A horrific crisis is unfolding in plain sight, yet the global consciousness remains entirely blind to it. Africa currently holds the highest rate of misogynistic related murders in the world. According to data from UN Women, tens of thousands of African women and girls are intentionally assaulted and murdered daily— every year.
In South Africa, an ongoing epidemic sees an average of 15 women murdered daily. Meanwhile, nations like Kenya and Cameroon are confronting spikes in gruesome, intimate partner killings. This is no sudden anomaly. This systematic violence has been worsening over two decades, entrenched in patriarchal social norms and institutional neglect.
Why is there little international coverage about this mass slaughter?
The answer lies in structural media suppression and a biased global hierarchy of attention. Mainstream western media algorithms and newsrooms heavily prioritize stories based upon racial and geophysical proximity. Incidents in Western nations trigger rolling 24-hour coverage and global outrage.
Yet, the lives of Black women around the world are treated as background noise. When African tragedies are reported, they are often reduced to generalized statistics rather than humanized narratives. Furthermore, a culture of institutional silence and local police corruption actively suppresses the scale of the violence, hiding the victims in missing data or underreported cases.
This collective apathy demands immediate action. We as humans with hearts cannot allow geographical and racial biases to dictate whose lives matter. To combat this crisis, global citizens must amplify both Women-led and African-led advocacy groups, fund local women’s shelters, and force international news outlets to cover such things.
There is no humanity in a society without women.
