What really happened in Douala, the economic capital of Cameroon? Does Esther Elisée, a young lesbian woman, really exist? Was she really the victim of terrible acts of sexual violence inflicted on her by a group of people? The only source this news has, can be found on L.Frii, a publication by Denise Flinssou, a journalist who writes mainly about gossip. The article, supposedly based on a testimony by one of Esther Elisée’s cousins and spread by many other African websites, is so unrealistic and full of homophobic, morbid details, that it becomes hard to guess if there is some truth in it. However, it perfectly shows the stereotypes that gay people in Cameroon have to face.
An unlikely story
Even the title of the article is weird, to say the least: “Drama: a lesbian was brutally raped by five fat men.” Some websites add sentences like “Here’s all the details,” obviously showing that they’re only publishing the story to get clicks. The story starts with a very common stereotype: Esther Elisée becomes a lesbian after getting to know a sapphic group of college friends, and she realizes how that would be a good way to earn money and pay for her food, rent, and studies. She finds Nathalie, a rich woman, daughter of a tycoon, and becomes her lover and “concubine.” Her “terrible ways” inevitably suck her into a life of depravity and she starts seeing other women, unbeknownst to Nathalie.
The rich lady finds out about her young partner’s infidelity, and the two women fight and break up. But “infidelity is not tolerated when practising homosexuality“, and Nathalie comes up with a diabolical plan: she manages to win Esther Elisée back and invites her to spend the night at a club, where she offers her a bottle of spiked champagne. The girl falls asleep and gets taken to someone’s home, where five men rape her “so hard that she won’t be able to walk for a month.” Esther Elisée, fearing even worse acts of violence, flees from Cameroon to a bordering country, where she undergoes “physical modifications” that will make her unrecognizable.
Hiding the problem
It’s hard to believe that there is anything true about this tale: the source, and the story itself, are unreliable. The articles that report it, seem to have two separate goals (which are contradictory only in appearance): to get clicks through a dirty story which satisfies the readers’ rape fantasies (which should be obvious, given its title), and to warn lesbian women about the tragic fate that awaits them. Sexual violence is not only once again shown as something that the victim went asking for, but also as a barbaric practice among people far removed from society. Talking about rape as something bizarre and grotesque allows to hide the fact that it’s a big, real problem.
Pier Cesare Notaro
translation by Tomas Mascali
©2020 Il Grande Colibrì
immagini: Il Grande Colibrì
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