02/16/2022
While sport is considered to be a safe and a healthy environment that "should" contribute to the positive impact and development of young adults and kids alike.
Because the olympic games are underway, I wanted to share my experience from Bénin and Madagascar.
All of you who know me and worked and travelled with me overseas know that when abroad, I like to intermingle with the local population as much as I can to learn their culture and way of life. I go to weddings, dances, local ceremonies, happy hours and local bars and restaurants rather than staying in luxury hotels during the weekends
Here in Canada, statistics show that between 2% to 8% of athletes (minors and young adults) are victims of sexual assault at anytime during their sporting life. Even more so, for elite athletes who are more likely to be sexually assaulted than their lower-level counterparts. This has been confirmed by research in the past few years.
I'm gonna concentrate on Bénin and Madagascar where I spent quite a bit of time, so that I don't generalize for the whole of africa, but we can assume that in many african countries it is the same phenomenom.
In Bénin for exemple, this is so common to see sexual harassment and sexual assaults that it is visible at work. I personally witnessed quite a few things in the months spent in Cotonou, which are simply a cultural shock when you hear things like "it's normal around here", and the victims find it almost funny. Secretaries, agents and lower income employees have to give sexual favours to their superiors in order to keep their position or have a good evaluation at the end of the year. And since salaries are often based of bonuses received according to their evaluation, I don't have to tell you how much these people need their bonuses to provide for their family.
I overheard my next door office neighbour say to his assistant "be nice, you know that your evaluation is coming soon", behind locked doors and opaque covered windows. In fact, the only way to open a director's office is with a button, there are no door handles. Many employees told me stories about such and such person and what they ask of their subordonates, and again they seem to find it ok, normal practice, that's what it is, there's nothing we can do.
Going back to athletes, it is way more revolting since this happens to teenagers and very young teenagers that is, and of course poor girls. Athletes are paid a small amount of money by the state to train with their coach. This money is given to the coaches, and the coaches distribute the money to their coachees/athletes. But, like in every spheres in Bénin, the coaches, chef de quartier or supervisors, keep most of the money and only give a small portion to their athletes, when they actually do.
When they have competitions coming up, the state provides for shelter, travel and food and it's given in the form of cash... to the coaches. Again, they keep most of the money and only give the bare minimum to their athletes, unless, you've probably guessed it, they consent to sexual favours. In that case, they get more money and, are allowed to go to the competitions. No favours equals no money and no competition, therefore no chances of improving their skills.
A lot of young girls abandon their dreams of becoming elite athletes because of this eventhough Bénin girls have extremely strong athletic bodies and could potentially be among the best in the world.
53% of students, primary and secondary have said they witnessed or were victims of inappropriate sexual touching, pressure or sexual related jokes. 43% of secondary students and 80% of primary students say they know someone who abandonned school because of sexual violence. 77% think that their teachers have sexual in*******se with their students. Read this study to know more: https://lanouvelletribune.info/2016/04/education-d-inquietantes-statistiques-de-wanep-benin-sur-le-harcelement-sexuel/
We, as expats, work to help these people to get through difficult times and change these really sick cultures. But most of the time, people coming from North America and Europe implement systems, procedures, organigrams, processes, and today IT systems and tell them and expect them to use those "correctly". But they most of the time fail because they don't work on the right stuff. They should focus on the cultural and behavioural change rather than the technical aspects of their jobs. As long as these problems persist, no way of moving forward unless you sleep with your boss, no amount of cash or equipment will be enough to change anything.
Hundreds of millions of dollars are given to these countries to modernize their tools and systems and at the same time they still behave like their slave masters. Sorry to say it like this, but this is what we see everywhere. These people were colonised and today they act the same exact way as their colonisers, and sometimes even worse among each other.
There's a sign in the village of Ouidah (the door of no return where slaves were beaten, murdered and the ones who survived boarded vessels to be sold in the world) which is quite paradoxical to see this sign in Bénin, that says "Slavery is abolished, but new forms of slavery still exist across the world: forced labor, human traficking, debt servitude, forced marriage, sexual exploitation, child soldiers... constitue the new forms of slavery to fight." and as far as I'm concerned sexual abuse is one of the biggest development concerns in these countries managed by Presidents who live in "castle like" presidential residence, ministers and public servants in large houses while the population lacks basic housing and food, but most importantly jobs.
So a word of advice if you ever work in Africa, work on the right goals and beware of those behaviours as they rot the whole country from its core.
Sabin Simard
https://how-to-manage-training.com
