Arts for ending GBV

October 2019 was a particularly hard month to be both a student at UCT and a women. Following the brutal rape and murder of Uyinene Mrwetyana, the university came to a standstill in order to show solidarity against gender based violence, which has reached an undeniably alarming level. Following the incident I was left deeply disturbed, angry that our freedom of movement as women at been impeded upon, vulnerable and incredibly overwhelmed at the sheer magnitude of the issue.

I am passionate about both; education and fighting this war against GBV. It has already been said that GBV is learnt behaviour. There are harmful behaviours, beliefs, attitudes, and social and cultural practices that must be unlearnt and corrected. To break the cycle of violence we need to work on our youth. We need to teach our youth to treat others with dignity and respect, and to respect themselves. No one is entitled to someone’s person, nor owed it by any person. These lessons start in the home, and in our schools. We need to rid South African society of its “rape culture”. I believe there is a space for arts based approaches to be used more effectively within schools as an important toolkit for combatting GBV.