Perspectives on survivor speech

The funny thing is, when I think about what I’ve said and what I’ve heard, when you have been sexually assualted, the last people you tell is your family members. Why? because you are feeling…

Participant 2: “Counselling” is such a formal word. Like, white people are used to counselling- we are not. We don’t have counsellors. So the way we talk about it is when we are at school,…

Participant 1: If I say that somebody is looking at me weirdly, I know…I feel like…not that everyone from Africa has been raped, but definitely, somebody has already gone through that. Facilitator: Or, you know…

Participant 2: Say you are the only African in the class. If something happens, you don’t even know how to say it because you feel – Participant 1: like, “oh, I am the only African.”…

How we have been brought up is entirely different and we won’t be comfortable sharing it to any other people other than our culture. I don’t know, it’ll all depend on the individual though. I…

Participant 1: Okay, so I think from our region, what I would say is that the patriarchal system in West Africa doesn’t allow for things like that [sharing your story]. One, you feel like you…

You are absolutely right, people should be able to say what happened to them without the fear of what’s going to happen to them. Let’s say for instance, that [unclear] – the students should not…

Participant 1: This isn’t the whole of Nigeria, but from the area I am from, I think it has been just a non-said, passed-down idea that it’s such a shameful thing that you just don’t…

The tricky thing is that, yes, they [my parents] would respond positively to the policy, but at the same time, they are the kind of people that don’t want much attention drawn to themselves -…

My parents are very old-fashioned. If something like this was to happen to anyone in my family, they would want to make sure it wasn’t talked about. So, let’s say you choose to report; you…