Columnist Shares New Words He Learned in Africa

New York Times columnist Nicholas Kristof is a rare liberal who has enough integrity to venture into the weeds of diversity`s dark side. His recent book, Half the Sky, is an honest appraisal of the brutal inequality women face living in the third world.

I quoted him last summer about Liberia`s rape culture which has been transported to this country via immigration: Liberians Residing in Arizona Fret over “Backlash” in Gang Rape of Child.

Kristof`s additions to his vocabulary are a reminder that not all diversity is equal, particularly in Africa.

The Grotesque Vocabulary in Congo, New York Times, February 11, 2010

I`ve learned some new words.

One is “autocannibalism,” coined in French but equally appropriate in English. It describes what happens when a militia here in eastern Congo`s endless war cuts flesh from living victims and forces them to eat it.

Another is “re-rape.” The need for that term arose because doctors were seeing women and girls raped, re-raped and re-raped again, here in the world capital of murder, rape, mutilation.