By Zakhona Mvelase (HKS’21, HSAFP ’20-‘21) and Tendai Mvuvu (HKS’21)
The African Union launched 2018 as the African year of Anti-Corruption, under the theme of “Winning the fight against corruption: A sustainable path to Africa’s Transformation.” For many, this call was a fight against monetary corruption, but for many women in Africa, corruption not only manifests in monetary form, but also through unscrupulous behavior that infringes women’s rights and well-being. Corruption is globally associated with the abuse of power to obtain financial gain, the definition of which obscures another form of corruption that has been lurking beneath the surface across Africa. This is referred to as Sextortion, or “the abuse of power to obtain a sexual benefit.”
Sextortion in Africa manifests itself in various forms, from sex in exchange for grades for female students in Nigeria, Botswana, and Tanzania, to sexual exploitation of women seeking employment in South Africa, in addition to sex in exchange for basic services following the cyclone Idai in Mozambique, or sexual exploitation of women seeking land rights in Ghana and Sierra Leone. The 2020 Transparency International report paints a sobering picture on this increasing, yet ignored, underreported and unpunished worldwide phenomenon. In his blog, Frank Vogl, co-founder of Transparency International and author of Waging War on Corruption: Inside the Movement Fighting the Abuse of Power, describes sextortion as the “the worst form of corruption across the globe,” but why, then, does this phenomenon still go largely ignored, unreported and unpunished? Additionally, why does the definition of corruption only vaguely reference it as only “other benefit, such as a gift, favor, promise or advantage.” Because of this, it comes as no surprise that anti-corruption initiatives only target corruption involving soliciting financial gain. This is inconsiderate of the fact that sex has found its space as a particularly dangerous form of transactional currency – one for which women always pay the highest price.
It is a dangerous omission that definitions of corruption are not explicit about sexual exploitation, one for which poor African women pay a heavy price. Women’s exploitation is further worsened by the lack of evidence of sextortion as few women dare to come forward. When they do come forward, it is often not recorded as sextortion, which stalls response efforts in their tracks.
Stigma, fear, and shame can all be linked to the information gap in Africa, as survivors/victims choose to remain silent because of the negative consequences that could result from reporting the incidents. Moreover, women in Africa continue to endure repressive gender inequalities fueled by patriarchy, which at times normalize sextortion as a “quid pro quo” or “this-for-that” transaction.
Western trends such as the #Metoo movement helped in demonstrating the prevalence of sextortion, but few (if any) examples came from Africa, where such behavior is pervasive. The #Metoo movement relied heavily on advances in technology and social media platforms to share its stories. Yet, poor women in Africa lack access to the digital world. Recently, however, Transparency International Zimbabwe (TIZ) embarked on some groundbreaking research to document the prevalence of sextortion. Their survey found that in Zimbabwe, “more than 57% of women surveyed by the (TIZ) said they had been forced to offer sexual favors in exchange for jobs, medical care and even when seeking at schools for their children.” Fifty-seven is a shockingly large percentage considering that it's more than half of the women interviewed.
There is a harmful misconception with viewing sextortion as abuse. Abuse, generally, is non-consensual, whereas with sextortion, women often are stigmatized for going along with it. What we fail to see are the underlying mechanisms behind their consent.
Shedding light on the predicament women face, the TIZ quoted one woman in its report: “When it was time to give out plots, the headman said we were too new [to the area] to receive land and if I wanted land, I must have sex with him. I had to agree, because we are poor and landless.”
In other words, victims are dismissed as guilty before they have a chance to prove themselves innocent because they said “yes.” While the #Metoo movement popularized that “no means no,” we haven’t fully come to terms with the notion that “yes” does not always truly mean “yes.” By obscuring this, society is indirectly giving perpetrators ammunition to shield themselves because their victims said “yes.”
Although more rigorous data collection is imperative in providing evidence on the magnitude of this epidemic, it is crucial that everyone first grasp that sextortion is not just abuse, but also a type of corruption. By explicitly providing examples of payments by sex in the definition that provides a framework for Anti-Corruption initiatives, it will be easier to detect and collect data about this form of corruption. Additionally, it will enable researchers to ask the right questions that incorporate sex as a transactional currency included in corrupt activities.
By universally acknowledging that corruption can be the pursuit of sex, we create opportunities to frame holistic messages that raise the appropriate awareness. Although sextortion affects both sexes, the negative outcomes are mostly skewed towards women. A 2013 Transparency International survey conducted in South Africa revealed that 84 percent of the sextortion survivors were women, especially those seeking a job or a promotion.
While a change in a universal definition can take years, citizens can mandate their governments to have more explicit definitions of corruption and integrate sextortion into anti-corruption initiatives. Social media platforms, mobilizing social activists, as well as writing and approaching NGOs are all great places to start. Researchers should do more research to provide evidence. Is sextortion really new? No! But in corruption circles, it remains a non-defined concept.
http://www.frankvogl.com/blog/2019/12/16/sextortion-the-worst-form-of-corruption-across-the-globe
https://oxfamblogs.org/fp2p/how-to-talk-about-corruption-when-its-everywhere-but-invisible/
https://civil-20.org/c20/wp-content/uploads/2018/10/Joint-Statement-Gender-and-Corruption-1.pdf
https://media.africaportal.org/documents/Gender_and_corruption_in_Botswana.pdf
https://www.hrw.org/news/2019/04/25/mozambique-cyclone-victims-forced-trade-sex-food
https://genderandenvironment.org/type-visual-data/sexual-extortion-for-land-rights-in-sierra-leone/
https://landportal.org/node/79192
https://www.aa.com.tr/en/africa/tanzania-launches-campaign-to-deter-sexual-corruption/1775454