GBV

He said I could nevermake it on my own.

#106GBV

This is not my story, this is our story. Anna Matebele CEO, Lifeline/Childline Namibia. For a safe place to turn to for counseling, help or information call the 106 Gender Based Violence toll-free helpline. www.lifelinechildline.org.na

www.sisternamibia.org SISTER NAMIBIA

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Major shifts in thinking started during the 18th century in Europe, alongside the abolishment of slavery. The most ground was gained during the

20th century which eventually led to the rights women en-joy in today’s society. In today’s Southern Africa, women’s rights are continually violated sending waves of trauma into society from all directions, which in turn will cause more trauma and suffering in its various forms as societies consist of family units that are then also affected by the aforementioned violence.

The scourge that is gender-based violence (GBV) con-tinues to ravage the Namibian populace, almost unabatedly. The vast efforts of ministries, NGOs, and other organisa-tions combating domestic violence appear helpless in stem-ming the unabated flow of this caustic trend. Reviewing the statistics may be equated to watching the latest horror film, even more so when your brain grasps the reality of this ter-rifying situation.

Gender disparity within society is nothing new, but in Na-mibia this plague has gotten totally out of hand. The whole of Namibian society is aware thereof, and desperate to im-prove the situation, even to the extent of holding a mass prayer event in 2014. As research into all aspects of GBV is still being conducted or planned in Namibia, the huge question on what is to blame for this epidemic still holds the spotlight. Past newspaper articles have cited alcohol as a primary cause, while other sources indicated that 35% of men in Namibia see partner violence as justifiable due to socio-cultural norms and practices.

However, when considering this scourge in a cognitive behavioural paradigm, the underlying cause can potentially be identified. So, since cognitions are thoughts, and as such could be equated to ideas, this whole scourge starts with

each individual’s idea. This idea is often of themselves, their partners, and expected gender roles. Where do these ideas come from, we might ask… because once we know where the “negative” ideas come from, we could potentially stem or counteract the flow in some way.

The global economic contraption of capitalism may be blamed (at least in part) for much of these continued “neg-ative” ideas that indoctrinate our society. Just as athletes have continually pushed the limits of world records in all ar-eas over the past 100 years, the corporation has fine-tuned its ability to sell the product. Edward Bernays, referred to as the ‘father of public relations’, used ideas from leading psychologists at the time, including his uncle Sigmund Freud to pioneer the field of public relations and propaganda. The relevance of this is that the science of psychology has been used against the masses to achieve a profit through incor-porating the latest persuasion and manipulation techniques. In today’s world, marketing and advertising is a multi-billion dollar industry, which can be witnessed in how the internet is plagued with advertisements. Global marketing trends are monitored by companies like Google, Facebook, Microsoft, and Apple. Facebook for example has more than a billion people on the site giving them a huge amount of behavioural trend data to analyse and interpret. This is why we all have personalised advertisements on our own internet. I digress, coming back to the point in this matter, we are bombarded with what the corporations believe is the “in” view, the view that will get you to desire and yearn for their product.

Looking at today’s popular culture, we see the music, movie, and corporate industries largely creating the global popular culture. The far-reaching effects of ideas and culture being perpetuated by perceived idols such as Miley Cyrus and Justin Bieber, affect the growing and assimilating minds of our youth. So the analysis of this popular global culture is very important. We all know that most of the “powerful” men of the entertainment industries view women merely as objects.

The general global marketing ideas being transmitted started with the transmission of the “American dream” during the 50s, 60s, and 70s as television started to rule over the airwaves. This concept of getting everything you want (the middle class dream) has changed the goals, dreams, and

THE CONTINUED PLAGUE OF GENDER-BASED VIOLENCETHE FEMALE LIBERATION STRUGGLE HAS BEEN A LONG AND HARD ROAD LITTERED WITH BODIES, WHICH HAS BEEN EVER PRESENT IN THE HISTORY OF HUMANKIND.

He said I could nevermake it on my own.

#106GBV

This is not my story, this is our story. Anna Matebele CEO, Lifeline/Childline Namibia. For a safe place to turn to for counseling, help or information call the 106 Gender Based Violence toll-free helpline. www.lifelinechildline.org.na

DIAL THE LIFELINE CHILDLINE GBV HOTLINE AT 106>> If you are being abused physically, emotionally or financially;>> If you need information about your rights, the law, protection

and maintenance orders, services and procedures;>> If you fear you may lose control and cause someone harm;

>> If you think certain behaviour by an elder is suspicious or inappropriate;

>> If you are scared, being threatened or you fear for your life.

WOMEN IN BUSINESS EDITION

22GBV

aspirations of a whole generation. You should ask yourself to what extent this has influenced your life, and whether you truly want such a powerful tool as television to be unregu-lated on the beliefs it transmits to the masses. Censorship mainly deals with sex, violence, and language, but do you re-ally believe the portrayal of women as prostitutes, trophies, and sexual objects has no effect on our youth? Additionally, hopefully by this time it is well-known that a call has been made that the extent to which pictures are Photoshopped in magazines and other places, be indicated on the same page it is presented. This is a prime example of how corporate influence has increased the prevalence of eating disorders such as anorexia and bulimia. What most of today’s soci-ety does not realise is that basically all corporations violate some or other law, even if that law has not been developed yet. I refer you to the “evil” tobacco companies, who can be considered the prototypical global corporation. These com-panies brainwashed generations of individuals by producing candy cigarettes (which was widely popular) to normalise and romanticise the idea of cigarettes (something that kills you). Additionally, a local brewing company produces a soft drink and packages it in bottles that eerily resemble their beer bottles. This is a marketing strategy to normalise indi-viduals to the idea of holding “beer bottles”.

The curious thing about cognitive patterns are the differ-ent levels of their depth in the human mind, indicating that some beliefs are taken as core beliefs (which are the most difficult to alter). So when you see adolescents generating a self-image, they often compare this image with the “suc-cessful” portraits in our society. I have noticed in my work that with more traditional and family orientated adolescents there is often an acceptance of their own parents as the ideal role model, but more and more of today’s individuals that were “raised” by the television seek role models on this platform.

Another example that has been studied looks at the “Dis-ney fairy tale” phenomenon. Studies indicated that this has warped cognitive patterns of some women to the point that they will more likely stay in a destructive or abusive rela-tionship, since there is a core belief that their partner will for example stop beating them and eventually change. Alter-natively, due to the idolisation of “super heroes” and comic books we have men that believe themselves to be the main heroes in their own individualistic stories. Both of these in-fluences may also increase the levels of narcissism in our society.

The negative core self-belief that is propagated through-out society generates a disharmony within the individual as they are unable to conform to these idealistic depictions they are bombarded with. This disharmony within the psyche has disastrous effects, specifically when it generates anxiety or depressive precursor beliefs.

So all of these aforementioned aspects are variables that play a very real and deterministic role in the continued occurrence of GBV in Namibian society. However, a det-rimental aspect was recently explained by a study on the driving force of anger in men. Male discrepancy stress was identified as being the discrepancy that arises from a man’s

self-perception of their masculinity and the information they receive from the world around them. “Men who considered themselves less masculine than average and who experi-enced male discrepancy stress were more likely to say they had committed violent assaults with a weapon as well as assaults resulting in injury to the victim.” Dr Reidy, respon-sible for the 2015 study also interpreted the data by saying, “Some men who are low on masculine conformity may be at a comparable risk to incur and inflict injury via acts of severe violence, as are their high-masculine conforming counter-parts”.

So in light of the data reviewed in the aforementioned study, it becomes quite obvious how the extreme violence against women in Namibia occurs. With the “born emanci-pated” or “born-free” generation, we see a much more liber-ated and headstrong typical Namibian woman. As such, this includes sexual liberation, as well as all the things that come with being made equal to a man. However, tradition, cultural views (local and global), and male socialisation is very much at odds with this new “liberated Namibian woman”. So gener-ally, conflict arises from such disharmony, which in this case is the disharmony of how men “should” treat women accord-ing to themselves and peers, versus how women “should” be treated according to basic rules of human dignity, and vice versa. Tracing this back to cognitive psychology, we witness extensive demanding thinking being developed in both gen-ders. Additionally, growing up in the time of liberation move-ments and a rebellious attitude against perceived authority, we see the masculine (which almost never backs down) at odds with this Western emancipated attitude of women. Such conflict generates stress and anxiety, which when put onto a gender that mostly ignores the existence of emotion (and as such an inability to deal effectively with anxiety), is disastrous, as the only emotional expression “allowed” to us men is an-ger. Any studies on anger you read will indicate that anger and thinking angry thoughts is a slippery slope, and which, if indulged in, easily gets out of hand. So what we see in most of these GBV cases in Namibian society is a “mutually as-sured destruction” attitude, which too often result in exactly that.

So upon going through all this information, we already see the core reasons as to what causes GBV in Namibian soci-ety. Additional research will be useful, but at the moment we need to implement interventions that already exist. As with all psychological problems, prevention is better than cure, and as such the youth should be the main target populace. So all parents and schools need to be targeted to change the cogni-tive beliefs of Namibian society. By successfully incorporating cognitive skills training in our curriculums, we could create a generation of critical thinkers that is more protected against outside negative cognitive influences, be this from faulty cultural, traditional, or global trend practices. Additionally, a mass media campaign needs to be undertaken, equal to the HIV/AIDS campaigns of the past, making everyone aware of faulty cognitive beliefs that are irrational and harming to the individual and society. I believe this is possible, and abso-lutely necessary if we are to attain the goals of Vision 2030.

#106GBV

This is not my story, this is our story. Ngeno Nakamhela retired Pastor of the Evangelical Lutheran Church In Namibia (ELCIN). For a safe place to turn to for counseling, help or informationcall the 106 Gender Based Violence toll-free helpline. www.lifelinechildline.org.na

We take our frustrationout on each other.

#106GBV

This is not my story, this is our story. Ngeno Nakamhela retired Pastor of the Evangelical Lutheran Church In Namibia (ELCIN). For a safe place to turn to for counseling, help or informationcall the 106 Gender Based Violence toll-free helpline. www.lifelinechildline.org.na

We take our frustrationout on each other.