AFRO-CARIBBEAN WOMEN AND THE EXPERIENCE OF SEXUAL VIOLENCE IN THE NEW WORLD BETWEEN THE 15TH AND 17TH CENTURIES

Abstract

Afro-Caribbean women were those group of women in the new world who traced their full or partial ancestry to Africa. Their arrival in the new world was as a result of slave trade where they were sent to provide labour in the farms. Sexual violence can better be understood against the background of the concept of rape. Sexual violence was widely accepted as a crime against women, perpetrated by men. However, the concept has become so dynamic and the definition of sexual violence also changed to incorporate male rape victims. The Afro-Caribbean women experienced different kinds of rape like gang rape, marital rape, incest rape, infant and child rape, acquaintance rape, date rape, stranger rape and war rape. The war rape was used by Christopher Columbus and his men to humiliate the Afro-Caribbean women. Colonialism, high moral decadence, early initiation into sex, poverty, starvation and contagious diseases, homelessness and social institutionalization of the Afro-Caribbean women as prostitutes all worked to entrap the women into the abuse. For the methodology, the topic not being a contemporary one made the researchers to rely heavily on secondary materials as the source of this paper. However, the finding have been very encouraging as government provision of housing, general services and good policies typical of the cultural practices common to the Nordic countries was introduced to save the Afro-Caribbean women.