South Africa definitely has got a serious problem with rape – however is it ranked as the country on earth where rape is most prevalent?
The term has been thrown around for decades by many media outlets – but when you look at their motivation for saying that the evidence and data falls short. The reason why you cannot “rank” countries in terms of rape occurrences is due to the following factors:
Firstly, different countries have differing legal definitions of rape. For example, South African law recognizes the rape of men whereas many other countries such as India do not. Secondly, countries have different methods of counting and recording rape. E.g the number of rapes recorded in some countries are based on the number of victims and in the others on the number of criminal acts committed. Thirdly, countries have varying levels of reporting rape. The rate of under-reporting varies from country to country.
“The claim that various countries, including South Africa, the Democratic Republic of Congo and India are “the world’s rape capital” has been published and republished by national and international media many times, without any attempt to verify the accuracy of the claim.
In some instances these claims are intended honestly, to sound the alarm over unacceptably high levels of rape. In others, they appear to be made for partisan purposes.” – Africacheck.org
So while South Africa does have a real problem with rape – It can’t be labelled “The rape capital of the world”.
Now, this is where it gets interesting – we’ve found the label being used by MAGA types for different countries such as Sweden (When convenient).
It is part of the racist fear that brown people are systematically “raping [White] woman” and are “taking over [the country]”.
When Dylan Roof who wore a jacket with the apartheid flag and Rhodesian flag sewn on, burst into the Emanuel African Methodist Episcopal Church in Charleston, South Carolina – and killed nine black churchgoers he reportedly said to them “You rape our women, and you’re taking over our country, and you have to go.”
So for foreign right wingers the “rape capital of the world” label is used as part of the -
“Blacks are 'raping our women' and 'taking over' myth.”
And when South African rightwingers (expats also) use it, it is part of the -
“Everything has gone to shit in South Africa since the bloody blacks took over myth”
Links:
https://africacheck.org/reports/why-it-is-wrong-to-call-s-africa-or-any-country-the-rape-capital-of-the-world/
https://slate.com/news-and-politics/2015/06/the-deadly-history-of-theyre-raping-our-women-racists-have-long-defended-their-worst-crimes-in-the-name-of-defending-white-womens-honor.html
https://thegrio.com/2015/07/02/white-supremacists-myth-black-people/
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