991:93) believes
that incest goes beyond sexual contact as it includes `fondling, rubbing one's
genitals against a child and excessive or suggestive washing of a child's pubic
area'. In fact, the abuser does not consider whether the child liberally
involves in the sexual endeavour or even taking it as pleasurable. The child is
unable to provide informed approval to such an act. The above argument is what
makes `incest an abuser's misuse of power and authority' (Ruhamya, 2007).
Yet the abuser uses various tricky ways to take sex by
brutality, which obliges the victim to make love under physical pressure.
Accordingly in South Kivu, some parents defile their daughters and the WHO
(2005b) says that with the spread of HIV/AIDS, some fathers defile very young
girls and sometimes their own daughters to cure AIDS based on witch doctors'
advice. The men who force their daughters to join in unwanted, insecure or
degrading sexual activity ridicule themselves and bring shame to the whole
family (Longa and Bulonza, 2006:90). Sexual abusers tend to limit or destroy
the victim's sexual lust or reproductivity and sometimes, they exploit sexually
the victim.
Furthermore, sexual abusers may compel the victim to involve
in watching pornographies with them. The aim is to rouse the victim sexually
and finally involve in sexual acts. Mirindi(2003:76) found that
sexual abuse is often linked to physical abuse and sometimes they happen
simultaneously, or the sexual abuse may take place after physical abuse.
It is believed that one of the root causes of sexual violence
is the subordinate status of women and their being discriminated. Itano
(2009:32) considers discrimination and unequal power relations in families as
exposing women greatly to GBV and that addressing the disparity that exists in
every society is vital to their responses to the issue.
2.4.2.4 Domestic economic violence
Domestic violence can also take the form of economic
violence. Parker and Tritter (2006:176) reveal that when the abuser is the only
money provider in the home, he has more power over household members. In fact,
family economic resources give power to the one who brings them. In most cases,
man is the one who brings more financial, social and organizational
resources.
In the same vein, Ruhamya (2007) ascertains that abusers
apply economic violence by denying the victim physical resources such as
clothes, food, necessary medication or shelter. In addition, Wallby and Allen
(2006:61) relate that the man may refuse to pay the lease, seize his wife's
bank cards and even deny her to use some of the appliances in the house. Such
inequality of power creates potential negative consequences for the victim's
economic security or being refused financial assistance, which reduces her
voice to claim her home rights (Olson and DeFrain, 2000:512).
2.4.2.5 Domestic spiritual violence
With domestic spiritual violence, the abuser impedes some
family members from fully practising their religious beliefs or manipulates
them for his profit (Holmes, 2003:69).
This thwarts the victims' rights and causes them to be
ridiculed by their children and their church fellows (Imbens and Ineke,
1993:124). Evidence by Ongala (1993:88) points that some DRC pastors often
compel their wives with their children to adhere to their churches. This does
not only apply to close but also remote family members with the aim of growing
the number of church adherents.
Furthermore, with spiritual domestic violence the abuser
impedes some family members to
practise fully their religious beliefs or
manipulates them to his profit (Holmes, 2003:69). The
abuser hinders the
victims of spiritual abuse from fully practising their religious or
spiritual
faiths, which hinders their rights and ridicules them toward
their children and their church fellows (Imbens and Ineke, 1993:124). The
abuser may go further and oblige the victim to quit their religious practices
and join his. As an illustration, Ongala (1993:88) points that some DRC pastors
often compel their wives with their children to adhere to their churches.
Besides, this is an apparent make believe trick that lies to the world that the
pastor's church is strongly supported. This depicts the African adage that says
`stones and sand of a river always follow water'. The abuser does not use
violence blindly; he always advances good reasons for it.
2.4.3 Grounds for domestic violence
The reasons for domestic violence depend on and include the
broader society and its culture and the abuser's individual behaviours.
2.4.3.1 Cultural imbalance and social customs
Culture and customs govern the way people act and interrelate
with others, the way they reason and perceive social events (Fisher et al.,
2000:41). Cultural imbalance and social customs spread violence; they cause
family members remain under man's domination (Thornhill, 1999:170). These are
salient social traditions that encourage family violence and therefore cause
its prevalence in society (Mawazo, 2010). In fact, society encourages domestic
abuse as some cultures have established traditions that disregard some members
of the society. For example, those social customs that consider women as
children producers inhibit their freedom as they have no word in their families
(Duarte, 2006). In South Kivu, the culture and customs allow the man, and not
the woman, to apply force to family members who oppose or disobey the customary
laws (Ongala, 1993:47). For that reason, Taslitz (1999:25) and Rude (1999:12)
ascertain that in social institutions, man dominates because customs give him
power over society members. This gives abusers high power and the victims weak
power, by making man the head of the family and not the wife. Wilmot (1980:90)
says that cultural disparity and social customs spoil the best of social
interactions. These norms rot the reliability of the abuser's self and the
honour of the victim as they bring joy to the abuser but take the victim's.
2.4.3.2 Abuser's emotions
To Guerrero and La Valley (2006:70), emotions are a response
to a stimulus or events; they can disrupt, avert or boost an individual's
desired objective. The abuser's violent emotions hinder the victim from
enjoying her freedom and rights as a family member (Olson and DeFrain,
2000:122). In this line, Bahige (1994:87), the UNICEF (2007) and the HRW (2002)
abuser's negative emotions distress the family members because they generate
anger and this often leads to verbal and aggressive behaviours.
Furthermore, Koenig et al (n.d:56) and Isenhart and Spangle
(2000:4) believe that the abuser's destructive emotions may result in
blameworthiness. Reciprocal blaming makes the abuser deny accountability for
his actions, which ultimately invigorates violence in the home (Matundu, 2007).
In this way, `by ascribing positive effects to their own behaviour and negative
ones to the victim, abusers' emotions contribute to aggressive communication,
which contribute to domestic abuse (UNIFEM, 2001).
2.4.3.3 Abuser's past history
The environment in which an individual grew up may cause him
become abuser in the future. The Watch Tower Bible Tract Society says that
children who witness or suffer domestic assault in their early age develop the
belief that family abuse is practical and logical in handling contentions
(WTBTS, 1996:115). For example, the boys who are exposed to their fathers'
abuse in the home will do the same once married and the girls will endure their
husbands' violence as do their mothers (Koenig et al., n.d:33). Accordingly,
Edelson (1999:5) indicates that children, almost 90%, who are present in the
home when domestic violence occurs, perpetrate it in their adulthood. For sure,
a violent a background will impact on the individual as power was successfully
exercised over family members through aggression and there was no intervention
to impede it in the past (Er Turk, 2007:72).
2.4.3.4 Media and parents negligence
The media is a strong tool that may foster violence if no
rigid regulations are elaborated
regarding its use. In this vein, Seifert
(1996:36) and Holmes (2003:65) underscore that
movies, television, music,
some newspapers and the internet depict family and social abuse as
tolerable. To the UNIFEM (2001) and Pence et al. (1989:75),
social and parental tolerance of media violence may produce unexpected anxiety,
particularly for children, if no follow up is made to hinder media's
propagation of violence. Olson and DeFrain (2000:92) confirm that for every
hour of assaultive violent television programme watched on daily basis; one
child out of three may present aggressive attitudes and behaviours in the
following five years.
2.4.3.5 Substance abuse
Alcohol is one of the many substances that cause men involve
in domestic violence. Alcohol induces violence as it helps the abuser's
reticence of violence to break down (Goodwin, 2004:112). Men consume more
alcohol compared to women and this causes them to hardly manage their brutal
impulses, making them more aggressive toward family members (Walker, 1999:21
and MSF, 2005). In this way, Amato and Booth (1996:35) aver that alcohol
drinking pushes some men to decimate their family's little income, which
creates conflict and violence with family members.
To West and Prinz (1987:102), the abuser may take alcohol to
abuse and violence may drug him into taking alcohol to forget about the abuse
or sometimes, even a totally different perpetrator may trigger both of them.
But alcohol and other substances consumption cause heavy consequences to the
family. Nasir and Hyder (2003:3) and Wong et al. (2008:11) found that, in
Syria, almost 30% of women and 27% of children are wounded, battered or
expelled from the home because the abuser was drunk. In South Kivu, some
father's excessive drinking of alcohol has caused their children become street
children because they have been deprived for going to school, which ultimately
pushed some of them to enrol with local militia (COFAPRI, 2010). All in all,
too much drinking is financially draining and causes bodily harm and moral
destruction, shame to the drunkard and disturbs the family and the
neighbourhood peace (Anne and Williamson, 1988:89).
2.4.3.6 Influence of sports
In addition to the above factors, Selles (1999:20) notes that
competitive sports may develop in the individual the attitude of using force to
win. Stark (1986:23) substantiates that using brutality to get victory may
hinder an individual's nonviolent beliefs and attitudes to address contentions
in the home.
Congruent with Levy (1991:17), boys are culturally educated
to oppose nurturing manners and this leads many of them to cultivate beliefs
that denigrate and exploit women in society. In this vein, Wilondja (2008:90)
thinks that South Kivu boys who play competitive games express a poorer degree
of sportsmanship and fairness compared to the boys who were never involved in
competitive sports. Levy (1991:21) assumes that a person who insists on winning
at any cost will also develop violent beliefs and attitudes toward household
members.
2.4.4 Effects of domestic violence
The wide and long-term consequences of domestic violence may be
physical and psychological, and they can affect the family and the society.
2.4.4.1 Social effects
The effects of domestic violence damage the family and the
society. Mahajan (1990:91) ascertains that the damages of domestic abuse are
high and heavy as `society may pay costly medical care, mental health services,
criminal justice intervention, witnesses huge business losses and its security
is endangered'. There is some evidence (Women for Women International, 2007)
that the cost of domestic abuse in the United States of America (USA) is
`estimated in billions of dollars each year'. In South Kivu, Ongala (1993:53)
say that domestic abusers also threaten the security of the whole society and
particularly that of their neighbourhood. Wilondja (2008:70) affirms that `the
noise of the victim at night and repeated fight in the home disturb everyone
and social environment'. Furthermore, Women for Women International (2007)
states that DRC women were divorced and others chased from their villages as
they were raped during wars.
2.4.4.2 Effects on the victim
The victim of domestic violence may suffer various lifelong
problems. In this regard, Straus (1990:23) evidences that physical and moral
injuries are the most appalling consequences of domestic violence. For example,
Sable (1998:32) found that in the USA, 6% of the victims of domestic abuse live
in intense disappointment that they decide to commit suicide. On the other
hand, Barnett (2000:79) confirms that Indian hopeless and miserable women
victims of domestic abuse count for 60%. Such a situation prevails because the
victim suffers being denied contact with her family members, friends or her own
children' (Matundu, 2007). In South Kivu, this writer notes that victims of
domestic abuse suffer terrible depression, develop nightmares and
sleeplessness, causing health complications. In addition, Fikree and Bhatti
(1992) point that domestic abuse makes the victim hate the people of the
abuser's gender because she is coerced, oppressed, humiliated and upset. This,
to Bahige (1994:160), lowers the victim's morality and self-esteem, sometimes
pushing her to quit her job; so, without financial means, she suffers with her
and possibly she can lose the house if she was renting.
2.4.4.3 Health effects
The victims of domestic violence develop different health
related problems. Physical and mental complications may accompany abuse. Bahige
(1994:290) states that women victims of domestic abuse suffer grave physical
wounds which sometimes cause trauma and therefore impede medical care
effectiveness. Mukwege and Mays (2009:43) mention among others arthritis,
diabetes, heart diseases and hypertension that are often detected among older
female victims. Stark (1986:23) supports that such complications worsen the
victims' lives as the perpetrator cannot allow or assist the victim to accede
to medications or appropriate medical care. In South Kivu, recent reports show
that women and girls suffer physical injuries like broken bones, head wounds,
pelvic pain, abdominal and gastrointestinal complaints due to domestic
battering (UNIFEM, 2007). If the woman experiences violence while pregnant, she
may not gain much weight, run the risk of pre-term delivery or miscarriage,
birth of infant with low weight and injury to or death of the foetus (WHO,
2006).
2.4.4.4 Sexual effects
In most cases, domestic violence overlaps with sexual abuse.
The victim is compelled to sex beyond her preparation and willing (Gelles,
1997).This often culminates in unwanted pregnancies or contamination of STDs,
including HIV/AIDS, fights and eventually separation (Mossi and Duarte, 2006).
To the US Bureau of Census (1997:8), the upshots of brutal, inappropriate and
hurtful sexual intercourse remains indelible in the mind of the victim since
she develops feelings of guilt, shame, fear, bitterness, lowered self-esteem
and depression for long periods. Sexual abuse often makes the victim to lose
trust in the abuser, develop incapacities to rest and enjoy sexual activities,
become a misogynist, or be reluctant to experience sexual pleasure (Olson and
DeFrain, 2000:203 and Melgosa and Melgosa, 2008:46). These finally develop the
victim's failure to reach sexual orgasm, which causes masturbation,
unfaithfulness or divorce (Finkelhor, 1986:123).
2.4.4.5 Economic effects
As most world societies are patriarchal, this causes some
women not to easily gain economic means. In fact, women rely on men who are the
only owners of economic assets and besides, girls and women cannot inherit from
their fathers once they are deceased (Russell 1996:97 and Women Watch, 2000).
In accordance with the US Bureau of Census (1997:3), almost 30% of the women
abused in their homes lose their jobs because of direct and repeated assault by
the husband. Actually, Gelles (1997:61) avers that women victims of domestic
abuse may move several times away from the abuser; but if she were employed,
this hampers on her job's stability. Therefore, the victim becomes more
destitute, which worsens her situation and that of her children (Strauss and
Gelles, 1986:79).
2.4.4.6 Damage on marriage
Marriage is not safe with domestic violence. The victim
suffers low self-esteem, which is due to lack of skilful communication between
the couple (Stern and Beir, 1977:12). As stated by Boonzaier (2008:69),
violence in marriage shrinks the couple's harmony and often, this culminates in
separation or divorce. To Levy (1991:21), this happens because of the abuser's
emotional violence that has been applied to the wife, blaming her for his own
bad behaviour or hold her accountable for actions he has failed to control in
the home.
2.4.4.7 Effects on children
Children reinforce the meaning of marriage and they are not
safe with domestic abuse. They are also victims when their mother is abused. In
some cases, they may intervene to defend the mother and so, they become caught
in the aggression. Moreover, domestic violence may cause divorce, and children
will experience a mono-parental education, which impacts them negatively
(Ruhamya, 2007). Fitting Olson and DeFrain (2000:201), one-third of the
children who experience one parent's education because of divorce display
considerable behavioural, developmental and emotional troubles and problems at
school. Such children may leave their families and join the streets where they
learn more destructive behaviours, or enrol with militias to become child
combatants (Bahige, 1994:99). According to Jaffe et al. (1990:41) and Hilberman
and Munson (1977:78), domestically abused children develop shyness and fear in
school, if they have a male teacher in whom they usually see their violent
father. In South Kivu, Bahige (1994:271) discovered that the boys who were
domestically abused could not respect their female teachers as they considered
them as their mothers whom they often saw their father abuse in the home from
time to time. Matching Sable (1992:34), girl children who observe maternal
violence in their homes are more likely to endure it in their adulthood when
they are married than those who did not experience it in their youth.
2.4.5 Culture of domestic violence
The abuser may apply violence on the victim because this is
culturally normal and accepted. Fitting Wilondja (2008:61), the culture of
domestic violence moves family members from a peaceful context into a
conflicting cohabitation. In fact, resorting to violence to resolve conflicts
is often fostered by social, cultural and even political contexts and this
eventually promotes and spreads male aggressiveness in families (Jumapili,
2009:102). An example is that justice and the police disregard domestic abuse
as they argue that family contention is none of their business, which a good
motivation for male abusers to abuse their wives in the home (Mirindi, 2003:102
and UN document, A/53/370). Presently, Simons et al. (1993:98) entail that
training and observation of violence around us is too influential and it can
reach the inner part of our heart and changes us into aggressive beings. For
example, culturally and structurally, men have long been inculcated that they
must naturally dominate, control and
abuse women, based on gender inequality (Weiss, 1973:39). The
Seville Statement on violence rejects this belief because it reveals that
scientifically, violent behaviour is not genetically programmed into human
nature, which would confirm that human beings are automatically predisposed to
aggressiveness (UNESCO, 1986:264). Nonetheless, although domestic violence
seems to have existed in the evolution of human beings' history, it is never
natural and family members should not adapt to it (Baker, 2007:1). But
Finkelhor (1994:66) and Weiss (1973:43) say that such a culture prevails since
women always close their eyes to domestic abuse, which is in fact their method
of adapting to domestic abuse because the latter seems unalterable.
2.5 Prevalence of domestic violence
The occurrence of domestic violence is undeniable because it
affects family members of rich as well in poor countries.
In industrialised countries like Japan, 59% of the women
surveyed in 1993 were found assaulted physically by their current or former
husband and this from women of the age of 16 (Wilondja, 2008:53). Meel
(2005:215) also noted that in the United Kingdom (UK) and in the United States
of America respectively 25% of the women who were interviewed in 2004 described
having experienced physical violence in one episode from their partners in
their homes.
In their research conducted in developing countries in 1998,
Fikree and Bhatti (1999:197) identified that in Kenya 42% of 612 women surveyed
believed to have been beaten by their husbands. In Uganda, 41% of women were
abused physically and even harmed by their partners and 41% of men revealed
that beating a wife was normal family life. Based on these facts, it proves
necessary to detail the connection between masculinity, power and GBV.
2.6 Link between masculinity, power and GBV
By considering the different kinds of violence that happen in
different places among people, we notice that the devastating majority is
committed by males. Sanday (1981b) comments that nearly all rapists, most
domestic abusers and murderers and most individuals implicated in street fights
and riots are men. In fact, history shows that warfare is powerfully men's
deeds, which signifies that the sizeable bulk of the world's soldiers are men
and boys. Statistics prove that most of the world police, detention centres'
warders, politicians, admirals, almost all the generals and bureaucrats who
control the systems of collective or institutional violence are men (Connell,
1985:5).
Despite the above arguments, most men are not aggressive.
However, when violence occurs, it is mostly men who are involved.
This applies for both interpersonal and interstate conflicts.
This is enough to clearly understand the connection that lies between being
male and the use of violence.
There exist widespread beliefs that aggression is hereditary
among men. Hearn (1996b:36) argues that males' sexual abuse of females, other
males and children is the outcome of too much testosterone, or men's genetic
makeup, or men's inherent violence. Such beliefs are wrong. Such deep negative
values help to acquit and tolerate men from their violent behaviours and
beliefs, which justifies the status quo. However, Sanday (1981b) acknowledges
the existence of entire cultures in which GBV is nonexistent or remarkably
unusual.
Alternatively, GBV includes domestic violence, rape and other
forms of domestic violence that are social and cultural facts and never
biological ones (Hearn, 1996b:58). The relation between violence and maleness
is a social and historical product; it is not a biological one. Violence can be
unlearned, just as it was learned and being man can lead to becoming loving and
caring human beings. In reality, it is manhood or masculinity that triggers men
to fabricate this close connection men and violence.
It requires a lifetime's education and preparation about
becoming a true man. The influential type of maleness gives to both boys and
men such qualities as violence, control, a feeling of
right to using hard power and emotional heartlessness. These
are supported by some traditions that justify the violence and the power of
men. Consequently, many men learn how to behave violently, how to be repressive
of understanding and exceedingly aggressive. Barnett (2000:80) and Ongala
(1993:42) confirm that the image of maleness reflects a man who cannot be
resisted in his family or community. Thus, violent men and boys are partly
acting out the dictates of what it means to be a `normal, complete and real'
male.
The link between GBV and power is important to know. Domestic
violence by men preserves and conveys power over family members that are women
and children. Men's violence remains a fundamental insight that the violence
committed by men is key for the organisation and maintenance of gender
inequality. In effect, rape and other forms of sexual abuse have been
considered as typical terms of the operation of male power over women. In this
connection, Miller and Biele (1993:53) state that `rape is the final expression
of sexism, a perfectly designed weapon of social control.' When men apply
violence in intimate relations, they are reinforcing sexism, the beliefs of
male dominance and superiority (Hearn, 1996b:29). The institutionalisation of
male supremacy and patriarchy are in both the public and private areas and they
are fundamental in accounting for GBV.
To illustrate this, sometimes men's domestic abuse can be the
effect of possessiveness and jealousy. In men's mind there is the sense of the
justification to punish their women. This translates the conviction that that
violence is an acceptable and logical form of punishment as a form of
expectations regarding women's domestic work; and the importance for men of
maintaining and exercising status and authority over women (Levy, 1991:23). In
fact, men's domestic violence in families and homes `is only understandable in
the context of power inequalities and gender norms, and can be seen as a
development of dominant-submissive power relations that exist in normal family
life'(Hearn,1996b:31). In the same vein, men may react violently if their power
and honour are mistrusted and other approaches have failed or when they feel
threatened when family members do not do what they expect (Gelles, 1997:58).
2.7 Conclusion
This chapter has reviewed literature regarding domestic
violence. The literature review itself concentrated on the overview of
violence. It has defined domestic violence and highlighted its different forms,
causes and consequences in the family and in society. It discussed the context
in which domestic violence is cultural. It also dealt with the prevalence of
domestic violence and finally, the chapter connected power, masculinity and
GBV. The aim of reviewing this literature was to discover the links that exist
between men's domestic violence and the reasons that fuel it. Evidence has
indicated that men resort to violence in the home because they want it and not
by accident.
Nonetheless, the literature review has shown that violent
men, mostly, apply violence in the home as a better way to resolve contentions.
This is culturally accepted and supported by society as a natural way for men
to assert power to and control members of the family. A society that is male
dominated fosters masculinity based on power and requires women to be
considered as inferior. The connection between superiority, maleness and GBV is
real as men think this helps them become more respected. This is the prevailing
principle of men's domestic abuse that underscores some of the underlying
social roots of domestic violence in society.
CHAPTER THREE: RESEARCH APPROACHES
3.1 Introduction
This chapter highlights the different methods and procedures
that the researcher used for designing the research project, how data was
collected, and the research sample. The chapter also draws attention to issues
of ethics as well as the research's limitations.
The researcher was motivated to implement a qualitative
research design because it is very effective in gaining deep, original meanings
and being able to observe interactions. This method allowed him to obtain rich,
in-depth data regarding beliefs and attitudes of male domestic violence in
South Kivu.
3.2 Approaches for data collection and procedure
3.2.1 Approaches for data collection
For data collection, this research used a qualitative method
with focus groups and in-depth interviews. To Strauss and Corbin (1992:17),
qualitative methods are a generic word for investigative approaches that reach
conclusions without statistical process or the kind of study that reaches
findings via existent social situations in which factual interests are
displayed in a natural context. Using such methods in the current research
infers that they are portrayed as anthropological and naturalistic. This
allowed the researcher to assemble data that focused on South Kivu men's
perspectives regarding their beliefs and attitudes towards domestic violence in
the province. In this way, Adler and Adler (1987:5) add that such a tactic
scrutinises the qualities and characteristics of phenomena by observing the
respondents in their natural settings, interactions and interviews. This is
confirmed by Patton (2002:39) and Baily (1997:22), who explain that the aim of
a naturalistic approach is to gain a perspective of what occurs where people
live. This, in turn, is intended to keep the research from influencing the
results. Because the phenomena under study are complex, the researcher did not
think it would have been possible to answer the research questions using a
quantitative approach. Subsequently the researcher used a qualitative approach
for the simple reason that it remains a good tool that can empirically verify
these facts by taking into account the respondents' points of view (Punch,
2005:35 and Marlow, 1998:13). Qualitative
methods deal with the description and understanding of the
subjective meaning of people's attitudes and beliefs that support their stories
(Grinnell, 1988:186). It is in this context that this research project uses an
exploratory design by interviewing men who may have caused domestic violence,
which generated awful consequences in the homes of South Kivu.
Qualitative research was selected to help the researcher to
understand South Kivu males' beliefs and attitudes toward domestic violence.
The role that variables play in the natural context in which they are
considered at the moment of research is of importance. In valuing the
relationship between the different variables in research, Baumgarter and
Clinton (1998:46) believe that in collecting detailed information with
open-ended questions, the researcher would be able to quote directly the
respondents' statements. As a result, this may lead him to become important in
research, which is different from quantitative procedures. On the other hand,
when the researcher is using quantitative methods, he collects information
using objective methods that provide data about relations, comparisons and
predictions, which removes him from the research (Smith 1983:91).
No case is ever perfect. Qualitative approaches are
criticised for being too subjective as they are not rigid with their techniques
(Becker, 1996:21 and Adler and Adler, 1987:32). In the minds of Miles and
Hubertman (1999:56), qualitative methods may depart from the original reasons
for the research as responses may change the nature of the study.
Alternatively, Patton (2002:103) disagrees that qualitative investigation
supplies richer and more valid data compared to the information that is
obtained via quantitative research tools. As to Blaxter et al. (2001:58), the
importance is that `a good qualitative research study can help to understand a
situation that would otherwise be enigmatic or confusing'.
As a consequence, qualitative research is vital in
documenting oral and written data provided by the informants. In fact, Stebbins
(2001:76) is convinced that qualitative approaches facilitate the collection of
more detailed data on a given topic than any other research approach. This
facilitation is favoured by the collaboration that is established between the
researcher and the respondents in a qualitative research. This can actually
grant more impartiality during the process of collecting the needed data on a
given subject. In the same
line with Boas (1943:312), qualitative approaches allow the
researcher to infer some information. Understanding the data gives the
researcher a greater image of the problem, which allows him to enrich the
natural and basic data into an explanation. Essentially this better fits the
research in this study as a qualitative design offers a good opportunity for
the researcher to collect more detailed data (Pamela and Richard, 1994:44). The
picture, or a clear understanding of the context, aids in understanding the
data considering that the other empirical information provides cross-reference
and validation.
3.2.1.1 Documentary approach
This is the method that allowed the researcher to collect
secondary data of beliefs and attitudes towards male domestic violence in South
Kivu regarding domestic abuse. Based on Charles (1994:41) and Cohen (1997:41),
documentary methods help the researcher to read and discover the content of
many written documents like books, journals, newspaper articles, letters,
official reports, administrative records, web pages and diaries about a given
topic. Reading written documents' contents allowed the researcher to draw
particular conclusions related to the societal conditions in which such
writings were done and read. In effect, documentary method does not show a
clear cut way but includes background and supportive details. To Denzin and
Lincoln (2000:52), a written document is usually considered as a work of art
that was recorded like a text despite its format because writing remains a key
societal activity. This explains the reason why documents should be vital
resources to any researcher who wants to investigate social situations. In
addition, written documents are sometimes believed to safeguard researchers
although existing documentary resources are seldom given the consideration that
they ought to have (Sharp, 2002:13).
To Mouton (2001:32), documents are social products that must
be shared among the individuals who live in a given society. Since they are
based on some particular conventions and mirror some detailed discourses,
written documents therefore present some advantages to this research. Any data
that is gathered from books or any other different writings are helpful for
highlighting the conceptualization of men's opinions about the beliefs and
attitudes of male domestic violence in South Kivu and seek ways to reduce it.
Besides, it helps the researcher to justify and understand the topic in
full.
3.2.1.2 Focus group
Focus group is the method that the researcher used in order
to collect primary data. As argued by Parker and Tritter (2006:25), the method
remains a fundamental tool for researchers because it provides enormous
qualitative information in a small period of time. Furthermore it also produces
more data that is original, rich and valid compared to other methods of
research (Kidd and Parshall, 2000:299). During focus group talks, the
researcher moderates the debates between different respondents. This must be
encouraged because discussions are a consistent means of scrutinising
individuals' views on a given topic. This method is a type of interview that
encourages the interviewees to discuss different specific subjects by
discovering underlying themes, attitudes, beliefs and even values that are
familiar to their daily lives (Taylor and Bogdan, 1998:104).
In the case of domestic violence in South Kivu, focus group
methodology reflected what the population thinks about it through a reduced
number of respondents taken from the local population. In this vein, Polit and
Hungler (1999:133) ascertain that the approach promotes the understanding of
the respondents' attitudes and perceptions from their group talks. Focus group
talks seem to be a microcosm of `the thinking society' that remains able to
disclose the progression by which social rules are produced in a joint way via
discussions (Babbie and Mouton, 2001:33). The method discloses how the opinions
of some specific individuals can be adapted or even considered in a developing
team method. And according to Mouton (2001:41), he confirms that such discovery
depicts how the contributions of participants in their unit discussions
interlink and conflict along the dialogue and the arguments that exist between
the different interviewees of the same group. The respondents in every group
will react as team-friends by questioning one another without fear, exchange
narratives and think about some of the comments based on the experience and
opinions of other members of their unit. The researcher needs to access as much
information as possible from each team. This kind of data allows for
transparency as the opinions are known by everyone in the focus group. Sharp
(2002:29) believes that units of interviewees may convene several times and
their focus teams may be conducted in series or in parallel.
As regards the beliefs and attitudes of South Kivu men
regarding violence in the home, the researcher formed two focus team
discussions of seven men participants each.
In addition, as advocated by Mahoney and Goertz (2006:235),
the data collected from focus groups is not enough, so the researcher decided
to organise in-depth interviews. These detailed discussions were composed of
three participants from each group and in each part of the province, to take
part in further exchange. The aim of this was to allow the researcher to
confirm some of the insights collected from the members of the focus groups
(Monett et al., 1998:59). The contact among group members during the
discussions is of paramount importance and the researcher becomes a trigger for
helping the in-depth discussions to be more productive in a logical sequence of
open-ended questions that actually prompt the respondents to be very
participative to the talks that are organised inside their respective teams
(Parker and Tritter, 2006:28). Interaction between group members must be in a
good environment because discussions will emerge without problem between the
researcher and the participants and of course among the interviewees themselves
in their own units.
In the same context, the questions that were developed
focused on individual beliefs and attitudes regarding domestic violence in
South Kivu province. Furthermore the researcher framed questions related to
specific aims of this current study project. The formulated questions
investigated males' beliefs and attitudes towards assault in South Kivu homes.
This research investigated the existence and strength of South Kivu men's
abusive beliefs and attitudes as well regarding violence in the home through
the selected sample of men.
3.2.1.3 In-depth interviews
This research about beliefs and attitudes regarding male
domestic violence in South Kivu used qualitative research. This helped to
depict how a naturalistic and interpretative approach identifies the meanings
that men attach to their attitudes, beliefs, decisions and values in the
province. To Ritchie and Lewis (2003:25), this opens a way towards the
understanding of the mental mapping process that respondents use to make sense
of and interpret social facts. This remains a good way to focus on words and
explanations of men regarding domestic violence in order to convey truth and
endeavour for the illustration of their natural contexts. It is in this
context that in-depth interview, representing an approach,
was chosen as the key method for gathering the information used in this
research. All in all, the researcher organised four interviews (two focus
groups and two in-depth interviews). He expected that there would be some men
who had committed violence in their homes to be among the key group
participants.
To Terre Blanche and Durkheim (1999:25), in-depth interviews
help the researcher to look deeply into theoretical matters at an early phase
when he is elaborating the questionnaire that he will use for the research.
Speculative considerations can consider the answers that the respondents
provide to the questions, which helps to check whether they give a picture of
their real understanding (Punch, 2005:42). In the mind of the researcher, the
application of such an approach aims at examining the different themes that can
be deducted from the various groups' personal right, which process will
obviously offer more facts regarding attitudes and beliefs about domestic
violence in South Kivu. To Ulin et al. (2004:124), the researcher may do this
if he is seeking more understanding of an issue through individual
circumstances, not a quantitative investigation, or to supplement a given
qualitative enquiry that has been conducted in a different place and
environment. The researcher together with the different respondents are able to
profoundly explore a given subject because in-depth interviews require the use
of open-ended questions, often asked by the researcher to a given respondent
during the talks (Monet et al., 2003:79).
The researcher had with him a guide to the topic, but had the
option of putting it aside as the questions were simply worded. The researcher
applied survey methods in cases where he felt the necessity of allowing for
broad responses. This was confirmed by De Vaus (2002:57), who suggested that in
order for the researcher to get individuals' insights regarding meanings or
definitions of a given situation and their way of shaping its reality,
interviews remain the only relevant method to rely on. De Vaus (2001:71) states
that detailed interviews have their primary advantage of offering much more and
specific data on a given topic compared to what other methods of data
collection provide the researcher. Furthermore, comprehensive interviews are
considered because they are believed to provide a more relaxed atmosphere to
the respondents than during their team talks. This means that `in-depth
discussions are a good
tool for the researcher to collect data' since they do favour
the respondents to relate their personal stories and opinions in a natural
conversational way, which environment a survey questionnaire does not foster as
the respondents simply fill out the form.
Despite that in-depth interviews are valued for the above
qualities, they still present some weaknesses. Babbie and Mouton (2001:23)
confirm that these methods are limited since they can consume more time, taking
into account the restricted time period the researcher has to organise the
different interviews, note the respondents' opinions down and analyse the
outcomes. For the above reason, in their conclusion, Ulin et al. (2004:81),
clearly state that during an interview, the respondents' answers may be
subjective because the researcher exercises a certain influence in the
different teams along the process.
3.2.2 Procedure
The process of data collection was conducted using two focus
group discussions in Bukavu, the capital city of South Kivu. Each team
comprised seven men participants and the researcher used a qualitative
approach. Kitzinger (1994:104) notes that `a good qualitative method can help
to understand a situation that would otherwise be enigmatic or confusing'.
Because of this, the approach was very important in noting down and documenting
verbal and written information from the respondents because this was a genuine
way that allowed the researcher to gather more detailed information on the
topic under discussion. But before jotting down any data given by a respondent,
the researcher obtained written consent to have his name to appear as such in
the findings. The researcher abided by to the respondents' point of view.
Fischer (2005:48) posits that the closeness that exists
between the researcher and the respondents in this approach creates more
objectivity in the data collection. However, the researcher collected data from
men who knew about domestic violence, have once committed it or would commit
it, or again those who live close to domestic abusers. In this way, he expected
to have very few of them who admit having committed it in their homes. It was
difficult to ask someone who has committed domestic violence to their own
family members to openly admit it and tell the story during focus group
discussion. For participants who
openly avowed this, their data were very sensitive and therefore
highly protected because this is crime that is punishable. This data had to be
protected by the agreement of confidentiality.
After each focus group that lasted approximately 60 minutes,
three of the participants to the focus groups were selected and invited to
willingly partake in the in-depth interviews that took place in the period that
immediately followed the period when focus groups ended. Such interviews were
like group discussions except that the researcher had to involve one individual
in the interview at a time. The researcher expected that the respondents would
not refuse to attend and share their opinions regarding males' beliefs and
attitudes about domestic violence in South Kivu. When the researcher met the
potential participants, he explained to them the purpose of the research, its
aims and the ethical issues. Besides, he asked them if they would mind using
their own names in the research findings or if they could use pseudonyms.
In-depth interviews were necessary to this study because they
helped the researcher to investigate South Kivu men's personal, sensitive or
confidential information regarding domestic violence that was not suitable to
cover in an open group discussion. This seemed to be a best method for seeking
men's interpretations and responses to domestic violence in the province. In
other contexts, in-depth interviews are advantageous for busy people because,
as they may fail to attend focus group discussions, now this can still be an
opportunity for them to participate. In addition, in-depth interviews offer a
good opportunity that strengthens focus group talks by allowing the respondents
who have been shy in focus group talks to be free for responding. Congruent
with Ulin et al. (2004:102), such interviews bring something additional to
focus groups discussions. This procedure was used purposively; in other words,
in-depth interviews were very helpful to the researcher for collecting
supplementary insights from the focus teams on beliefs and attitudes of male
domestic violence in the area. During team talks, much and special attention
was put on the interaction among the different group members who were speaking
(Flyvbjerg, 2006:220). It should also be reminded that this approach offered
the interviewees ample space to feel like speaking in real context.
On the other hand, in-depth interviews are criticised for
their disadvantages. In case the detailed interview deals with two individuals,
one respondent may feel like `a bug under a microscope', which can cause him
not involve courageously in the discussion (Patton, 2002:23). Thus he becomes
less willing to be open up compared to the relaxed mood of a group discussion.
However, this disadvantage was overcome as the researcher made every effort to
quickly establish a good relationship and confidence with his informants in
their own units.
Accordingly, the role of the researcher during this process
was to assist the respondents to produce relevant in-depth discussions that
contain an ordered succession of open-ended questions. In-depth interviews were
organised during the week after the focus groups talks had been conducted.
3.3 Sample
The importance of researching on South Kivu male-focused
domestic violence is motivated by the fact that the abuse is mostly perpetrated
by men. It is in this context that the current research project concentrated on
adult male respondents whose age varies between 26 and 69. Seven respondents
were purposively selected from the local population. At the start, the
researcher sought help from the local leadership in order to help him in
selecting the respondents. Then, the researcher invited all the selected people
to participate to the different group talks.
Such a selection inferred purposive sampling, which means
that the researcher selects the sample population considering their knowledge
of the phenomena of the study (Polit and Hungler, 1999:12). The main reason for
the researcher to choose sampling was that it saves time of research activities
and money that would not be used since the number of the cases involved was
reduced. To Mann (1985:16), this denotes intensive effort in obtaining high
quality information about a very compressed number of the issues that will be
studied on a given topic. On the whole, in case the researcher decides to use a
random sampling process, each individual in the community would have an equal
chance to be considered in the sampling process for the research (Bailey,
1982:29). The group of men who were selected for
the research were a good selection because they represented a
broader community, that is, South Kivu. The selected people were interviewed;
their attitudes and beliefs combined to present a more global view of the whole
community than the researcher had been studying (Mann, 1985:30).
In order to limit the sampling structure, the researcher took
into account the population target of some men from South Kivu province.
Although the number of respondents was much reduced and did not cover the total
population of the province, it remained representative and illustrative.
Accordingly, such selection contests the scope to which this research outcomes
can be generalised because of the reduced size of the sample that is used. The
research deals with the beliefs and attitudes of male domestic violence in the
area. Its results will complement the many previous ones that have been
conducted on the same issue in the same province. This research was intended to
enrich the understanding of men's beliefs and attitudes concerning domestic
abuse.
3.4 Data analysis
After the researcher had collected the necessary information
he needed for this study, he had to analyse it. Data analysis was of paramount
importance to this research because it helped the researcher to uncover and
make a real explanation of how South Kivu men think of domestic violence.
Congruent with Holloway and Wheeler (1996:72), information dissection is the
means through which the researcher reaches his objective of digging out how
people live the situation that is under phenomenological study. This required
that the researcher used thematic analysis in order to scrutinise the collected
information regarding males' beliefs and attitudes about abuse in the homes.
Holliday (2007:93) describes that `thematic analysis allows a
researcher with qualitative method and design to develop themes and use a check
on consistency of judgement'. In addition to this, the researcher sought to
discover the different themes by interpretation, which is normally a good way
for scrutinising talks and interviews. This process required the researcher to
grasp the themes that came from the information gathered during the focus
groups discussions and interviews that emphasized men's attitudes and beliefs
regarding
domestic abuse. Collected data was analysed and interpreted
to seek patterns of meanings regarding men's beliefs and attitudes of domestic
violence in this province. To Amin (2005:43), this is a sure way for the
researcher to determine specific themes and patterns of behaviour and
attitudes,which helps him to understand the social context that people consider
when they use abuse in the home.
Punch (2005:58) states that thematic analysis is a common
method used for interpreting social reality. The researcher checked what themes
could be deduced from the respondents' answers to the focus groups and in-depth
interview questions. If we consider beliefs and attitudes towards domestic
violence, the `researcher's opinion must be as close as possible to the
majority of the informants' (Vicsek, 2007:22). This infers that the respondents
may have personal and changeable internal views that are centred on a given
situation under study. Since the researcher cannot have the whole truth of the
respondent's internal views, he has to quote excerpts from their contributions
to the various discussions that occurred in different units (Strauss, 1992:32).
Given that various interviewees may provide different opinions in quantity as
well as in quality during focus group discussion, Parker and Tritter (2006:35)
insist that during data analysis, the researcher must not consider everything
the respondents say. This means that information breakdown requires a sound and
logical assessment of interviewees' global discussion and also the environment
changes that may possibly affect the degree of their input during the
discussions in their own units.
On the other hand, during information scrutiny the views of
the discussion groups may change and there may appear a difference of attitudes
and beliefs in the same team. The researcher should not neglect the
interviewees' openness in conveying their views regarding South Kivu men's
beliefs and attitudes towards domestic violence. For that reason, the
researcher checked whether interviewees' opinions had not been impacted by the
number of individuals who represented the minority attitude in the team and
possibly their social status. But in the mind of Mouton (2001:68), the
difference that exists between the majority and the minority's opinions in
different teams and how identical the views of the majority makes another
substantial modifying reason.
The above arguments reveal that all the participants would
not contribute equally to the discussions in their respective teams. In other
words, it was possible that some members of the group talks failed to express
appropriately their personal beliefs and attitudes towards domestic violence
simply because they considered the mate's contribution as not his own personal
and internal opinion. Sharp (2002:64) recommends that the researcher must think
basically on the different responses that the respondents will provide. This
assumes that the researcher explored, refined deeply and considered the
participants' points of view and not the way in which they were producing them.
Such analysis allowed the researcher to typify similarities and power of South
Kivu men's beliefs and attitudes that induce violence in the home and therefore
stimulate the culture of domestic violence in the province.
All things considered, the researcher did not neglect the
diverse groups' atmosphere and mood during discussions. Lunt and Livingstone
(1996:83) state that these factors remain very influential to the various
participants' opinions and the researcher will have to indicate this during
information breakdown. This depended much on how the researcher promoted group
members to speak in a relaxing way. In addition, Mack et al. (2005:54) urge the
researcher to do everything he can to ensure that confidence and freedom among
team members during group discussions are encouraged. In reality, this shows
how each participant is feeling when he is motivated to unreservedly provide
more private data about himself, which also makes him believe that he is in a
safe and trustworthy environment to relate attitudes and beliefs that will not
encounter any social expectation (Vicsek, 2007:25).
3.5 Ethical issues
When the researcher was conducting the data collection and
during data scrutiny process, he did not neglect the moral code of
confidentiality and anonymity. Since this research is very sensitive, the
researcher assured the respondents that their names will be secretly kept safe.
This practice was mirrored in the research's way of treating objectives by
asking the men who were being interviewed to freely choose a false name by
which they would be recognised along the whole process. This meant that every
interviewee who took the floor for responding would first tell the researcher
his pseudonym and then gave his attitude. The
procedure helped the researcher to put in writing the view given
with the right person, via his false name, in a correct way in order to avoid
confusions during data analysis process.
The researcher clearly informed all the interviewees about
the aim of this research. The researcher also let them know that participation
was willing and not obligatory. Indeed, this meant that any interviewee who
would feel no more interested in responding to the different questions that are
asked in in-depth interviews might quit the talks freely. And finally, he
informed them that there was no monetary advantage from taking part in the
discussions.
The ethics regarding the informed consent were used in the
current research. The researcher interviewed grown up men who were actually
mature men who have been or are married. In order to conduct well his research
regarding the beliefs and attitudes towards male domestic violence in South
Kivu, the researcher sought a principled clearance. This document originated
from the Ethics Committee of the University of KwaZulu-Natal. And finally,
authorisation was also sought from the South Kivu local authority because it is
here that this research was conducted. The researcher asked the provincial
authority to provide him with a safe and very private room in which he would
organise and conduct the different focus group and in-depth interviews.
3.6 Limitations of the research
This project research about the beliefs and attitudes towards
male domestic violence in South Kivu acknowledged some limitations. The first
one was that it interviewed a limited number of men who originate from the
province where domestic abuse is applied. The next restriction was that the
sample of the men who were interviewed were not really the majority of the
population who abuse their family members.
Based on the above restrictions, the researcher felt the need
to consult other people who were neighbours to domestic abusers because they
were supposed to have necessary evidence regarding male's domestic abuse in the
province. For that reason, because of the reduced time that was allocated to
data collection and extremely limited resources, the number of the
participants were only seven men in each of the two interviews,
that is fourteen. In fact, the size of the sample of the men respondents was
another limitation to this research project.
During data collection, the researcher did not have
sufficient time for running focus group and detailed interviews with wide
numbers of men who have knowledge about male's attitudes and beliefs towards
domestic violence in the province. The researcher did not forget the limitation
concerning the sensitivity of domestic violence issue in this area.
Domestic assault remains a delicate issue in this province
where it is not allowed to people to openly discuss about sexual abuse which is
its integrative part. In other words, the cultures of the DRC make domestic
violence a taboo issue as they believe it is a typical concern between the wife
and the husband, which bans it from public debates. Since the researcher had to
respect the respondents' views, he would not go beyond their wishes. As a
result, it proves that social desirability together with self reporting were
highly considered as great restrictions to this research project.
3.7 Conclusion
This chapter has dealt with the different approaches that the
researcher used in order to collect the data he needed for this research. These
approaches included the documentary methods, the focus group discussions with
in-depth interviews and data analysis. The researcher was motivated to use
focus group discussions as the right tool of information collection through
qualitative method because he believed it conceptualises the South Kivu males'
beliefs and attitudes about domestic abuse. In addition, application of
violence in homes remains a social phenomenon as this is widely induced by
community peer norms. The researcher also used the in-depth interview as an
auxiliary method in this study. In effect, this enabled him to learn the
respondents' individual points of view that could be difficult to divulge in
focus group discussions regarding domestic violence.
CHAPTER FOUR: RESEARCH DATA ANALYSIS
4.1 Introduction
This chapter reviews and analyses the results that the
researcher collected from the different focus group and in-depth interviews he
organised on the field. The research dealt with beliefs and attitudes towards
male domestic violence in South Kivu. The findings were gathered from two
groups of male participants, particularly from Bukavu. In order to maintain
confidentiality of the interviewees, the researcher reported their opinions by
quoting them word for word under hidden identities. The raison d'être for
using pseudonyms was that the different interviewees did not allow the
researcher to use their respective names along with their attitudes and beliefs
in this research. In fact, the participants' beliefs and attitudes were at
times illegal. For that reason, the researcher and informants agreed to
associate false names that they have chosen with their respective opinions.
Furthermore, the researcher wants to clarify how men's
beliefs and attitudes are strong factors of leading to a proliferation of
domestic violence in the province. This said, the chapter also connects men's
beliefs and attitudes and domestic violence in the province, which is
manipulated by social and cultural norms. After the researcher had analysed the
data, he categorized the findings into themes and sub-themes, and referred to
the existing literature review for discussion.
The chapter contains five main subheadings. The first section
deals with the characteristics of the target population of study. The second
presents the key determinants of men's violent beliefs and attitudes in the
province. The third and the fourth sections concern respectively the beliefs
and attitudes of men regarding domestic violence and the final section is a
concluding paragraph.
4.2 Sample characteristics
This section presents the socio-demographic characteristics
of the sample of this research. All the men who involved in the talks; ie focus
group discussions and interviews were from South Kivu and they were
representative for all the different tribes and religions that exist in the
province. The majority of them originated from the Shi ethnic group which is
the largest of all. The remaining participants belonged to other different
tribes that exist in the province. Seven men were selected to participate in
the focus group interviews in each of the two teams that were formed but some
of them were absent the day of the interviews. Later on, three of those who
attended were selected from each group to participate to the in-depth
interviews. The youngest interviewee was 26 and the oldest was 69 years old.
These interviewees had different marital, educational and social statuses; one
of them was a local leader. Those who had divorced or widowed blamed domestic
violence and some of these participants avowed to have applied violence in
their homes for a reason or another.
4.3 Key determinants of males' beliefs and
attitudes.
There exist various factors that cause men apply violence in
their families but for South Kivu men, the participants pointed out the
following reasons: society, masculinity and assertion of power.
4. 3.1 Society
South Kivu men who participated to the interviews revealed
that society greatly fosters domestic violence. They advanced that impunity,
making domestic violence a culture, accepting and tolerating domestic violence,
gender roles and unfair power distribution between men and women and patriarchy
are the main ways society uses to foster men's domestic violence in the area.
Below are the participants' opinions by category:
Views on social impunity of abusers
Dira: South Kivu never punishes violence in the home. I
think if some men behave so, it is because of the justice here and no one cares
about it. For instance, no child or woman can be listened to if they take their
father or husband to justice for abuse.
Tongo: All of you here are part of this society and you
are not obliged to abuse your
wives even if you know nobody will punish you.
I think this is an individual issue
because if we all here can decide not to
abuse women, society will not pursue us and
so we can change it. On the contrary, society will follow
people's way and so you can make society abolish violence on women.
Views on culture of domestic violence
Bitu: uh uh uh, once a family member has disturbed you,
you must show her how angry you are; this is our culture. Traditions allow that
a man can whip his wife because certainly she will go around mouthing about you
badly and you will be ridiculed. The culture here states that man's rules must
prevail and apply to women because they are like children, they get what they
cause and they are informed of this.
Dira: Traditionally, many women have been abused in a way
or another and so they are not ignorant of what goes on in households. In case
you slap her, she won't say anything about you but if you don't she will say
she is your medicine. Such bad boasting about you will make you angry again and
then you seriously react (beat her). But if she runs, you let her go and wait
for the next turn. But me, no matter, if she runs I will trap her and catch her
and then I will show her what I am made of.
Comanda: It is right that she may run but as a man, I will
do all my best to get her until she feels who I am. Hey, this is simply our
culture. It's the culture of this land, since our ancestors.
Dondo: To me, I can't let her without touching on her. She
provoked me, so she must get it right. This is the way of life here. She did
it; she must feel me, I am the man. Women have been living that since the
creation of Adam and Eve.
Views on acceptability and tolerability of domestic
violence.
Dira: Society knows and understands the context in which man
can beat the wife; if she refuses to do what I tell her or if she keeps nagging
me.
Bitu: Society has set some contexts in which we have the
right to correct women like when she hits or throws something at the man or
responds to you arrogantly.
Joco: Men here cannot tolerate a woman having sex with
another man and refuses to have sex with the husband or she turns the children
against the man.
Fikiri: My brothers have said the necessary but we all
know that no man can understand or stand the woman who humiliates him in front
of his friends or relatives, like refusing him food or any order. The society
is aware of everything; people say `makambo ya mobali na mwasi, kokota te!' (
never mingle with issues regarding a wife with her husband).
Tongo: Violence will break that harmony and beating
family members or the wife, I frankly fear to hurt them physically, morally or
spiritually. I must forgive and tolerate. Tell me, you beat your wife and at
night you feel cold, she will not... [people hum in the hall], you see! But
besides, a woman is also a human being just like you and me [continuous murmurs
in the hall].
Golo: You guys, I cannot understand you people here. How
can you behave this way toward the mother of your children? She is your wife,
ok? Are words not enough to change family members? I think all this is to
destroy the home and not to redress as you say.
Views on gender roles and unfair power
Joco: In a house of a man, a woman cannot inherit. This
means that the power of men is strong and high .What will happen when the
family is attacked? She has no force to affront the invader. No, women are made
for the kitchen.
Dira: In my village, I have never seen a woman or a girl
taking the name of the man who has died. If no girl, that man died like a dog,
then his brothers are there to control everything.
Fikiri: A man needs authority because it helps him
achieve his `goal'. Man uses his social and physical power willingly or
unwillingly. This is why we decide not to send girls to school because it is
loss of time and money. I would rather send a boy than a girl because the boy
is helpful to my family. The girl will leave us and join her husband; you see
that there is no interest to spend much on her.
Dondo: The girl will be married; she will leave me and
goes to make her own family; How can she come from there to inherit in my
compound? This is not our culture, in Europe, yes, but not here . Women know
what they must do and we, men have our duties. And, you see, women and girls
here are not allowed to eat some food. You come from this area, who is that
girl or woman sharing chicken and milk with her father or husband?
Views on patriarchal society
Dira: This is not a matriarchal society. Here, man is the
head of the family, not the wife. Up to man to put order in the home and not
the woman or the children. Man is the head of the family and God knows that.
You remember what happened to Lucifer with God in heaven! Yes, this is not a
matriarchal system.
Bitu: I agree. When you are the head, you must express
your authority every time and you continue in the same way. In a patriarchal
society like here, men are stronger than women. This is our culture here; it is
from God that men `rule' families and not women.
Comanda: Sure, even our children should know that the
father is the father. Society stipulates that in patriarchal society man is the
supreme authority in the family, clan and tribe.
Discussion
The outcomes of this research revealed that society is an
important factor that makes South Kivu men nurture violent beliefs and
attitudes towards domestic violence. In focus group interviews, the
interviewees confirmed that the influence of society on individuals is strong
and no one can avoid it. In this way, it is society that dictates the social
and customary rules that must guide people by favouring the abusers.
In the same focus group discussion, Dira confirmed that
society encourages domestic violence through different ways and one of them is
social impunity. This is supported by Amnesty International (2006) as they
state that men often resort to domestic violence because the abusers who commit
it are not sanctioned, not even taken to justice. In this way, South Kivu women
who suffer domestic violence are reluctant to take their husbands to justice as
society considers it as illogical and discreditable. Despite this, Yavana
(2008) asserts that the few wives who attempted to report the abuse to local
justice officials found their cases null because of the police and justice's
partiality. This epitomizes the Congolese institutional unfairness to address
household abuse. To Amnesty International (2006), such a situation propels
domestic abuse countrywide as `they never treat household violence as a crime
but as a home dispute' and besides, the `court does not punish exemplarily home
abusers'. Due to this, Bahige (1994:329) confirms that domestic violence will
always spread as long as the society together with the political system in
place cannot defend the victims' rights. Society's failure to address domestic
violence discourages the victims although this is a good motivation for the
abusers, which make them blame the same society.
Conversely, Tongo opposes Dira's position in an in depth
interview; for him, it is not society that makes people manifest violence in
the home but rather individuals themselves because the latter want to abuse
family members. He adds that since people are components of society, if they
refuse to abuse their family members, these men will have changed the
society and not the society to change them. He believes man
conceived society and all the rules that govern it; therefore, men can also
change them if they wish.
In addition, the discourses of the participants above
regarding men's domestic violence confirm that society is for violence in homes
as it is a social culture. Mayer (2000:71) considers culture as a vehicle
within which domestic violence occurs. For him, it is a set of specific and
enduring social customs, traditions, values and behavioural patterns that are
widespread and normal to a given group of persons who live in an area. These
cultural factors impact the abuser's behaviour, which explains his use of
violence in the home. In the view of Bitu, culture says that man's rules must
prevail and apply in the home. This entails that society has taught men the way
they behave abusively in their homes toward women. In this context, Parker and
Tritter (2006:23) say that such social culture, though destructive, recognizes
men's domestic violent behaviours and beliefs culturally and socially. In one
word, society has arranged customs and traditions and even bodies that dictate
men how to consider women.
In an in-depth discussion, Dondo states that a woman and any
other family member cannot oppose him because he must do his best until the
woman `feels' who he is. This is culturally supported by men in South Kivu.
Rose-Innes (2006:3) and Bulonza (2006:32) corroborate that the customs of some
African societies are behind men's view of domestic violence as normal and part
of family daily routine. In this view, men who are violent in their homes,
particularly towards women, are trying to confirm to the victims that they are
reacting to the norms and the customs of society. Accordingly, Hatari (1999:85)
confirms that 42% of women are domestically abused in the DRC in different
forms by their husbands. This is the microcosm that, culturally, women always
suffer men's violence even if man has failed to control his violent behaviours
when he has been provoked. Summy (1995:10) ascertains that the culture of
domestic violence builds on the `values that encourage the conviction that
women cannot oppose men's domestic violence because of their obedience towards
men in society'. This concludes that both domestic violence and coercion always
walk abreast and traditions encourage men to be their initiators.
In other words, the positions of Bitu and Dondo openly boost
of the fact that the culture in South Kivu allows men to abuse family members
while women are not allowed. This actually means that there exist
pre-established cultural norms that society has instilled into men's minds, for
example, male violence is instinctive, natural and uncontrollable. For the
woman, the same society stipulates that she should be submissive to men's
beliefs, no matter harmful or not they are. Therefore, Finkelhor (1998:78)
underscores that men often believe that their violent beliefs are consistent
with their culturally established privileges.
The majority of the respondents in focus group discussions
confirmed that social tolerability and acceptance of men's domestic violence
encourage abusers to abuse family members. They also confirmed that domestic
violence in all its forms is not viewed as a social threat. Indeed, this means
that family abuse is not considered as a socially abhorrent act; that is why it
does not boost social controversies. Actually, in South Kivu, everyone is aware
of domestic violence but they cannot mingle with it as it must not be combated
(Ruhamya, 2007). This explains the reasons why Bitu and Fikiri use the pronoun
`we `and `our'.
The South Kivu social environment should move from
considering domestic violence as a man's right that is socially understandable
to a more accepting, emphatic perspective that sees it as a social evil that
must be stopped. Participants admitted that men are socially excused if they
beat the wife in order to put her right. This means that South Kivu men have
the social go-ahead to abuse family members and the wife in any circumstances
even if the woman threatens to quit the abusive home. Zihindula (2009:73)
admits that men's violence towards family members is more condoned particularly
toward females than women's abuse towards males. Most of the interviewees to
this dissertation believed that men have the full right to hit the wife in case
she beats him or shows him insubordination.
However, this belief was opposed by some of the participants
in focus group discussions. Through Golo and Tongo's statements, we find that
some men oppose the rationalization of domestic violence. In this view, Hatari
(1999:63) notes that the fact that society excuses the men who perpetrate
violence in their homes but blames the victims highlights how unfair it is. In
the mind of Tongo, domestic abuse is a social evil to prevent because of its
awfulness.
Though a local leader, he believes that if a woman can be
abused and feels the weight of harm, man should also accept abuse from woman
and not make it a taboo or something horrible because both man and woman are
human beings with feelings. To Finkelhor (1998:78), this implies that society
should give the same rights to each of its members by shunning partiality that
mostly favours men over women.
During the focus group discussions, the participants said
that social disparity of gender roles furthers men's domestic violence. By
saying that `women must stay in the kitchen' and `women know what they must do
and we, men have our duties; women and girls here are not allowed to eat some
food, who is that girl or woman sharing chicken and milk with her father or
husband?', respectively Joco and Dondo highlight that society creates gender
difference and roles in the home. This shows that traditional society has
conceived activities and functions based on gender. In the same vein, Meel
(2005:57) finds that gender difference builds around food as, in some African
societies, there exist food for men, food for women and girls and food for
children. For instance, based on some cultural taboos, COFAPRI (2010) discusses
how DRC women and girls are not allowed to eat food like chicken, eggs, etc
because they are typically reserved for mature men. Similarly, gender roles do
not allow women to do some activities because they are weak to such jobs
correctly or simply because it would be outrageous. This is why Joco and Dondo
confirmed that South Kivu society considers as disgraceful and taboo (and so
sanctions follow, like beating or cultural cleansing) if girls or women climb
trees, climb or build a house, whistle, sing while cooking, sit on a mortar,
sit legs crossed, sit with their father, beat a man until blood sheds, refuse
sex to husband, etc. As a result, Vuningoma (2003:45) says that not respecting
one of these social prescriptions gives right to man to apply violence and
sometimes for married women, they can be repudiated and family reintegration
will be conditioned by paying a fine to the village elders to mean `I will
never repeat that'. Man, and not woman, is totally excusable if he abuses a
family member due to breaking social norms and traditions as he is their
protector (UNIFEM, 2007). Conversely, on his side, man is not affected by these
norms, although he must observe very few of them like to sleep behind his wife
in bed, eat in a pot (pan) or cook, etc.
Because of gender difference, girls do not have equal rights
to accede to education like boys. The latter are given more chance compared to
girls for the assumption that girls do not perform as well as boys at school.
To Vuningoma (2003:88), girls are discriminated because once they are married;
they will not be helpful for their own parents, thus, no reason to spend money
on their education. Paluku (1998:95) opposes categorically such favouritism,
which is another form of domestic abuse, because educating a girl is not a loss
as some men may think, it is rather beneficial to the society because if you
educate a girl, you have educated the whole nation. Besides, , in an in-depth
discussion group, Fikiri and Dondo confirm that boys should go to study and
girls stay home to carry out housework because they are meant to be wives in
the future.
Power was another issue the interviewees believed cause
violence in South Kivu homes. Chetkow-Yanoov (2000:98) and Mayer (2000:50)
consider power as one of the triggers and currencies of any violence, including
domestic abuse. Fikiri stated that no matter how, willingly or not, he
exercises his power provided he achieves his target. This is what
Chetkow-Yanoov (1997:33) calls `man's authority and ability to act and to get
something happen'. This makes us better understand that domestic violence
reflects power as the abuser's physical or social aptitude to hinder the
victim's rights or subdue her. When an individual's power dominates another,
this is power imbalance. In fact, the difference between the social and
physical power of a woman and that of a man is unfair though it is from birth.
Joco affirmed this: `our power (ie men's) is different from that of women, ours
is high because we are men.' In other words, in a domestic violence context,
there is an asymmetrical distribution of power between men and women because
society gives more of it to men. This infers that this imbalanced distribution
makes women suffer its negative consequences. As a striking example, Joco and
Dira believe girls are not allowed to inherit their father's property once he
dies. Even if he had only girl children, these girls cannot take over their
father's property. In this case, the brother of the deceased man will inherit
his brother's property. Bahige (1994:43) confirms that in some communities of
the DRC, this brother is customarily even allowed to inherit the widow of his
brother. The same writer says this helps the brother to fully take in charge
the brother's orphans.
And finally the respondents, in both focus group and in-depth
discussions, argued that South Kivu is a patriarchal society, where man has
word and authority over everyone in the home. Dira asserts
that, in a patriarchal society, man is the one who leads the family and not the
woman or children. This is a strong patriarchal belief that depicts men as
being the only ones who can manage the family and therefore apply correction
(violence) in the home. Based on this statement, we find that men are
encouraged not to seek peaceful means to handle their families because they
consider family members as inferior and weak individuals, which triggers them
to use violence simply because they are men. Similarly, Zillmann (1996:52)
supports the belief of patriarchy as he corroborates that in men's thinking,
women and girls are indisputably second class people in the home. During focus
group discussions and in-depth interviews, we could hear men commenting in
these words: `people who drag behind men', `naturally, a woman depends on man'
or `that is the way God made it', `a woman can't rule here'. In the context of
South Kivu, Hatari (1999:49) confirms that patriarchy is that form of
organisation that society has set up to make man become the supreme authority
at the levels of the home, the family, the clan and the tribe. Furthermore,
this system requires that descent is reckoned in the male line with the
children belonging to the father's lineage, which means his clan or tribe. This
form of organisation requires that violence or the hidden threat of violence in
order to maintain itself for ages throughout the society.
Normally, hierarchical difference in the home was another
issue that favoured men in South Kivu. This social belief was noted in an
in-depth contact, for instance when Bitu stated that a patriarchal society must
be ruled by man and not woman. In fact, this depicted the unconditional aspect
of family life in which he grew up until he became mature. In this line, Paluku
(1998:76) confirms that power relations and gender dominance in families still
give it all to the men, which characterises the approach to domestic violence
in the homes. In other words, women will remain passive in order to preserve
obedience and respect to the husband. As a result, Kitzinger (1994:144) argues
that the men who abuse family members develop the ideas of male sexuality in
the home. Thus hierarchy becomes portrayed in comparison with domestic violence
and strengthened thanks to the culture of the entrenched notion of `heshima kwa
bwana' meaning respect to the master (husband).
The DRC, and South Kivu in particular, is a society that is
powerfully patriarchal as it is dominated by men, which means that most women
are never given enough power and authority in the family, hence in society.
This is what makes women be victims of men's control and abuse as this is
reinforced by the patriarchal environment. Vuningoma (2003:31) maintains that
women have been largely socialised to consider the delicate forms of control
and violence in the homes as such. Still in the same context, Boonzaier
(2008:192) also accentuates men believe violence towards women is an expansion
of male authority in the personal sphere of a patriarchal society.
In fact, based on the feminist belief, Parker and Tritter
(2006:42) reason that domestic violence is a fundamental factor of a
patriarchal plan. This conveys that due to patriarchal system, men become
empowered to control and subordinate easily women in particular and family
members in general. If men were taught the errors of patriarchy, they could be
kept from abusing family members and renounce to it.
4.3.2 Masculinity
The participants to this research conceive masculinity in
different ways:
Comanda: I am a man and the wife must know that. That is
the role of our masculinity that society has given us. We men are endowed with
power over women in the world and here it is the same.
Dondo: I can marry as many wives as I can but this is not
allowed by the wife. She is just a woman and she must be under man's control
and not the opposite; the force of a man is the many women and children around
him. We control women in everything.
Dira: We who `have many offices' must know how to rule
them. To have many wives is not an easy thing. The wife owes respect and total
obedience to men in the home. Lack of this will surely lead to conflict and
violence. Man is the only person to redress family members because his force is
natural.
Fikiri: I am a man in my family and everyone must feel I
am `Mwanaume' (a true man). This gives me joy and happiness. My power and
masculinity are inherent in me; they come from God, so why not to use
them?
Discussion
During a focus group interview, Comanda states that the main
factor that pushes South Kivu men toward violence in the homes remains
masculinity, power and the environment. On the same issue, Martin et al.
(2002:562) state that men's masculinity is a key factor that different ethnic
groups use and share for abusing family members.
In South Kivu, it has been found that men perceive their
masculinity in terms of number of wives and their capabilities to control the
family (Bahige, 1994:329). According to Dondo and Dira, polygamy reflects the
man's power and maleness. This infers that with many wives, the husband will
produce many children. Dira says that a man should have many `offices' but he
seems to forget that this is challenging.
Men perpetrate violence towards family members with the aim
of expressing their masculinity but they disregard the consequences that
follow. The ideas of masculinity shape men's violent control and insist on the
different forms of domestic abuse over family members and women, in particular.
Vuningoma (2003:99) confirms that maleness over the wife and the children in a
home hinders their rights, joy, cohesion and trust, which is another way of
abusing them. This means that man's esteem and reverence is fostered by
masculinity, which sometimes obliges him to be violent in order to be feared.
This is what Comanda calls the wife must know that he is man.
Fikiri is the microcosm of the participants who support men's
masculinity. Most men feel happy to be considered as full and real men in their
homes. Those who lack such an acceptance may feel compromised and incomplete,
which is conducive to domestic brutality. Men often digress when reasoning in a
way, for example, `a woman is not a person to fear or women must feel man's
masculinity'. In fact, the literature underscores that some men perceive
maleness in connection with the use of violence in the home, and that this
provides the perpetrator with joy when behaving coercively in the home
(Boonzaier, 2008:192). To some writers, there exist some men in society who
easily connect their masculine personality and the use of violence, mostly
beating (Arias, 1999:63). Domestic violence is therefore
regarded as just a symbol of the male status that is built
around intimidation, battering or use of force over family members.
On the other hand, South Kivu men know that they are in a
male-dominated society where they control every level in politics, economics
and religion, just to name a few. Men are the ones who define the fundamental
social ideologies (Olson and DeFrain, 2000:203). In fact, men in such a society
live the realities of being a man and besides, they have feelings and impulses
that are inconsistent with manhood. In case the husband develops worries of not
having his strength and dignity, Gelles (1997:98) says that this would make him
repress his emotions and attitudes.
Domestic violence takes the pattern of coercive assertion of
power to express `bwanaume' or maleness. Such attitude portrays how men are
very proud of applying violence towards family members, particularly the women.
In fact, domestic abuse is a typical influence that family members cannot get
rid of, which means that no family member must oppose the man's violent
attitude. Sungura (1999:43) confirms that the assumption that some African
women allow their husbands to abuse them by battering remains a strong
indication that women support men's violence provided that they preserve their
family unity.
4. 3. 3 Power assertion
In addition, a coercive attitude of asserting power over
family members depicts how South Kivu males centralise their violence in the
home, particularly over the wife for domination. The attitudes below were
collected in both focus group and in-depth interviews; they depict what is
stated above:
Fikiri: I think that sometimes, we must compel family
members to do our will. Such control makes them respect us. Some of us just
think that we only want to abuse family members and particularly our wives. No,
that is the power of being man.
Joco: Yes, if a man has a large family, it won't be easy
to manage them; this requires the application of power. Being a man is also how
much power of controlling them you have over your family.
Golo: I am a man but I think that women are weak
individuals who need men's
protection. For me, maleness means that we
consider women as our mothers and
sisters who must be respected and be listened to. They are
beautiful people God gave to men to help them and not to make them
suffer.
Discussion
Based on the above opinions, during an in-depth interview,
Fikiri and Joco confirm and explain how South Kivu men impose their power to
family members. Fisher et al. (2000:37) consider power as a relative and
essential component that gives influence and talent to an individual to
intimidate. As man is the head of the family, his power will influence coercion
and this affects everyone in the family.
Managing a big family is not easy. But for Joco, force must
apply to redress family members. Power does not necessarily refer to using
active physical force. Accordingly, Melgosa and Melgosa (2008:128) confirm that
the head of family may just listen to family members' claims but this cannot
change his attitude. In this way, hard power has been applied over family
members whose influence is weak. Some respondents informed us that such power
is supported by societal, customarily rules and norms, making man's word the
most valuable and final in the family.
The available literature tells us that men are sometimes
socialised to think that they can never dominate and give up application of
force toward their family members (Wood, 2009:146). Molesting a wife is easy
since this is not outrageous and not a big mistake. Some respondents avowed
that no single man can avoid this because no man is guilty for using his power
in the home. Rude (1999:9) compares this to the `husbands whose violent
reactions are all often seen as inevitable, understandable and somehow
pardonable.'
In an in-depth interview, Golo contradicted violent opinions
among family members. In his views, women are weak creatures who need
protection from men because they are valuable people to men. To Paluku
(1998:67), using hard power towards mothers, sisters and wives is abominable as
it hinders their total development. Such abuse brings shame among family
members because beating one's parent is a taboo as it breaks communication in
the home (Vuningoma, 2003:99). In fact, this implies that man's power should
mean that men do not
submit women to be like slaves to masters and that
collaboration is promoted in the family because the latter makes a unit.
Participants opposing domestic violence drew an example from the Bible that God
always takes care of women and that He always favours them because he
intervened two times to rescue the beautiful Sarah, Abraham's wife from rape
(Genesis, 12:14-20; 20:1-7).
South Kivu men's beliefs regarding domestic violence in the
province need to be looked at one by one in order to understand their reasons
of applying violence in the home.
4.4 Men's beliefs of domestic violence
4.4.1 Women like abusive men
Dira: I think there exist some women who do not feel
happy when they are not beaten by their husbands. They feel loved and proud to
tell to their friends of it. I have never beaten my wife but I hear her telling
me the stories of her friends who are always abused but cannot leave
them.
Comanda: A woman cannot hate a man because he abuses her.
An abused woman who returns to their parents will have caused her husband to
pay a goat o his wife's home in order to take her back, which confirms her the
husband still loves her. For some women, abuse means love.
Dondo: Based on my own experience, some women like brutal
men. Once beaten, she will seek reunion, which leads to an opportunity to
discuss some issues that have been neglected by the husband. If no answer but
they have at least said their ideas.
Golo: Violence in the home is truly illegal, incorrect
and even an offence. Violence is violence; it has no positive explanation and
there is no woman or family members who can like to be ill-treated. I think you
guys who hide behind unfounded reasons should stop because violence in the home
makes the family suffer; this is shame to the society.
Tongo: It sounds shameful to abuse family members; this is a
big mistake men often commit.
Taking into consideration Dira's belief in a focus group
discussion, we learn that some men are violent because they are sure some women
appreciate it. In his research conducted in the DRC, Sungura (1998:92)
highlights that 37.6 % of South Kivu men admitted that women like violent men
sometimes because they never quit them and in addition to that they make a lot
of children with them. Similarly, Wilondja (2008:108) maintains that coercion
in homes is so common that the victims, particularly women, have familiarised
with it although it entails very little and nervous communication among family
members. Stenberg and Beier (1977:98) confirm that some women share their
stories of being abused in the home and they conclude that men are men and they
need to enforce their patriarchal maleness.
To Dondo and Comanda, men are motivated toward domestic
violence simply because women appreciate their husbands' violent attitudes in
the home. As a result, Bahige (1994:359) corroborates that social norms foster
violence against women in the home and in society. Actually these customs that
persuade women to eternally tolerate their husbands' domestic abuse are
instilled in the minds of both men and women since no woman will leave a
husband because he has been brutal toward her. Some men do consider domestic
violence as a reaction to the wife's demand as `I had to respond to her
request'. It is in this view that Erturk (2007:39) states that 30% of men
believe that they abused their wives (sexually) because they were asked to do
so, which gives such women pleasure. In addition, Mirindi (2003:37) indicates
that some DRC women often ask their husbands what's wrong if they have not
recently fought. This means that these women appreciate being abused as, for
them, this conveys their husbands still love them. Evidence from Comanda states
that some women believe abuse is sign of love. He adds that such women feel
proud to tell their relatives and friends `this time, he did it to me', he
added.
In spite of the above beliefs, very few participants in both
focus group and in-depth interviews strongly blamed abuse toward women. Golo
and Tongo depicted domestic violence as a wrong and a crime that heartless men
commit to family members, particularly the wife. They stated that the
assumption that women like domestic violence is not founded and it should be
rooted out from men's minds because violence in the home is pure shame.
Arias (1991:65) condones domestic abuse because its injuries
and negative emotions break family unity.
4.4.2 Women attract violence on themselves
Among the many beliefs that motivate men to use violence in
their homes, South Kivu men argue that wives often provoke abuse by men. Below
are the views of the interviewees regarding the women who magnetize men's
violence on themselves; they were collected from focus group and in-depth
discussions.
Dondo: South Kivu women also cause us to be violent in
the home. Yes, because they repeat the same error and they tell us, but you can
beat me. The words from women's mouths hurt more than a knife, if they can shut
up, we can't beat them.
Bitu: What Dondo says is ok. In this province, there are
some women who just put their finger in the man's eye thinking he will keep
quiet. The way they speak to men, their behaviour and the way they wear are
enough to redress them. Some women are clever; they touch you in the eye and
when you react they leak out bed secrets. They relate the story to parents,
relatives and friends so that they see you as a devil, someone useless and
totally despicable.
Fikiri: when a man tells a woman several times to stop
drinking for example as the husband does not drink, and she continues, she is
telling you to do what you like. I think I must do it to make her understand.
Here are other women who wear the way that is not decent and the husband does
not like it. She tells the husband to put where he wants. And the husband does
so.
Comanda: This is often due to their bad responses to the
husband. They simply provoke men by their speeches, and when he touches on them
I think they feel happy because they got what they wanted. Yes, when she comes
home very drunk, it means that she wants to be taught a lesson.
Golo: One day I was exchanging with a woman, she told me
that men do not like women who respond to them. It seems when the husband
rebukes the wife she must shut her mouth because the more they are exchanging,
the more they are fuelling the contention and so man will not hesitate to apply
violence.
Joco: For me I think when a woman willingly repeats errors
several times, she knows this will annoy the husband but she does it. This
means that she is telling him indirectly to `touch' on her. Also, some women
here like to be abused so that they can get a way to put you in public, which
gives them right in the eyes of the public.
The opinions of the above participants show clearly that some
men abuse women; they think they are provocative of violence. In fact, Dondo
shows, in a focus group discussion, how women push their husbands into violence
and later on they claim they have been abused. Edelson (1999:147) indicates
that `men often assault women due to their bad words; men do not tolerate
insolent women'. In the same way, South Kivu men often opt for domestic abuse
as the result of the wife's words that accompany their repeated and bad
actions. Based on such myth, men believe it is rational, right and normal to
use violence in their homes. This means that men are not willing to dominate
their power over their violent impulses and that women do not control their
words, their way of walking and clothing in front of men, which means that
women attract men's violence. In a research done by Longa and Bulonza (2006:9)
in the Great Lakes Region (GLR) regarding men and domestic abuse, it was found
that 20.3 % of male being violent in the home is often caused by the wife's
continual misconduct despite the husband's remarks.
In an in-depth interview, Fikiri brings in a further
assumptive opinion of some women who wear what their husbands have refused them
and drink alcohol whereas the husbands never drink. Accordingly, such arrogance
and insubordination also trigger some men to be tough with their wives in the
home. Research by Amato and Booth (1996:362) concludes that though a man can be
very open to tell a woman he loves her, she should not behave the way to
attract him more, which the husband considers as purely provocative. In coming
home drunk, the husband concludes that his wife has been flirting other men,
who ultimately bought her alcohol in order to sex with her. In this way, South
Kivu men will always perceive the woman as the real cause of abuse since she is
more responsible of what she is doing and totally knowing that it is bad but
she does it willingly. In most cases, provocative women of domestic violence
are very few because it has been found that more males often instigate domestic
violence compared to women (Amato and Booth, 1996:368).
In his account during an in-depth interview, Golo makes
obvious that women dress the way
that may push men to run behind them,
which, for him, is an invitation for the husband to put
her right. In his
mind, he wants to display that woman's way of dressing to the passengers
means that she can respond to their call for love. The
husband being aware of this will not hesitate to lay his hand on her, calling
her a prostitute. In South Kivu, this gives the man full right to apply
violence on the wife. Based on this view, Bahige (1994:333) concludes that
family assault is predominant because women encourage and provoke men in the
home. Actually, such traditional myths aim to make women responsible for
domestic violence and at the same time, it views men's beliefs and actions of
violence as allowable in society and therefore supporting the unspoken approval
to men's violence. Mawazo (2010) reveals that, women are too submissive,
subordinate and passive in their home relations with their husbands and they
are too often to blame for domestic violence.
Although women cause men to abuse them, some women have some
reasons to do so. In a focus group discussion, Bitu and Joco revealed that
women are very cunning and malicious because they willingly entice their
husbands to beat or insult them so that they can publicly picture them as
pitiless perpetrators of violence in the home, and even disclose their homes
secrets. Both interviewees witness that some men often fall into their wives'
trap. Paluku (1998:87) underscores that when a woman wants to expose the
husband's abusive evils in the home and in the bed, she simply irritates him so
that he can abuse her and so she gets an opportunity to tell the people
everything about him. This is what West and Prinz (1987:205) called the
`women's uncontrolled and provocative verbal expressions'. In this context, man
will blame himself as he feels shame and ridiculed in the eyes of the public.
But again, since he has nothing more to protect and he has been exposed to the
public as a social evil, this will possibly push him to become even more
aggressive towards the wife. This actually depicts those rare South Kivu women
who break the culture of silence although this brings them more violence.
4.4.3 No woman can leave her home because of
violence
South Kivu men are convinced that no woman can leave the husband
because of violence in the home. The interviewees to this research gave their
views:
Joco: We are men. I am convinced that no woman can leave
the husband if they have children with her provided you still supply her with
her own and the children's needs. No, no, she can't go. She fears how to go
with the kids. Our grandmothers used to be abused but couldn't leave their
husband as they knew that life is like that. Yes, they
had no resources to live on their own. She can't go and
even the children will not accept her to move away
Tongo: This is a good point to discuss but my friends
here discourage me. They should know the woman is not like a goat that you beat
and she can't even cry, women are also human beings and you guys should
understand their case. If she feels discouraged, she is free to go. If she can
return to you, that's ok but do not think she is obliged to stay with you even
if you are abusing her.
Dira: Yes, she must stay and feed her children at home.
She has nothing to support them where she goes. I can't allow her to go, I'll
tell her that her leaving will not change me but if she stays, she may change
me. Also, if she produces many children she cannot move away as she fears how
to feed them. She will go if she never saw her mother living the same
conditions as herself. With children she will be heavy to go.
Comanda: I think everything from my brothers gives
clarification and it is fine. But, besides, a woman is never married to return
to her parents. The culture and our religions refuse women to go back to their
parents. If she still loves me she cannot go. She has to understand that we men
were created like that. She will stay there one day, the following day, her
brothers bring her back. She will feel shame. And in case she returns to her
parents', her bed has been burnt, where will she be sleeping?
Discussion
The belief that abuse is not a real reason for which a woman
can quit her abusive husband is widespread and nurtured in this province. Men
are convinced that when they have children with their wives, this is a kind of
glue which makes them stay in the home even if they are being abused by their
husbands (Paluku, 1998:72). This is founded on the idea that most South Kivu
women do not have jobs as they totally depend on their husbands (Matundu,
2007:12). In the case of the Shi tribe, for instance, a woman will say
`nafir'oku bana bani', meaning that I accept abuse because I have children with
this man. This because the woman wants to make her children grow up and so by
this time, she often dreams and expects the abuse to have stopped. Simons et
al. (1993:718) assert that men are sure that raising children while single is
an enormous task that women cannot afford as it is somehow overwhelming. In
most cases, men threaten their wives who attempt to leave the home to take the
kids away from them. Considering the motherly love women have towards their
children, they ultimately accept to suffer.
Based on the above arguments, women like to do what they
think is fine for their abusive husbands with the aim of maintaining the whole
family together. This is often an experience women acquire from their families
of origin. Joco supports abuse because a woman who used to witness her parents'
quarrels in their relationships over some issues will think that the life of
the woman builds on violence, therefore impossible to ride it out. Sable
(1992:270) states that any woman who has been abused in her youth will never
understand that abuse is awful and therefore no idea of a healthy home. This
shows how women lack the understanding or knowledge of how to handle the issue
of conflict in the home any better than they did during their childhood. The
woman is often blinded by the good relationship and face that the man was
showing her when they were dating, which makes her hope that the abuser may
change into a good husband. In addition, South Kivu women are often educated
with strong religious beliefs that never allow divorce. In valuing their
religious beliefs, these women become too much attached to marriage. In this
province, there exist many religious faiths that support that the woman marries
a man and must stand by her husband until death parts them.
Some of the participants (Joco and Dira) to a focus group
interview were quite clear by stating that if a woman is abused, she cannot
move away. Particularly, the views of Tongo and Dira show that women cannot
leave the home because of the husband's violence. These interviewees equally
demonstrate that they are prepared not to allow the woman decide as she feels.
This because Ruhamya (2007) points that an African woman is never married to
return back to her parents'; she must know how to cope with her husband's
evils. However, some men may go non abusive in case the wife has expressed her
anger and a threat to leave. In South Kivu, there exist many reasons why a
woman cannot quit the abusive home and as men are aware of these, they go on
abusing them in the home. Among those reasons, Dira points out that the wife
`has nothing to feed the children with where she goes'. This depicts that fear
of poverty and harm are some of the major reasons why women never leave their
abusive husbands. In fact, poverty remains a very actual possibility for the
women who leave exceptionally the men with whom they have made children.
Because of many children, women find that leaving their husbands would not be a
positive option since they are poor and jobless, have no place to go to and so
have no means to feed on while living alone.
During both focus group and in-depth interviews, a sizeable
number of men repeatedly advanced that a woman cannot quit an abusive home
because they loved each other. But the question remains to know whether love is
all enough to win over the outcomes of violence and abuse in a home. In their
arguments, West and Prinz (1987:209) attest that if man does not supply enough
love to family members and the wife in particular, abuse will increase. These
writers ascertain that marital love is strong because for spouses, it impels
that most people enter a relationship when pushed by it and that emotion does
not easily fade away. Wood (2009:155) and Sable (1998:554) emphasize that human
beings' self-esteem is high when there is open communication and collaboration
in the home but conversely it becomes very low if violence reigns. Sometimes,
such a sad event of domestic abuse is often followed by the perpetrator's
apologies and promises of change. These regrets and vows give more hope for
change to the wife and she may consider them as the end of the abuse in the
home, which is not often true.
4.4.4 Women fear to divulge husbands' abuse.
The belief that women cannot leak out the violence they
experience in their homes is another
factor that motivates men to abuse
women. The participants gave their opinions on this belief:
Fikiri: I believe women are scared to tell neighbours
what men do to them in the home. This is a domestic secret that is between the
husband and the wife. Any woman who would expose her husband's attitudes and
beliefs outside the home is not submissive and she deserves
re-education.
Joco: No woman can tell anybody if her husband abuses her
in the home. If she says, she will have looked down her parents and aunts who
repeated her several times to never respond to her husband once he is very
angry. Every woman here knows all this. Yes, she fears to be sent back to her
parents with the kids, which is an over charge to her family.
Dondo: Hey dude, who is that woman who can expose her
husband and cause him public shame? She can't and we are sure of this and they
also know it. I know some who are severely abused but they tell people that
they hit a wall or a tree at night; but we as men we know what are that tree
and that wall. This because if she leaks out the incident, she will be sent
back to her parents' for re-education. They will pay a fine for not educating
their daughter and so they will blame her.
Comanda: she can't tell anyone and she can't go because
of the children. She knows that no woman does that; so she can't tell anyone
but if she does, she risks more than what she told the world.
Discussion
The scrutiny of Dondo's belief shows that South Kivu men
abuse family members because they are sure the victims will never leak out
information regarding the abuse. The fear builds around two factors: women are
physically weak and naturally, they are very secretive with the hope that
things will be better tomorrow and those who attempt to go beyond this
encounter harsh and big challenge. Men threaten their family members,
particularly the wife of not being submissive if they tell friends about the
violence they live in the home. It is in this context that Wilondja (2008:72)
corroborates that family members never talk to friends and others about the
awful abuse they experience in their families because they are afraid of
possible harmful retaliation response from the abuser. As for one respondent, a
family member cannot dare to leak out the abuse they witness on daily basis;
otherwise, they may be discriminated and abused. Such members can be chased
from the home, which sometimes make them lose accommodation because they said
what other victims never reveal, no matter how awful the abuse is.
In most cases, men know that women cannot reveal violence
effects due to fear. South Kivu women's manifestation of fear is quite
understandable because those who are abused in the home are at risk. Once the
woman decides to leave the abusive home, if the man still loved her, he may
become more virulent and decide to harm her physically. Women often keep their
abuse a secret while they are sitting on an active volcano because of fearing
others' reaction. That is the reason why the abuser does all the best to keep
the victim isolated from her close relatives and friends (Rude, 1999:22).
If we consider the arguments of both Fikiri and Joco in a
focus group interview, it is clear that the stigma that is constructed around
revealing the abuse committed in South Kivu homes seems to be more rampant.
This may mean that because men are ashamed of what they do to their family
members, particularly the wives, are stigmatised, which makes them to hide the
violence of their husbands in the homes. As an illustration, where speaking of
Iragi, Fikiri refers to his neighbour woman who was seriously beaten to death
by her husband in Kabare in 2009 because she said publicly, and in the presence
of her husband, that he often
abused her in their home. Because of this, many individuals
believe that her death was caused by the injuries she got from her abusive
husband. In fact, women who reveal their domestic ill-treatment to the public
are often threatened by their abusers and sometimes seriously wounded. Sungura
(1998:60) maintains that women who share out their domestic violence with third
parties may be at increased risk of domestic violence. Matundu (2007) finds
that some women believe that leaking out the family issues to friends and
relatives brings the victim to lose her traditional value and belief of being a
real woman committed to the unity of her home. Women's fear and reluctance to
put outside the violence they witness in their homes favours their abusers to
commit more violence and so this spreads domestic violence in the area.
Although the beliefs of the interviewees were very clear about domestic
violence, most of them acknowledged the danger that a family member,
particularly the woman runs by revealing to the public the abuse she lives in
her home but at the same time, there was a lot of fear and anxiety among men to
be publicly labelled as abusers. To Meel (2005:211), the panic of being
publicly pointed at as a family members' abuser explains that men commit
domestic violence where there is no rigid law that can enforce the ban on
family violence.
4.5 Men's attitudes of domestic violence.
4.5.1 Men support domestic violence
By supporting domestic abuse, men in this area gave different
attitudes on the very issue:
Bitu: Man will always correct his wife because he is her
husband. I may not manage well my emotions when I am decided to `touch' on her.
No man hates this; and you, I am sure, you don't. `Correcting' women and
children is not bad at all [claps and whistling in the room but the pastor
shakes his head, tugging at his chin]. Yes, and education...but anger and
reaction are not a matter of education. I am educated but when family members
annoy me, they know. Emotion has no limits and it is not concerned with
education even if educated people don't beat. They return home too late, refuse
financial assistance, etc. Open violence is not good but hidden one can be ok
sometimes. I sustain a man who reacts to evils.
Dira: Women need corrections and this without pity. To
redress a woman is very easy and I can't wait as I am the man. We, uneducated
men, react violently just as anyone who is defending oneself. Even some leaders
are violent in their homes, we all are men and react the same when we are
provoked. But the people who studied do not do exactly as we do. Not the same
but they use other techniques; I can beat for instance, but he will abuse in a
different way.
Dondo: When they disturb me, they expect me to put them
right. It is impossible to tell men to never put right their families who do
not carry out their social duties. This is normal in family life here.
Tongo: Men here should love their wives and if they abuse
them, they should ask for forgiveness. Applying violence to family members
should not be supported, this is abomination. My attitude is that it would not
be good to use violence in the home because the members are united, they are
like one.
Fikiri: There exist many religions here but I have never
seen a woman preaching or reading the mass because they are not allowed to say
the word of God in front of men. And you too, you know that God has no wife and
he has never used women, his son was not married and he had no woman
disciple.
Golo: Fikiri, you are totally wrong. Women can preach but
up to now we do not have those who can do so. When they will be able, they will
be allowed. If they were bad as you think, God would not have created one for
Adam. If they do not preach here, elsewhere they do.
Discussion
The attitudes of South Kivu men who back domestic violence
are contradictory. It seems that the proponents of violent attitudes have
either once been violent or would like to abuse their wives. However, the
attitude of domestic abuse was opposed by some informants in all interviews.
All the participants were men but they did not behave as `men'. Thus, in an
in-depth interview, Golo and Tongo share the same position as they oppose
making family members, particularly the women and children, suffer abuse. Golo
believes that women should not be abused in the home but rather be valued. He
supports that family members should not be held responsible for their husbands'
violent behaviours and that husbands should be able to handle their emotive
attitudes even if they were in a drunken state. Tongo also rejects violence in
the home and for him, this will occur because there is lack of love among the
members. This infers that the abuser may apply violence but he will feel
remorse, which may lead him to apologise. The abuser may be forgiven but the
abuse may reoccur in the following days. The opposers of domestic abuse argued
that `violent attitudes and actions are never unwilling but lack of love
towards the victim.' In fact, this explains the reasons why domestic violence
is cyclic even after the abuser has vowed to never repeat it toward the victim
(Hatari, 1999:75).
During a focus group interview, Dondo does not hesitate to
argue that any family member who fails to do what society requires deserves
correction. It is in this context that Mirindi (2003:48) confirms that some men
assault their wives under the pretext of not respecting their traditional
duties. In the same group, Tongo's position is that it is possible for men to
eschew violence in the home provided that these men do not hide behind social
traditions and customs to infringe voluntarily family members' rights. Cherniac
(2007:73) concludes that men will always develop more coercive attitudes in the
home due to society. The respondents revealed that men applying domestic
violence are not really to blame. To Tongo, both tolerance and forgiveness can
help to bring family members together. This point of view is fundamental since
domestic violence toll in the DRC and particularly in South Kivu province is on
rise (Ruhamya, 2007). All in all, we find that the majority of South Kivu men
who are fond of using violence in their homes are very influenced by the
environment in which they live and they neglect their personal effort to unite
their families.
Domestic violence can be perpetrated by educated as well as
uneducated people. Vuningoma (2003:6) found that applying domestic violence
does not depend on the individual's level of education. The respondents in this
interview agreed that being educated or uneducated, man will always be man. In
the same vein, Bitu adds that even educated people are the most abusive men
because they do not do it openly. Such a category of men have their own way of
abusing wives. South Kivu educated men prefer `clandestine' abuse but the
uneducated commit `open' violence.
In his argument provided in a focus group discussion, Fikiri
admits that in all religions of South Kivu, no woman is a Priest, a Pastor or
an Imam. For him, if churches want men to treat women softly, they must preach
it by examples and not by words. He adds, `I am Catholic but I have never seen
a religious sister say the mass'. Golo, who is a protestant pastor, opposes
this and he believes women do not appear in church services because those who
can do this do not exist in the region.
In addition to the above arguments, Fikiri confirms that what
is worse is that some pastors who should be models `beat their wives, rape and
pregnant the neighbour's daughters'. Paluku (1998:70) underscores that an
individual religious beliefs cannot change completely their violent attitudes
in the home. The Pastor's family members will never leak information about the
violence they live in the home because this would bring shame on the Pastor and
the whole family and culminate in his exclusion from his church, which
ultimately will engender more suffering than violence in the home because the
church in the DRC and South Kivu in particular has become the source of
financial resource that feeds families. Besides, the Pastor's excommunication
may create more conflict in the church and this may lead to hatred and even
open fight.
4.5.2 Friends' pressure and domestic violence
The discourses below relate some attitudes of how friends
influence others.
Dondo: We are not born using violence but sometimes the
influence of our peers becomes strong and we can't resist it. We end up doing
it because men are laughing at you, saying that you have never beaten your
wife. This is what everyman does, we can't avoid this; it is the reality of
men; I can't be the man of my wife. She is my wife.
Commanda: On my side, I can avoid it, but
because of friends of my age I try it. The truth is that they laugh at others
when they know you have never `touched' on your wife. They will tell you that
you have been tamed, which pushes you to try and so escape such sayings. My
wife used to arrive home too late at night without explanations. My friends
told me to ask her like a man where she lingers every day. I was not willing to
but as they were telling me that she had become impossible because of me, I
decided to do it.
Dira: yes, I can live without violence in the home but
what will I tell other men when they put a lot of pressure? Around a glass of
beer, people talk about this. So they can teach you how to create a reason to
start. They don't force but they can simply ask you what kind of man you are
as, for example, the wife refuses you..., you... um, `the bed'; yes, sex. They
can also tell you to try to force because `a woman is always there for a
man'.
Bitu: Battering her, that was my own incentive but with
little pressure from my friend men we belong to the same group of spare part
selling. But this caused more conflict in the home and I was
victimised.
Fikiri: Yes, No man has ever openly told me to beat my
wife. But I listened to them and I personally concluded that it is ok to
`touch' on her so that she may understand that I am above her. I decided to
correct her after my friends had been annoying me.
The following day, my friends told me that now she has
recognised that I am a man who deserves respect. Again, some guys here just use
strong drugs, which cause them remove wives teeth or eyes. Some wives keep
quiet to avoid clash when they see their husbands are drunk.
Joco: Fikiri touches the points. Beer helps too much
because if you did not take of it, you feel pity and listen to their stories
and so no correction will apply. Once I used it when were still fiancés
but... (he smiles and says `you got it').
Discussion
In an in-depth interview, Dondo confirms that the influence
of colleagues on someone's opinions is unavoidable. He ascertains that man
often imitates his fellows and so he can possibly influence others to use
violence in the home. The attitude of Dondo is that peer pressure is a social
factor that influences men to abuse their family members. To Bahige (1994:132),
this means that domestic assaulters impress their peers with explanations of
their violent deeds and attitudes towards family members. Dondo's attitude
depicts the context in which men are often victims of their friends' pressure
for `doing what every man does'.
The very few men who disregard domestic violence are
considered as false men, `the men of their wives'. In the views of the
interviewees, this category of men are strongly criticised by the people around
them. The latter believe that men who are nonviolent have been tamed by their
wives, given some portion to reduce their maleness and power towards family
members; reason why they never talk (meaning batter or abuse) to their wives.
This is often conveyed by the question that violent men often ask of nonviolent
men, `do you fear she will go if you slap her?' Consequently, Wood (2009:142)
maintains that men often undergo their peers' psychological pressure, which
ultimately instils into their minds attitudes that foster domestic violence,
destroying family harmony and welfare.
During a focus group discussion, Commanda also evidences that
the influence of friends' pressure makes men do the unexpected. This leads to
avoiding being the object of discussion among the team members as one will
always be the target of mockeries. In addition, the person in the team would
like to apply violence and feel how his colleagues feel when they use it. This
is dangerous because all women are not tolerant and what applies to one
family
may cause discord in the other (Melgosa and Melgosa, 2008:170).
Presenting a violent attitude in the home while it was not there before may
totally destroy the home.
These arguments clearly explain the reasons why men consider
women as abusable persons; their husbands consider them as second class people
in the families instead of giving them complete honour and full protection
(Hatari, 1999:94). It is certain that attitude of domestic violence may be
learned from other violent individuals. Responding to an in-depth interview
question, Comanda and Dondo reveal that men adopt a violent position just for
pleasing their friends while driving their families into a quagmire of abuse.
In line with Benjamin (1998:106) and Bettencourt (2000), the majority of men
confirm their maleness once they are with their peers and social groups within
restricted constructs of what it really means to be a true man. Some of the
South Kivu men who attended the different discussions the researcher organised
revealed that men are satisfied when their friends approve of what they are
doing. When men are being observed in an admiring way, it means that they do
meet social and cultural criteria of manhood. This, in fact, conveys that they
embrace and support the attitudes and beliefs of other men who are around
them.
Comanda stated that abusive peers consider the men who avoid
violence in the home as being naive, fearful and anti-social. For him, men who
are violent in their homes are believed to be on top and worthy of their peers'
esteem and respect because their wives will never belittle them. The same
participant reveals that learning abusive behaviours from one's peers makes the
man be considered as a `family nuisance'. To Longa and Bulonza (2006:116), in
some South Kivu households, when `the man is out, there is joy in the home but
once he appears, all the children and the wife hide under the table because the
lion has arrived'. Arias (1999:44) substantiates that domestic violence for men
shows the role of family members to the man's sense of masculinity, both in
terms of their self-confidence and respect towards other men. The influence of
male peers remains unarguable; it effects on various aspects of men's
precarious violent attitudes in his home and in the society (CEDAW, 2004).
In their statements they gave in an in-depth interview, Dira
and Fikiri recognise that they
once abused their wives, not because of being
willing, but due to their friends' pushing them
to do so. Although Dira abused his wife under peer pressure,
he ultimately avowed and apologised to his wife that what he did was wrong and
so he told her the origin of abusing her. He depicts how very few abusive men
feel blameworthy and repentant after a violent and unpleasant incident towards
family members has occurred. Sometimes the abuser may swear for himself and his
wife that he will change. But, regrettably Meel (2005:208) found that men who
abuse family members because of peer pressure will not unlearn such attitudes
thanks to strong external influences, even if they have positive intentions.
Bitu ascertains that men create dangerous outcomes in their families by using
violence to their family members because of the influence of the peers. CEDAW
(2004) echoes the same idea when they signify that pressure from male peer
partners can be looked at as a reason that clearly contributes to early and
repeated violence in the home. Cherniac (2007:29) and Bahige (1994:325)
acknowledge that the pressure of friends remains of paramount influence in
applying domestic violence in almost every society of the world.
Such an attitude makes some women hate their husbands'
friends as they learn that violent men who befriend their husbands instil
violence and other bad behaviour such as beating, taking alcohol, running
behind skirts, etc. into them. In fact, Fazzone et al. (1999:96) discovered
that once a husband has introduced violent attitudes in his home due to
friends' manipulation, it means that he has a problem he will not easily get
rid of and probably get worse.
During focus group talks, Comanda avowed that his friends
taught him how to be severe with his wife and his children as they often arrive
home too late at night. These friends suggested him that family members who act
badly cannot be excused because they give man a headache. To Amato and Booth
(1996: 156), family members should provide convincing reasons to the husband
for their late arrivals in the home. If not, Bahige (1994:102) deduces that the
husband may take different conclusions as those of some interviewees: `she is
not submissive, she already has other men, or she wants me to touch her body.'
In fact, such accusations of the woman having affairs are widespread ways that
South Kivu men endeavour to mistreat their wives. Rude (1997:19) confirms that
men often use the excuse
for their domestic violence by accusing the woman of being
unfaithful. They do not trust their wives.
In the same view, some men consume alcohol and other drugs
due to peer influence in order to abuse family members. According to Olson and
DeFrain (2000:106), domestic violence is reinforced by man's peers influence of
consuming alcohol as a good strategy to correct family members. This pressure
of drinking heavy alcohol will possibly increase negative and hostile
communication in the home and so as to lead to less warmth and harmony. In the
long run, such a situation breaks down family communication, causes distress
and other various troubles in the home, which results in family disunion.
To Joko and Fikiri, although learned from friends, alcohol is
a good motivation toward domestic abuse. To Fikiri, the wife will not react to
the husband's provocative words because she notes that he has taken an
additional glass. Alcohol and other drug abuse in excess may be the willing or
unwilling cause for men to apply violence in the home; substance misuse becomes
the harbinger of out-of-control men's behaviour of violence in the home. Arias
and Pape (1999:47) discovered that the `number one commonality within the
dynamics of most alcoholic families is poor emotional health.' This often
creates secondary anger, which is an unsuccessful alternative for handling
emotions effectively. Once emotions are not well managed, the person is likely
to use violence about an issue that could be settled quickly in a nonviolent
way (Guerrero and LaValley, 2006:85).
Participants to this research, in focus group and in-depth
interviews, confirmed that friends' influence of domestic violence does not
depend on how long people have been married. Some participants argued that when
they were fiancés, they abused their partners and `some men married the
same persons that they abused during betrothal, which means that violence was
expected and accepted in their future home' (Melgosa and Melgosa, 2008:100).
Joco reported that he was married for 4 months when he first
used force against his wife,
which was not at his own initiation but his
friend's advise. Mirindi (2003:51) and Wilondja
(2008:84) corroborate that
men face pressure from their colleagues to use early violence on
the wife. Thus, domestic violence should be committed when
the couple is still new because this is the moment when the wife is still very
submissive, obedient and not reactive to the husband's actions. And West and
Prinz (1987:206) confirm that this is the right moment to redress the wife
because if one waits, it will be difficult and besides this familiarises her
with what she has to learn from men.
4.5.3 Dowry entitlement and domestic violence
Participants to the interviews revealed that dowry
entitlement is one of the factors that involve South Kivu men in domestic
abuse. Below are displayed the views of Comanda and Dira, respectively:
Since I gave my cows, this means that I married her and
it is not her who married me. So I am right to correct her because I paid the
dowry; she depends on me and she can't decide in my home as she likes.
Comanda has said everything. The dowry I pay is what
gives me power over my wife.It is like the woman's family sold me their
daughter. Yes, I buy her because I paid something.
Discussion
Dowry gives man power over the women he married because Dira
says ` I gave my cows...I am right to correct her'. In the literature review,
the DRC Ministry of Gender and Family (2006) states that there is the tradition
of bride price among the different tribes of the country and they give it
different names. In South Kivu for instance, the Shi tribe calls it Ngulo.
Literally, this means cost or price (of the woman) that a man pays to the
woman's family in order to have her in legal marriage. However, in this region,
there are a lot of men who have wives for whom they have never given any dowry.
For the latter case, the tradition stipulates that when a man dies before he
has paid the dowry; his children are obliged to pay for it to their mothers'
family (Mirindi, 2003:70). Bride cost makes South Kivu men believe women have
no right as it entitles women to being considered as properties of their
husbands, which makes some men abuse them. The fact that men pay the dowry
means that they are entitled to have power to make decisions in the home and
anyone who may oppose this must suffer the consequences.
In this context, every man does his best to pay the dowry for
his wife because he knows that this shows his power. It is the boy's family
that pays it for him to the bride's family. We find this remark by Mirindi
(2003:53) as he notes that `in South Kivu, it is the man who pays the dowry, in
animals, materials or in cash, which makes the woman become always dependent on
the man'. When Comanda says he paid something, this means that by giving the
dowry price, the husband has purchased the wife. Actually, this gives the wife
little or no value towards the husband. It builds arrogance and violence in the
man's mind and so it makes the wife to become the prime victim of his violence.
The practice of the bride-price has become an acute issue in the DRC and in
South Kivu in particular because the average bride cost has risen (Linda,
2009). Such changes have made the dowry have an ugly face that is generating
negative effects for women including their own survival. Hatari (1999:81)
reveals that data from South Kivu province directly link bride cost to domestic
violence. He adds that some husbands have assaulted their wives calling them
daughters of a `dog' and others have sent their children to their grandparents
to feed them, just because they gave them many cows for bride price.
4.5.4 Domestic violence is a man's self-protection
Dira: A man does not use force in the home without any
reason. This is to protect oneself against family members. If you are very shy
they will consider you as a sheep. They have to know you never joke.
Fikiri: I may use coercive attitudes to give myself
security. They have to know that they should not climb on my back and pull my
beard; this is self armour anyway. They must know that at some point they will
pay back the mistake.
Joco: In case a man says I will be violent; it means he
has some good reasons. I think this is done to put a fence around myself. They
will know that I am not reachable anyhow and that I am the only person to
redress the family.
Dondo: Oh oh, but security is necessary for a man. In my
mind, I feel that what you call `violence in the home' is security for oneself
so that family members do not invade him anyhow.
Bitu: We men, we are like dogs as we pass here and there.
When I have found a lady to greet and ask her her name, the wife can become
nervous. To hinder her from any attack, she must be silenced. If man does not
do so, she will be an obstacle for him to go to the other woman who has loved
me.
Discussion
Joco, with the majority of the participants to both
discussions, supports the idea that men often use violence in the home because
they need self-protection. Their need for their own safeguarding makes them
create a fence of protection around themselves so that family members will not
approach them in any way. This is what Linda (2009) considers as men using
domestic violence to symbolize their self-protection in the home because family
members will submit to man and will not behave the way they like since they
know there are some limits. Joco is also convinced that a man erects an
impenetrable fence around himself so that family members can fear him.
But, in an in-depth discussion, Fikiri brings in a new
context of using violence. When a man has loved another woman and if he
suspects his wife of discovering it, the husband becomes violent. Such reaction
aims to silence the wife so that she may not stop the husband's new way of
behaving. But if it is the wife who loves another man, her husband will never
tolerate it. To this, Arias and Pape (1999:26) confirm that a man behaves
violently once he learns that his legal wife has discovered the other woman he
is befriending or if his wife has made new connections with other men outside
the home. In fact, this creates a dilemma that makes man terrorise his legal
wife so that she cannot have an eye on him in his outside love affairs. In
order to overcome this, some men leave their wives with a lot of liberty. By
becoming more independent, the wife will never have time to check on her
husband's conduct.
4.6 Conclusion
This chapter has analysed the data that the researcher
collected from the focus group and in-depth interviews he organised on the
field. The current research is about beliefs and attitudes towards male
domestic violence in South Kivu. In this chapter, the findings from both
discussions reveal that the key themes inter-relate to maintain destructive and
abusive attitudes of violence in homes.
The social context of South Kivu promotes and wide spreads
men's domestic violence. Society does not punish the abusers because it
considers such violence as not being a social threat but a home issue. It
accepts and tolerates it; thus, the victims must abide to it since it is a
culture. In this vein, men strengthen their masculinity (bwanaume). In case
man's masculinity is not accepted or thinks he is compromised and incomplete,
this endangers his personality. Therefore, he resorts to violence toward family
members, particularly the wife who is closer to him. This because he believes
violence is the symbol of male status. This belief shows that society gives
more power to men compared to women. This unfair distribution of power makes
men use hard power over women whose authority is weak. Accordingly, men are
socially excused if they are coercive toward women but the opposite is not
accepted. This makes women feel obliged to interiorise that violence is family
life itself, therefore unavoidable.
Society has conceived activities and functions based on
gender. Men have their activities and functions and women have theirs. The same
applies for some food that is specific to men and not to women. Infringing
these social prescriptions, the victims are accused of not respecting social
norms, which gives right to man to sanction them. Besides, because of gender
differences, girls do not have equal access to education as boys have. This
exists because the society is strongly patriarchal. Men are always favoured:
they are the only family managers; they are given supreme power and authority
in the family, the clan and the tribe.
Men acquire domestic violence beliefs and attitudes in
society, which means that domestic
violence is not natural behaviour. They
learn it from their friends and the people who are
around them. Abusers will
always impress their peers with explanations of their violent deeds
and attitudes in the home. In this way, the novice will learn
the different strategies and means to exercise violence over the wife. He does
so to please his friends, to avoid their mockeries and so he keeps integration
in the group. Thus, he will confirm his maleness once he is with his peers.
CHAPTER FIVE: GENERAL CONCLUSION AND
RECOMMENDATIONS
This chapter recapitulates the research and provides some
practical recommendations to address domestic violence in homes. Useful
suggestions are a way of thwarting the escalation of the culture of domestic
abuse by promoting harmony.
5.1 Research synopsis
This research has scrutinised the beliefs and attitudes towards
male domestic violence in South Kivu. Nevertheless, its main objectives were
to:
· investigate the origins, categories and consequences of
domestic violence.
· review relevant literature concerning domestic abuse in
South Kivu province.
· work with some men to document the beliefs and attitudes
of men regarding domestic abuse in South Kivu.
· suggest some practical ways to address domestic violence
for seeking peace in South Kivu households.
The current research is about beliefs and attitudes towards
male domestic violence in South Kivu province. The research found that society
supports men's violent beliefs and attitudes in the home. According to the
participants, society, masculinity and power assertion are the main motives for
men to exercise violence in their homes. However, these include many others and
all of them link up for sustaining men's violent attitudes in homes.
Society: Most respondents avowed
that South Kivu society is the prime factor that supports domestic violence
because it embeds and protects all the other abusive behaviours. For them,
society initiates, nurtures, hosts and spreads violence in the minds of men.
Thus, society cannot punish domestic abusers. This neglect, that is impunity,
shows how domestic violence is not considered as a social menace despite the
heavy damages it causes to the victims. It is in this context that society
considers domestic violence as a typical family concern between the husband and
the wife and not a social one. This implies that society permits man's domestic
violence as his right. This, because, society tolerates and supports
domestic
violence as it has made it a culture the victims must bear.
Based on this view, respondents informed us that men are socially excused if
they are violent toward women but the opposite is not. Being a cultural
behaviour, abusers learn domestic violence from their environment. This infers
that men are not born abusers, but they learn it from their neighbourhood. When
men learn domestic violence from their peers, it means that society accepts it
as a norm among the men of a given community. Accordingly, respondents also
admitted that by peer pressure, men learn abusive attitudes and behaviours. It
is in this way that men influence others to drink alcohol and smoke in order to
abuse family members. Once drunk, the abuser becomes fearless, shameless and
insensitive. Once in this state, the abuser cannot control his violent
behaviour. With alcohol, the abuser will decline his premeditated application
of violence. Therefore, for him, violence was due to the alcohol and other
drugs he took. But this assumption remains unfounded because alcohol only
triggers the violence man has already fossilised. For domestic violent men,
alcohol consumption becomes the make believe for the wife to conclude that the
husband is abusive because of alcohol drinking.
Undoubtedly, man always wants to make his presence felt among
his peers of his group with explanations of his assertive attitudes towards his
family. In this way, the apprentice listens carefully and so, he learns the
different strategies and means to exercise violence in his home. A group member
who averts peer influence will be considered as unfriendly, anti-social and
therefore not a real man, revealed the interviewees. As a result, he becomes
subject to social ridicule, criticism, insults and laughter by the fellow
friends he belongs to the same circle. In order to avoid this, he learns and
applies violence. It is clear that his aim is now to confirm his maleness among
those fellow friends, make them happy and pass up their disrespect and blames.
With this, he now better integrates in the group and his peers can accept him
as a trustworthy and real man.
Power: Interviewees said that when
South Kivu men are seeking power, they become violent in the home. Society has
distributed power unfairly by giving it all to men. This situation makes women,
whose power is weak, become more victimised of men's violence. Men resort to
hard power over women who show disobedience and resist their violence. To
illustrate this, respondents argued that a woman may express insubordination
verbally or non verbally
because she feels the weight and the abnormality of the
violence. In fact, a woman responding rudely to her husband or wears indecent
clothes is displaying her weak power, which pushes the husband to use his hard
power. This denotes that men abuse women because of their provocative behaviour
and words that irritate men. The participants argued that no man would accept a
provocative discourse of being nagged or provoked repeatedly by a wife and keep
silence. This situation embarrasses man that he aggresses her. In the
interviewees' opinions, this generates the belief that women are somehow
responsible for their husbands' aggressiveness since they trigger and fuel it;
thus, confirming that women attract abuse on themselves.
But, beyond doubt, men exploit women's submission to assert
their power. Moreover, participants stated that even if some women oppose their
husbands' rules, they cannot forbid the man from asserting power over them.
Therefore, the woman must interiorise man's coercion and consider it as part of
her family life. This point of view makes men argue that no woman can leave a
husband because of his brutality in the home. The woman will keep secretive all
the suffering she undergoes in the home because she fears her husband may
exercise his power on her as retaliation and maybe send her back to her parents
or both.
In order to give more power to man, society has conceived
activities and functions based on gender. Men have their activities and
functions and women have theirs. The same thing applies to some food that is
specific to men and not to women. Disobeying to these social prescriptions
compels the violator to undergo man's sanctions because social norms were not
respected. Disobeying man's authority makes him think his social power is
endangered because these traditions are under his surveillance, which gives him
right to sanction the disobeyer. The participants avowed that social power
imbalance can also be conveyed through the dowry that man pays to the wife's
family as it entitles him with more power, authority and privilege over the
wife. They added that since this bride cost has become expensive, it is now so
hard for some men to pay for it. Those who afford it, do it painfully. Thus,
once married, they will want the wife to pay it back in a way or another, which
explains wife's abuse and exploitation. It is also in this way that men will
make the wife produce many children who, unfortunately, will never be given the
same chance for
education, either at school or at home. So, in the name of
power imbalance based on gender, favour often goes to the boy and the girl
remains discriminated. Thanks to this power, all social and customary
institutions are under man's control and authority.
Masculinity: Interviewees to this
research said that masculinity means that man is not opposed in the home. This
is what motivates South Kivu men to explore their bwanaume (masculinity). In
focus group interviews, respondents admitted that when man feels his maleness
is not accepted, he automatically thinks he is incomplete and his personality
is threatened, which pushes him to resort to violence in order to confirm he is
a real man. Respondents confirmed that men resort to violence because it
conveys the mark of male status. Furthermore, domestic violence does not exist
in a vacuum; it is often associated with a given family relationship. To this
view, respondents revealed that violence in the home means respect and
conformity. These cannot be disconnected from a household relation. However,
the correlation between man and household members must include correction,
which means that domestic violence reflects submission and obedience to man.
The interviewees considered domestic violence as man's pleasure as it depicts
masculinity. In fact, this is the grounds for some men to exercise domestic
violence towards family members, particularly the woman. Although abusers claim
this is their right, domestic violence still remains a human rights
infringement to combat as it impedes the victim's rights.
The respondents in the focus group reiterated that maleness
is use of force when seeking self protection. They argued that men's wish is to
see family members become totally submitted to them. This meant that being
nonviolent in the home would jeopardize man's control, respect and masculinity.
For this reason, the majority of the participants avowed that any man failing
to nurture such feelings would not be regarded as a male.
All in all, the connectivity that exists between masculinity,
power and GBV fosters males' domestic violence. The majority of the
interviewees in this research confirmed that society spreads domestic violence.
They approved that the culture of domestic violence cannot stop in South Kivu
and will extend to future generations as far as society still condones it
though it
is a social plague. However, the point below is dealing with
some ways to address domestic violence for restoring peace in the home.
5.2 Recommendations
Any research that is conducted on an acute issue in a given area
is surely entitled to suggest specific responses to root out the social
existing nuisance.
The research outcomes reviewed in the preceding part indicate
the necessity to transform South Kivu community from accepting domestic
violence as a family way of life to harmonious homes. Men's violent beliefs and
attitudes towards domestic violence will only change if nonviolent ways, at a
multi sectorial level, are involved. Therefore, the recommendations below
concern the government and community.
5.2.1 To the government
· Combat domestic violence nonviolently in order to
eradicate it:
> Reinforce and implement legal texts treating domestic
violence as a crime against humanity, which would discourage domestic abusers,
break the culture of domestic violence and an expression that it is not
tolerated;
> Raise social awareness of domestic violence and educate
the victims to break the silence. This would help the victims not to accept
domestic violence as a norm;
> Integrate gender balance education programme into the
school curriculum, from the basic level. Those programmes would educate the
youth how to apply gender roles and power equally in the home, learn that women
can also manage homes as men do. Thus, they grow up knowing that women are not
inferior human beings.
· Motivate men to choose non violence instead of
violence to address home issues. Since domestic violence is a socially acquired
attitude, men can also learn nonviolence to address it.
5.2.2 To community
· Educate children, both boys and girls, on equal
consideration;
· Strengthen and follow up children and youth
education to help them acquire non aggressive beliefs and attitudes;
· Help the victims restore their self esteem, regain hope
and break the silence;
· Re-educate the abusers about non violent ways to handle
domestic contentions;
· Educate men to use their power and masculinity in a
constructive way.
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APPENDICES
Appendix 1: Focus group and in-depth interview
questions
· Focus group questions
1. Have you ever heard about domestic violence in this province
of South Kivu ? Tell us more?
2. What do you think are the beliefs of the men who apply
domestic violence here? Give details.
3. Do you think domestic violence is tolerated here? Explain.
4. Which attitudes men present towards domestic violence in this
province?
5. Does society or the environment encourage violence in the
home? Tell us in which way.
6. Can a wife cause her husband to apply violence in the
home?
7. How do you think domestic violence can be reduced in this
province?
· In-depth interview questions
1. What are your personal beliefs and attitudes regarding
domestic violence?
2. Do family members leak out the information once they have
been abused in the home? Tell us more.
3. Can maleness make men present violent beliefs and attitudes
in the home? Explain your view.
4. What do you think about the people who say ` a woman must
bear violence in order to keep her family together and that it does not matter
for a man to hit his wife to discipline her?'
5. Personally, what would you suggest for reducing domestic
violence in this province?
Dear friends, thank you for your participation and time you
devoted to this discussion.
Appendix 2. South Kivu authority's permission to conduct
research.
Appendix 3: Interviewees form of consent
UNIVERSITY OF KWAZULU-NATAL
Conflict Resolution and Peace Studies (School of
Economics and Finance) Dear Respondent,
M Com Research Project
Researcher: Mugisho Ndabuli Théophile (
Tel. number: +250 7884 82308) Supervisor: Dr Sylvia Kaye (+277
20703603)
Research Office: Ms P Ximba (+277 31-2603587)
I, Mugisho Ndabuli Théophile, am an M Com. student in
the School of Economics and Finance, at the University of KwaZulu-Natal. You
are invited to participate in a research project entitled `Beliefs and
Attitudes towards Male Domestic Violence in South Kivu'. The aim of
this study is to identify and analyse the beliefs and attitudes that move South
Kivu men towards domestic violence.
Your participation in this project is voluntary. You may
refuse to participate or withdraw from the project at any time with no negative
consequence. There will be no monetary gain from participating in this focus
group. Confidentiality and anonymity of records identifying you as a
participant will be maintained by the School of Economics and Finance, UKZN.
However, as this is a participation in a focus group, please be aware that I
cannot assure that other focus group members will retain confidentiality.
If you have any questions or concerns about participating in
this study, please contact me or my supervisor at the numbers listed above. The
focus group and in-depth discussions should take you about an hour to complete.
I hope you will take the time to participate in these focus group
discussions.
Sincerely,
Investigator's signature Date 06 September 2011
Leadership Centre
M Com Research Project
Researcher: Mugisho Ndabuli Theophile (Tel.
number: +250 78 84 82 308) Supervisor: Dr. Sylvia Kaye (+277
20703603)
Research Office: Ms P Ximba (+277 31-2603587)
CONSENT
I .hereby confirm that I understand
the contents of this document and the nature of the research
project, and I consent to participating in the research project. I understand
that I am at liberty to withdraw from the project at any time, should I so
desire.
Date: 06 September 2011 Signature of Participant
Conflict Resolution and Peace Studies (School of
Economics and Finance)
Dear Respondent,
M Com Research Project
Researcher: Mugisho Ndabuli Théophile (
Tel. number: +250 78 84 82 308) Supervisor: Dr Sylvia Kaye
(Office Telephone number +277 20703603) Research Office: Ms P
Ximba (+277 31-2603587)
I, Mugisho Ndabuli Théophile, am an M Com. student in the
School of Economics and Finance, at the University of KwaZulu-Natal. You are
invited to participate in a research project entitled `Beliefs and
Attitudes Towards Male Domestic Violence in South Kivu'. The
aim of this study is to identify and analyse the beliefs and attitudes that
move South Kivu males towards domestic violence.
Through your participation I hope to understand the reasons
why South Kivu men nurture violent beliefs and attitudes in their homes. The
result of this survey is intended to contribute to the better understanding of
the main causes and objectives that push South Kivu males into applying
violence in their homes, particularly to their wives
Your participation in this project is voluntary. You may
refuse to participate or withdraw from the project at any time with no negative
consequence. There will be no monetary gain from participating in this research
project. Confidentiality and anonymity of records identifying you as a
participant will be maintained by the School of economics and Finance, UKZN.
If you have any questions or concerns about participating in this
study, please contact me or my supervisor at the numbers listed above.
It should take you about 60 minutes to complete the interviews. I
hope you will take the time to attend the focus and in-depth discussions.
Sincerely,
Investigator's signature Date
Conflict Resolution and Peace Studies (School of
Economics and Finance)
M Com. Research Project
Researcher: Mugisho Ndabuli Théophile
(Tel. number: + 250 78 84 82308) Supervisor: Dr Sylvia Kaye
(+277 20703603)
Research Office: Ms P Ximba (+277 31-2603587)
CONSENT
I, , hereby confirm that
I understand the contents of this document and the nature of
the research project, and I consent to participating in the research project. I
understand that I am at liberty to withdraw from the project at any time,
should I so desire.
Signature of Participant Date
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