The sperm collectors: Men in Zim are afraid, very afraid

By Jane Madembo

A few months ago, in an article published in The Guardian, I wrote about my experiences using public transport in Zimbabwe. Specifically I talked about how women were victims of sexual harassment and rape by male motorists in Zimbabwe. But a few days ago I woke up to the shocking news that three women were arrested in Zimbabwe over allegations of raping and sexually assaulting men after giving them a ride in their car. In light of this story, which has made it to the international news arena, I now feel like a liar.

I remembered hearing the story before but dismissed it as a rumour. I am also embarrassed. When it comes to sexual violence, women have always been the undisputed victims and men the aggressors. The general consensus has always been that it’s practically impossible to rape a man. Women have always been conditioned to the idea that in order to engage in sexual relations with a man, they need to seduce him. And that man, being the sexual beast he is, finds it hard to resist. My version of male seduction is Mrs Robinson in The Graduate. Now everything has been shattered by Zimbabwe’s men-raping, sperm-collecting women. Help me find a hole to hide myself!

Furthermore, society has always portrayed the man as the dominant partner and the woman as the weak one. I mean how do you rape a man?

According to various news reports, the women were allegedly caught with a bagful of used condoms, some full of sperm. The arrest of the women came after several men over a period of two years had complained to the police of being kidnapped at gunpoint by a group of women who then sprayed them with a substance causing them to lose consciousness. The men would later wake up somewhere, were made to drink a drug and then allegedly forced to have sexual intercourse. Police recorded a total of 19 victims, of the men who came forward. Huh? If the story is true there is a certain perversion in the methodology employed to gather the sperm. I mean, this is the stuff of American horror movies.

Why didn’t the suspected trio collect their goods the old-fashioned way — by seducing the men? But seduction is about marketing and presentation. Have you ever been tempted to eat when you were not hungry because the food smelled and looked appetising? But sexual seduction is not food. There is a certain method to it.

In order to seduce someone certain elements need to be in place. (a) You need time, no rush. (b) Place. You can’t seduce someone in the middle of a bustling city centre. (c) You have to make yourself desirable. In movies before a sexual scene, we see the stage being set up for seduction. Soft music, dim lights, food, wine and slow dancing. But of course not every seduction is a success. Seduction has its risks, like failure. In the movie About Schmidt Roberta tries unsuccessfully to seduce her daughter’s new father-in-law played by Jack Nicholson.

Let’s assume the police are correct. Now those Zimbabwean sisters of mine decided to do away with the old-fashioned way where they could have easily collected the sperm without landing themselves in newspapers all over the world. Wear a very short skirt, show your boobs, stand on street corner at night and you are in business, just like Julia Roberts in Pretty Woman. But such a step involves giving pleasure to the man and of course it’s time-consuming. So they decided, if the allegations are true, to take a radical approach. Who knew one could rape a man that way? Now we know. Thank you very much!

When I called Zimbabwe a friend informed me that many men are now afraid of accepting a ride from women.

According to the Daily News, the police reported that the women were probably part of a syndicate, a get-rich scheme. Readers must be thinking Zimbabwe is a country full of psychopaths. But this would not have happened in the Zimbabwe I know, the country I left 10 years ago. In order to understand this new phenomenon, we have to take into account what has happened in Zimbabwe in the past 10 years.

Zimbabwe went through a cultural, social and political transformation. The political unrest divided people causing neighbours to turn against each other. Many Zimbabweans fled to other countries, separating families. The government’s operation clean-up displaced many people. People struggled to survive amid unbearable poverty. There was no water, electricity and refuse collection. Roads were not repaired, like everything else. Then came the cholera outbreak. There was no law and order. Some people were forced to break the law in order to survive. Even the government became the victim of a desperate woman called Rotina Mavhunga. She was convicted of tricking government officials into believing she could extract diesel from a rock at a time when Zimbabwe was suffering from diesel shortages.

Hundreds of Zimbabweans cross the border each day to buy goods in South Africa for resell. Violent DVDs make their way into Zimbabwe. When I was in Pretoria recently, I saw some DVDs titled “The Assassination of Mugabe”. The vendor informed me the movies were in demand. Churches like the Roman Catholic Church, Baptist Church and Methodist are not dominant any more. New churches are gathering pace. Zimbabweans are watching religion programmes 24 hours a day on television.

There are more than 50 obscure sects beaming their programmes via satellite into a gullible Zimbabwean audience. Nigerian prosperous gospel is coming in the form of flashy television broadcasts and DVDs. In the midst of this chaos came the opportunists. Dealers, crooks and religious cults. These people saw a future for themselves in Zimbabwe the same way vultures are attracted to a rotting carcass. Internet and Facebook are in play for better or worse. Now there are reports of children suddenly disappearing. All these influences have an impact on Zimbabwean culture. After all these traumatic events and changes, the beast that emerges from all this comes out in the form of this sadistic behavior. That’s the result.

My theory is that this there is more to this story. Someone might be directing these women to do this. Unless the police get to the root of the problem, they might soon be dealing with mass murderers. But one thing is sure, Zimbabwe will never be the same again. Men in Zimbabwe are now very, very afraid.

Jane Madembo is a Zimbabwean freelance writer based in New York. By day she works as a communication associate.