A crown of shame
DISCLAIMER: I will explain the meaning of the man in the gele. Please read the entire piece first before you make your conclusions, many thanks.
Introduction
When reading male experiences of sexual violence in Ancient Persia, Sri Lanka, Yugoslavia, and the DRC, the possibility of men being sexually abused in violent conflict across the globe is indeed possible. The fact that it is deemed unmasculine for men to willfully display physical, emotional or any weakness of any kind theoretically increases the likelihood underreported cases.
Though there is very little evidence to confirm the possibility of men being sexually abused in various wars across the globe, the consequential reality exposed in the few reported accounts of male rape has highlighted a key issue of what I conclude as a gender identity crisis.
The crisis can be generalized as a displacement of a man’s masculinity and thus his title as a ‘man’ which is then socially and culturally subverted into that of a woman. This is as globally it is socially acceptable for women and girls to be raped in war and not men and women. Willam Hague and Angelia Jolie’s 2013 push to end rape in war campaign is another evidence that excluded men and boys from the rape victim-survivor narrative.
So why the GELE you ask?
The crown aka gele - a Nigerian headdress traditionally worn by Yoruba, Urhobo and many more women belonging to different Nigerian ethnic groups - is worn as a subversion of the sexually abused male’s masculine identity. Therefore, I use the Gele to reinterpret and symbolize (the “shame” experienced by male victims as previously discussed in the hyperlinked articles and) the installment of a feminine social status where the rape of women and girls are accounted for.
Being a young Nigerian woman myself, I am most familiar with this type of headdress and I thought what better item than a gele to portray a status of flamboyant and most importantly NOTICED femininity.
Rape is for women, now what am I?
Their crown of glory is now my shame,
their crown of glory solidifies my pain.
(see hyperlinks for sourced material)











