Deconstructing the Afrocentric Context of Rape Culture in South Africa

Abstract Rape culture is reportedly widespread in South Africa. Marriage and cultural traditions, patriarchal ideology, indigenous knowledge and belief system as well as religious practices continue to underpin the phenomenon of rape culture in the region. This inquiry is idiographic using the conceptual analysis of the existing literature to interrogate the phenomenon. It adopts the radical feminist paradigm as a theoretical construct upon which our discussions are premised to question and deconstruct the culture of rape among the indigenous peoples of South Africa. Exemplarily, the cultural practice of “bare-breasted maiden dance festival” as well as objectification of the female body are quintessential of contributory factors to the culture of rape at various cultural institutions in the Republic. Although Africans idealistically strive to maintain marriages, unfortunately, the institution of marriage is also prone to abuse and coercion and often used as a tool of subjecting women to sexual exploitation and slavery. The research unearths a broad range of harmful and controversial cultural practices that undermine women’s sexual and reproductive rights. Moreover, it questions many aspects of South Africa’s indigenous knowledge and belief systems, as well as cultural traditions that have precipitated and maintained the construction of rape culture as a social norm.