Society is sick; violence is its symptom. It seems that violence is a part of our culture: some are violent because they abuse substances, others are violent because aggression is all they know, the list goes on and on. This sickness is something that affects all of us, whether we directly experience it or not.
Violence is our problem, and we owe it to ourselves and one another to acknowledge it.
In my experience, violence is an unfortunate reality. Whenever I am walking around my neighbourhood, it does not take much effort to find some form of this sickness. I have seen men standing around as a woman was beaten; but knew that, in that situation, I was powerless. Violence is part of our social routine, it is just another norm. We are all part of the problem, when we do not speak out against violence; when we look away, we are justifying this behaviour.
Only when we understand that we are all responsible for allowing potential perpetrators to feel comfortable enough in the knowledge that they are more likely than not to not face consequences can we realistically begin to change things.
South Africa is a world leader in gender-based violence. In my community, through experience, we know that walking alone, especially as a girl, after eight o'clock in the evening; anything could happen. It is almost impossible to trust anyone when living in a country where violence in all its forms is prevalent, and the fear of retaliation prevents us from reporting such incidences. No one is safe; this has escalated to the point where even toddlers are subjected to such an horrific reality. As a girl in this society, I fear what our world has become.
It is in all our best interests for violence, and the culture of violence, in South Africa to end. Rather than changing the policy and laws around violence, and gender-based violence specifically, we should change how we perceive this problem.
If we all form community groups with the sole purpose of sharing information and providing support to one another, and hold those responsible for committing violent acts accountable, we can claim our power back.
If the sense of community my grandmother speaks about - the idea that each child is the responsibility of all the adults in the community - then I suspect more children will feel and be safe, making them less vulnerable to the idea that violence is the only way to get respect.
We owe it to ourselves to face this battle head-on, in whatever ways we can. We owe it to ourselves not to look away.