Sexual abuse

I am over at Oprah.com reading the recap of Tyler Perry’s interview with Oprah about the abuse in his life.. both sexual and physical. The physical from his dad and sexual from other adults. It was rather brutal.

For the longest time I used to think that child abuse of the sexual, physical and verbal kind was a preserve of white people only. That thinking kinda makes sense because the only time I ever heard of it, it was always about white people or people of the western world. We africans did not do such things.

Then I grew up and realised that just because we do not talk about it as a people i.e. Kenyans, Ugandans and dare I say Africans as a whole.. did not mean it did not exist in our communities.

Listening and reading  to Tyler Perry talk of the abuse and the aftermath leaves me thinking about the countless Africans who suffer in silence and have no where to go and carry all that baggage into adulthood never having a place to talk or confide and find release. How this baggage goes on to affect all the relationships they later try to forge and how the cycle of abuse sometimes gets passed forward from the victim. How one has to carry all this shit in their life until they go to the grave sometimes never having found peace.

For some reason of all the stars who have talked of abuse etc (and it does get a little tedious because apart of me begins to think, kwani everyone in hollywood was abused.. ala?) none of it has touched me like this.

Another part of me thinks about how can so many people be abusers. what happens to break a person like that.. The numbers are staggering because I can imagine for all those victims who come forth there are about 5 others (pure guess work here) that stay silent

Anyway.. I am rumbling but thought to share this interview with y’all. And if you suffered some kind of abuse you need to reach out to someone

http://www.oprah.com/oprahshow/Tyler-Perry-Speaks-Out-About-Being-Molested-and-the-Aftermath