3.7. WHEN A GUARDIAN TURNS ABUSER: Diana’s Story When one first meets Diana, one cannot help but be struck by how bright and intelligent she is. Born in 2001, Diana is currently in Grade 7 at a school in Harare. If you ask her she will tell you that she wants to be a doctor when she grows up. It is when she starts talking about the sexual abuse she suffered at the hands of the man she regarded as her father that any resemblance to a normal 13 year old ends. Then her voice loses its spark and becomes a bit subdued. Diana’s mother- Anna died in 2003 when Diana was 2 years old and her sister was just a few months old. The two children were then taken in by Anna’s sister Mercy and her husband Joshua. Mercy did not have children of her own, so she proceeded to raise Diana and Deon as her own children. According to Diana, the abuse started when she was in Grade 3 years old, when Joshua called her one day and asked her to go to the main house to help him close the windows. While there, he told her to sit in a chair and then he took off her panty, after which he proceeded to lick her private parts. He told her that this is what had to be done for women to grow big breasts. Diana did not tell anyone, rather, she went back to the cottage where they were living and proceeded to the bathroom where she washed herself. This continued until Diana was in Grade 4 when one night, Joshua again went into the children’s bedroom. He then told Diana he had something else to teach her. He forced her out of bed and took out his penis and showed it to her. He told her that this was a penis and he started playing with it, telling her this is how she should play with it. He then forcibly took off her panties and inserted his penis into her, when she cried out that he was hurting her, he stopped. On this occasion, Mercy heard him in the children’s bedroom and followed him. When she opened the door, she hit him with the door and noticed that he was breathing heavily, but he told her that he had been looking for a rat. When Mercy asked Diana about it the next morning, she denied that there had been any rat in the room, but was too afraid to tell her mother what Joshua, her father had been doing to her. Diana only disclosed what Joshua had been doing to her when she was in Grade 5. It was to take Mercy a long time made a report to the police. Mercy confronted Joshua and he asked for forgiveness and pleaded with her not to report to the police. He promised to stop and undertook to compensate her for the pain caused. She confided in a neighbour who advised her to keep quiet so that the children could continue living with her. Mercy explained that she felt disempowered at this time. She was not working and did not have any means to support herself. In addition, she worried about the length of time that had lapsed since the incidents had happened and wondered if the police would believe Diana. She however said she resolved to keep an eye on her husband. What Mercy soon realized was that Joshua had no intention of changing his behaviour, instead, he started telling the children that she was a prostitute and would show the children condoms and tell them their mother was using them with her boyfriends. When Mercy saw some pornographic material that Joshua intended to show the children, Mercy knew he had not changed so she decided to report him to the police leading to his arrest. 28 24