Was a specific West Wing event based on a real incident?
April 4, 2011 7:49 AM Subscribe
Was this described atrocity from a West Wing episode based on a historical incident? [Plot points will be discussed inside for those wary of spoilers; also a discussion of rape]
In the Season 4 two-part episode Inauguration, a big deal is made about the fact that members of a Kundu ethnic minority are "swapping family members", because when the Kundu ethnic majority show up,
In the Season 4 two-part episode Inauguration, a big deal is made about the fact that members of a Kundu ethnic minority are "swapping family members", because when the Kundu ethnic majority show up,
they're making people in the same house rape each other on the promise that their lives will be spared.I assume that the Kundu massacre is, in part, based on real ethnic cleasing that occured in Rwanda in the 90s, but I can find no mention specifically of this sort of atrocity (forcing male householders to rape female householders, presumably violating an incest taboo). Was this based on an actual historical event?
Forced family rapes have historically happened in several modern wars/conflicts. The Japanese forced Chinese men at gunpoint to rape members of their own families (sisters, daughters, mothers) during the Rape of Nanking. It also happened during the Bosnian War in the early to mid 90s.
There were also reports a few years ago that armed groups in the Democratic Republic of Congo were forcing family rapes. At the time, there was speculation that they had previously done the same in Rwanda.
posted by zarq at 8:15 AM on April 4, 2011
There were also reports a few years ago that armed groups in the Democratic Republic of Congo were forcing family rapes. At the time, there was speculation that they had previously done the same in Rwanda.
posted by zarq at 8:15 AM on April 4, 2011
Also happened in the Sudan, if Dave Eggers What is the What is to be trusted.
posted by sonika at 8:18 AM on April 4, 2011
posted by sonika at 8:18 AM on April 4, 2011
Response by poster: What about the first part of the premise, which is that neighbors would trade family members to prevent incestuous rape?
posted by muddgirl at 8:19 AM on April 4, 2011
posted by muddgirl at 8:19 AM on April 4, 2011
I swear I remember reading about the family members trading with neighbors in What is the What, but I may or may not be hallucinating that.
posted by sonika at 8:32 AM on April 4, 2011
posted by sonika at 8:32 AM on April 4, 2011
I've read about family members trading children in parts of rural China during the famine that resulted from the Great Leap Forward. Ostensibly this was so that, when you resorted to cannibalism rather than starvation, you would not be eating your own kids. It may have been an extrapolation from that?
posted by ChuraChura at 8:44 AM on April 4, 2011
posted by ChuraChura at 8:44 AM on April 4, 2011
In an interview on the radio this morning, Eve Ensler, author of the Vagina Monologues, remarked that rape and sexual sadism is a particularly cheap way to destroy a village (CBC, The Current. It doesn't appear to be archived on their site yet.). "All you need is a machete"---a few rapes will tear the society apart. Abused women are ostracized and driven out, destroying the village society. She has seen rape used an intentional tool for destruction of enemy tribes and groups in the mid-African conflicts, in the course of her activist and rescue work. Unfortunately, the more horrific the rapes, the better they work as a tool of social destruction.
posted by bonehead at 10:19 AM on April 4, 2011 [1 favorite]
posted by bonehead at 10:19 AM on April 4, 2011 [1 favorite]
Response by poster: I was aware before watching this episode of the (sadly effective) use of rape as a tool of war. I think I got caught up in the presentation of this particular factoid (with the euphemistic and confusing "swapping families" being used several times, followed by a brief explanation that I initially misheard and misunderstood - I thought that they claimed that the ethnic minority were teaming up with neighbors to rape their family members to save their wives) as well as the fact that the writers went straight from genocide to forced-incest-rape without bothering to mention the seemingly-more-common "regular" rape which would almost certainly be occuring. I figured that there was some specific historical event that they were referencing.
posted by muddgirl at 11:06 AM on April 4, 2011
posted by muddgirl at 11:06 AM on April 4, 2011
I'm skeptical about this atrocity for reasons stated previously.
posted by Rash at 11:37 AM on April 4, 2011
posted by Rash at 11:37 AM on April 4, 2011
Best answer: This is what happened to Bwalikwa Nicolas, 21 years old, who was forced to rape his older sister
Legacy of War: An Epidemic of Sexual Violence in DRC
As with that story, I speculate that most of these forced rapes involve the pragmatic cooperation of the female party. It's commonplace throughout history that women (and men as well) have traded sex for familial safety, e.g. to get food or safe passage out of a war zone. I can see the same impulses leading a woman to facilitate whatever needed to happen to get the situation resolved.
Rash, your personal ideas about this spring from a position of safety. The rules and motivations that govern us when civilization and the rule of law dominate cannot be expected to be operative during a situation of war and lawlessness.
We know of many instances of forced incest on psychological grounds within families in 'civilized society' today. It happens as a crime in ordinary cities on ordinary days. It can go on for years. (The film Dogtooth, which I watched last night, is an excruciating fictional and schematic treatment of the circumstances. There are others, such as The War Zone.)
I even know of a case in my own community (decades ago) where a father forced family members into intercourse with each other. It happens.
For another perspective, consider that studies show one of the most professional and disciplined armies on Earth, perhaps in the history of the planet, cannot keep its own soldiers from sexually assaulting one another.
I've also seen accounts that in gang rapes, a certain amount of coercion and peer pressure is exerted to get full participation from all perpetrators.
Given that evidence shows people will be unbelievably cruel to each other in 'normal' circumstances, I don't know, Rash, why it's so hard for you to believe these things happen in extraordinary ones. This isn't a matter of damning the Japanese, or the Rwandan Hutus, or the Congolese rebel armies as uniquely horrible examples of humanity; sadly, it is simply a commonplace of war throughout history and is probably one of those impulses that, frighteningly, we all may hold in common.
posted by dhartung at 1:33 PM on April 4, 2011 [2 favorites]
Legacy of War: An Epidemic of Sexual Violence in DRC
As with that story, I speculate that most of these forced rapes involve the pragmatic cooperation of the female party. It's commonplace throughout history that women (and men as well) have traded sex for familial safety, e.g. to get food or safe passage out of a war zone. I can see the same impulses leading a woman to facilitate whatever needed to happen to get the situation resolved.
Rash, your personal ideas about this spring from a position of safety. The rules and motivations that govern us when civilization and the rule of law dominate cannot be expected to be operative during a situation of war and lawlessness.
We know of many instances of forced incest on psychological grounds within families in 'civilized society' today. It happens as a crime in ordinary cities on ordinary days. It can go on for years. (The film Dogtooth, which I watched last night, is an excruciating fictional and schematic treatment of the circumstances. There are others, such as The War Zone.)
I even know of a case in my own community (decades ago) where a father forced family members into intercourse with each other. It happens.
For another perspective, consider that studies show one of the most professional and disciplined armies on Earth, perhaps in the history of the planet, cannot keep its own soldiers from sexually assaulting one another.
I've also seen accounts that in gang rapes, a certain amount of coercion and peer pressure is exerted to get full participation from all perpetrators.
Given that evidence shows people will be unbelievably cruel to each other in 'normal' circumstances, I don't know, Rash, why it's so hard for you to believe these things happen in extraordinary ones. This isn't a matter of damning the Japanese, or the Rwandan Hutus, or the Congolese rebel armies as uniquely horrible examples of humanity; sadly, it is simply a commonplace of war throughout history and is probably one of those impulses that, frighteningly, we all may hold in common.
posted by dhartung at 1:33 PM on April 4, 2011 [2 favorites]
Mod note: Few commetns removed - please do not turn this question into a different question. OP is not anon, you may MeMail them with side concerns.
posted by jessamyn (staff) at 2:59 PM on April 4, 2011
posted by jessamyn (staff) at 2:59 PM on April 4, 2011
This thread is closed to new comments.
A Google search for "Rwanda forced incest" returns 5.2 million results. Here's a UN report that discusses it. Here's a discussion of that WW episode that gives reports from more than a dozen countries where it has occurred.
posted by decathecting at 7:55 AM on April 4, 2011