POST EXPRESS
Topic: The Evil of Prostitution
Author: Akachi Ezeigbo
Full Text of Article:
REPORT coming from different parts of the world - Europe, Asia and Africa -
show that there is a disturbing increase in prostitution among the youths,
particularly women from poverty-stricken segments of society. A recent
report relayed by the British Broadcasting Corporation claimed that
prostitution is on the increase in Britain and girls as young as eleven
years are involved. On a recent NTA programme (Kith and Kin) one of the
speakers claimed that prostitution is not only on the increase in Nigeria
but that married women are involved. She alleged that unemployed and
unemployable married women have been detected going from office to office
looking for one to consort with. At the end of the day, these men are
expected to pay them money or tender other viable remunerations. The hard
fact about these reports is that women have become the greatest victims of
the bleak economic condition in which many countries are wallowing in today.
Prostitution has been with the world from time immemorial. It is often
regarded as one of the oldest professions in the whole world. Governments
have legislated against the evil of people (especially women) earning money
by having sex with anyone who will pay for it. But these legislations have
not succeeded in curbing or stamping out the practice. In fact, some of the
law makers who enact laws against prostitution have been accused of
patronizing prostitutes. It is people like this and other hypocritical
members of society that keep the profession going by secretly consorting
with prostitutes.
Many public figures, particularly writers have spoken and written about
prostitutes and prostitution in their public statements and in their works.
Bernard Shaw, one of the greatest dramatists from Britain wrote his famous
play Mrs. Warren's Profession to give insight into the old profession and
expose the hypocritical attitude of Victorian Britain about the profession.
Okot P'Bitek, the late Ugandan poet has also addressed the subject of
prostitution in his extended poem, "Song of Malaya" in which the prostitute
is given a voice and allowed to castigate men who go to them surreptitiously
and yet pretend to despise prostitutes.
It is not impossible that the life of the whore has presented some kind of
fascination for some members of the opposite sex. The whore is a rebel, a
shameless creature who breaks societal norms and holds all religious and
moral codes with contempt. The mystery or essence of prostitution has held
many writers spell bound or captive. For a long time, male writers dwelt on
the subject of prostitution, particularly in Africa. There is hardly any
male writer of note who wrote in the 1960s and 1970s who did not explore the
life of a prostitute. Cyprian Ekwensi (following the example of Daniel Defoe
in Moll Flanders) seems to have glamorized prostitution in Jagua Nana. The
eponymous heroine Jagua Nana is another version of Defoe's eponymous heroine
Moll Flanders. Wole Soyinka has his segi of Kongi Harvest and Simi of The
Interpreters while Ngugi wa Thiong'o has his Wanja of Petals of Blood. We
must not forget also penda of that great novel,God's Bits of Wood by Sembene
Ousmane and Wine of Meja Mwangi's Going Down River Lane. These are just some
of the well known African male writers who have given prominent positions to
prostitutes in their works. Indeed some of them wrote as if prostitution was
the only visible profession women (an remarkable women at that) ever thought
about or engaged in.
Was it to counter this misinformed view and to salvage the image of women
that female writers such as Flora Nwapa, Buchi Emecheta, Mariama Ba, and Ama
Ata Aidoo, etc. wrote? Flora Nwapa did not just stop at rectifying the male
bias by creating responsible and morally upright heroines, but even went
further. She tried to show that prostitution is not a female preserve. In
her novel Women Are Different, she portrays male prostitutes in the
characters, Chris and Mark, who live off women who keep them.
No matter the image of the prostitute that is explored and recreated in
literature, the fact is that prostitution is not just fiction: it is real!
It is an evil which has become pervasive in today's society globally and is
causing trauma and heartache in homes. The worst form of it is child
prostitution - a direct result of poverty and parental neglect. Female
children run away from homes where they are not taken care of and where they
are maltreated. Consequently, they are exposed to the danger of
homelessness. Many go into prostitution as a last resort. Many parents do
not realise that when they abuse their children and force them to sell or
trade or hawk in the streets, they are exposing these girls to prostitution.
Only last week, right inside the university campus, a child of twelve years
who was hawking some goods confronted me and begged me passionately and in
tears to give here twenty naira. She told me she lost that amount to a group
of (area) boys who pursued her to take by force the money she had from the
sales she had made. Her claim was that her mother would beat her up when she
got home and she found out about the loss. I refused to oblige her but had
to give in because she followed me and wept bitterly. Now, I ask myself:
"How can a mother frighten her own child and terrorise her so much that she
resorts to harassing a stranger for twenty naira rather than go home to tell
her mother what has happened?" I am also thinking of the boys who pursued
the child. Isn't it possible they could also rape her? Isn't she at their
mercy and at the mercy of other deviant males for that matter? Oh, to what
danger we expose our children, all for money!
Now we have a democratic government that seems to care genuinely for our
people. What can the government do to curb or stamp out prostitution in this
society? How can our girls, our women be empowered to get them to despise
and keep away from this death-dealing profession? What can parents do to
help their girls so that they become responsible, hardworking and morally
upright? There is need to provide employment for school leavers to get them
involved in gainful pursuits. Education should be made available to all,
especially to women; and jobs, too, after they graduate or complete their
training.
Our girls and daughters are the future wives and mothers of this nation and
must be properly brought up. They should become responsible citizens, not
prostitutes and carriers of deadly diseases like aids, and other terrible
scourges that are prevalent in society today.
Some people, especially prostitutes themselves, have tried to clothe
prostitution with respect by referring to whores as commercial sex workers.
But there is nothing glamorous about prostitution. A whore is game for every
wretched male who can pay. It is humiliating for one to sell her body. It is
a sin and it generates low self-esteem for the woman. It is suicidal!
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