Zambian Prisoners routinely raped by prison warders

24 July 2006- Zambia- Muganda, aged 26, years tells us more on what’s happening inside one of Zambia’s male prisons.“I have been inside in this prison for almost two years and my crime was to do with robbery. Anyway, having arrived at this prison, it was about getting to know what life is like with other inmates; What I discovered was more shocking than what I expected.

Prisons are known to the outside people as places where murders, rapists, robbers etc are kept, but to us inmates it’s a home that makes your life change be it better or worse. Inside the prison we have same-sex couples, Husbands and Husbands, we have gangs, ‘tribes’, or clans, or whatever you would call them, for friendship, support, protection and sexual release – which can be mutual affection or rape. The prison warders have a big involvement in this situation.

To start with there are a few things that are not provided in these prisons, I’m looking at things like lubricant, condoms, advice.  For lubricant we use spit mostly, or Vaseline if you are lucky to get some. It’s not that by saying or asking for these things in the prisons is a way of encouraging homosexuality, no, it’s trying to make sure that not everyone that completes his sentence comes out with out HIV/AIDS or STDs. The government is well aware about what is happening inside the prisons so it’s just a matter of accepting that they have to reduce the spread of the diseases in here.

I feel sorry for the guys that have got small bodies because they are the most targeted ones. Boys get raped everyday in here. The sad part is also that the prison warders leak the prisoner’s information to other inmates, so if it happens that you are not serving a long sentence, calling them “Mulendo” meaning a visitor, so that will alarm other inmates to do all sorts to that new inmate before he leaves since they know that he’s only staying for a short time.

Since I came into this prison I have been gang raped eight times, In Zambia outside, everyone is saying how bad gay people are, but now I question that. In here you can’t say that all this is done by gay people, no. It’s straight people that are starving of sex in here and they would like to push their penis into another man’s anus and imagining that they are with women, but in the end they stop thinking about those women and continue enjoying sex with fellow men.

Most of you might be wondering how much I have gone through, well first of all I’m not homosexual and I’m sure when I get out of here I will go back to having sex with women. One thing I have learnt in here is that I respect and will never discriminate against gay people. Here in prison we manage to pair up and have sex all the time, but some of the guys have even managed to have just one person they have sex with. That made me realise with gay people in the real world they are not just driven to have sex with just anybody, but with one person when they are comfortable with themselves and who they are with.

Prison warders here are also involved, especially the night shift. Mostly some will always want to work in the night shifts only because they take part in gay sex. Before I came to this prison, I never came across gay people, or what I mean is, people who I knew were gay, and I would not call most of these prisoners gay people, no, but the prison warders are the gay guys I have come across; The reason being that they have wives or are single but just prefer sex with men.

Zambia is a very closeted country when it comes to homosexuality, but it’s happening and you can hear people talking about it as a sin or a sickness and at times as just a phase boys go through, but it is shocking to discover that more of these people discriminating are in the authorities and are taking part in the act. So all this has just led to more of sicknesses in the Zambian prisons. They will not distribute condoms because the feel they are contributing to the ‘sodomy’ act in the prisons as they call it.

One could be lucky if your visitor brings you two packs of condoms or Vaseline Blue Seal, but why would they want to do that because they are aware that it is a male prison so why would they ask for condoms from their visitors? Cigarettes in prison are money but inmates here are more looking forward to rather having condoms than cigarettes. It’s time that the Zambian government accept that sodomy is going on in the prisons and there are a lot of reports presented regarding rape cases, STDs but all this is being ignored.

There is no privacy in here. There are approximately 30 men to a cell so we have sex like animals, out in the open. If a pair or a small group of guys are having sex together and someone else keeps looking they are told to join in or stop watching. When the prison warders come for their ‘Takeaways’, that’s taking inmates to their hidden places where they will have sex with them, only then is it private, but it is not ‘intimate’ because nobody wants to have sex with the prison warders.  Or else it has to be group sex which then would have to be in full view of everybody.

This is the sort of life that I have exposed myself to, I’m not even sure if I have HIV, I just hope all my results would be good when I’m out of here. As for the Zambian government I do blame it for the negligence of what is happening out in here and if they are busy trying to fight HIV/AIDS in Zambia, why don’t they even do the same for the prisons? No one seems to speak on our behalf.

This is what goes on inside the prison that I’m in and thank you for listening. We hope Africanveil publishes this so as to let people know that there is so much happening in here.”

The name of the prisoner had to be changed for their protection.

Report by Ndanji chola from Africanveil
 

Home Page

More Zambian articles