Wartime Sexual Violence
Otherwise known as weaponized rape, one of the key themes of the book is the way in which rape and other forms of sexual violence are committed during armed conflict or military occupation. In short, rape is the side hustle of many combatants, particularly in ethnic conflict such as those that take place in African nations. Another form of this sexual violence is gang rape.
Weaponized rape is considered to be a different thing from an instance of a soldier committing a sexual assault, because the latter is not a policy, but a crime committed by an individual who just so happens to be a soldier. Wartime sexual violence is more strategy than individual aberrance; it is seen as a form of psychological warfare, whereby the invading force or the occupying army are able to control the local women. Onyesonwu was created by the author after reading about the mass rape of women in Darfur; the book focuses on this, and the way in which the children that are born of these women are also ethnically different from their mothers, which is a way of controlling the ethnicity of the population by the combatants.
Genital Mutilation of Women
Another theme in the book is genital mutilation of women. It is basically female circumcision and is forced upon many women in Africa and the Middle East. In the context of the book, it is another way in which men are able to control women and take away their autonomy. Female genital mutilation makes sex more enjoyable for the men who force it upon them, but it also makes sex less enjoyable for women, which is yet another way in which the needs of men are put first.
