SENDING your children to school has never been as fraught with danger as it is now. What should be essentially a safe and protected environment has now become a minefield of dangers.
Two months ago a five-year-old Gauteng student got sheared by a heavy duty lawn mower at a primary school in Chiawelo, Soweto. In another school in KZN, a nine-year-old boy purportedly hung himself accidentally in class. I recall how the mother cried in an interview saying she did not believe her son who was unable to tie her shoe laces could have later gone on to hang himself.
Added to this you have students killing other learners in ritual murders like the two Dobsonville teenagers who were found dead amidst black candles and razor blades. Then the scourge of rape continues to ravage many vulnerable young girls. Not only are they susceptible to being raped by members of staff, but by their classmates, as well.
More recently we had the alleged kidnapping of 234 Nigerian girls by the fierce Islam militant group Boko Haram. The number count varies depending on the source.
The teenage girls ranging in ages from 16 to 18 were abducted from a boarding school in Chibok, a Nigerian village in the north-east.
Like lambs to the slaughter they were herded into trucks and shepherded into the jungle on the night of the April 14. It is believed that 43 girls managed to escape while 191 remain captive. For days speculation abounded as to what had become of these girls who were being held captive in the Sambisa forest.
One would think that the rescue operation would have proceeded much faster since the location of the girls was clearly known, yet alas, stories abounded of an army that was not well equipped to deal with the kidnappers.
Boko Haram as the name implies is a movement wildly opposed to Western Education, especially for females. They operate in the predominantly Muslim northern part of Nigeria. It was formed in 2002 and has grown from strength to strength since then.
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Recent reports indicate that the young women have since been ferried across the border to countries like Chad and Cameroon where they will be married off to Boko Haram militant members.
Each young girl purportedly commands a bridal price of 2 000 naira (which is equivalent to $12). The men are said to have already assumed “ownership” of the women.
As far as I know marriage is a consensual union. When one is abducted and forced into marriage, to me this ceases to encapsulate what marriage is all about. This is tantamount to sex slavery.
These students were on the verge of writing their final exams in Physics and now they are going to be subjected to a precarious future in forced marriages. What bothers me is that Boko Haram were able to get across the borders unhindered with their captives.
Surely if the military had intervened earlier this operation would have been arrested on time. Imagine the anguish of those parents who might never see their daughters again? How cheap is the life of a young woman? For $12 she is literally sold into a life of drudgery.
What kind of precedent does this set? What’s to stop Boka Haram from staging another attack and taking 400 schoolgirls this time? Even Big Brother has received more publicity than the fate of these young women.
A “million woman march” was staged by the Women for Peace and Justice Organisation in protest against the way this whole fiasco was being handled.
Yes, the marching shows solidarity against this injustice, but at times there has to be a point where outrage is replaced by decisive action on the ground.
Education has been the one legacy that was once endowed with what no-one could ever take away. Now it appears we are moving towards an era where many will be deprived of an education simply because of the fear that surrounds its attainment.
If we are no longer able to protect our children in school who have an earnest desire to attain an education, then we are certainly skirting on dangerous playgrounds.
Sue Nyathi is the author of the novel The Polygamist. You can follow her on Twitter @SueNyathi
