On Child Sexual Abuse, Silence, and the Role of Art
The writer examines the epidemic of child sexual abuse in Cameroonian society, prompted by X Maleya's graphically explicit music video addressing the subject—which TRACE Africa refused to broadcast. The piece argues that while the video's violence is difficult to witness, it serves a necessary function in breaking the silence that allows perpetrators to hide behind family reputation and institutional power.
I'm not sure whether it's because of social media amplification or if that is just how things have been, but recently the number of cases of child molestation we are seeing and the details of these are hair-raising, to say the least.
How many times have we seen young girls in particular, as young as 3 years old, being molested sexually by an older uncle or nephew, or even grandfather?
How many times have we heard of those young girls' internal organs being so badly damaged by these molestations that they succumbed to the wounds afterwards?
One of the most shuddering cases I have read of recently was highlighted by Kwoh Elonge on Unfiltered
Well, X Maleya's recent music video shows what happens in a case such as this. The violence of the act portrayed in the video is so strong that you have to 'get big heart' to be able to finish the video or even watch it a second time.
As a matter of fact, TRACE Africa has said they cannot broadcast the song due to the violent nature of the rape act in the song. Which is ironical when you consider the number of obscene music videos they show on their channel.
Mais revenons à nos moutons.
Whether you agree with TRACE or not, we all have to accept that child molestation and sexual abuse of any sort is a real problem in our society. The recent 'Sex For Grades' documentary by the BBC shows how much it is a problem in our universities. I personally remember a good friend of mine coming back to the mini-cité, looking dishevelled after being almost raped by a lecturer who had been on her case for the whole semester. A 21- year old me felt powerless as she sat on my bed and cried.
And while adults may have a certain limited control over such situations, many children do not. Young boys and girls are coerced with sweets, lies, threats and all manner of tricks by older relatives and family friends who take advantage of their vulnerability.
It doesn't help that the "family honour" is a strong reining factor, because sometimes when such acts are discovered, it is kept in the family because the perpetrator is sometimes a rich and powerful uncle and they had rather kept it silent than soil his "good name."
In any case society is taking a turn for the better as more and more people are beginnning to speak about it. Social media is also showing us the violence of these acts. And whether you agree with TRACE or not, you have to acknowledge that we have a real problem on our hands and it has to be denounced and taken care of.
- Wandji Wilfred
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gQfdCDPoNU
By 2019, social media had begun making visible cases of child sexual abuse that had previously been managed quietly within families and communities. The BBC's 'Sex For Grades' documentary was drawing international attention to sexual coercion in African universities, and Cameroonian discourse was beginning to grapple with institutional and domestic abuse more openly, though resistance remained strong.
The piece captures a moment when art and social media were becoming tools for confronting violence that institutions and family structures had long obscured. It remains vital because it names the mechanism of silence—family honour, deference to powerful perpetrators, the vulnerability of children—that allows abuse to persist; and it insists that discomfort with depicting violence is less important than breaking the code that protects abusers.