The Presence of Male Victims of the Congolese Genocide in Lynn Nottage’s Ruined

Abstract

Set in a small mining village in the Democratic Republic of the Congo (Congo) during the second civil war (1998–2003), Lynn Nottage’s Ruined (2008) depicts Mama Nadi’s bar in a warzone in eastern Congo, which she runs as a brothel with rape victims, such as Josephine and Salima, and a ruined girl, Sophie. These rape victims ironically work as prostitutes in the bar for soldiers (government militia) and rebels, both of whom rape civilians. The bar is relatively safe compared to the outside where these women, shunned and unprotected by their families and communities, become targets of deadly sexual violence and sex slavery. Focusing on raped women, many critics also examine how Nottage criticizes the exploitative nature of global capitalism and its devastating effect on eastern Congo. Although relatively neglected, Nottage depicts the impact of genocide by attrition in Congo and global capitalism on Congolese men who appear as miners, rape victims’ family members, and child soldiers. Focusing on her representation of male characters, I reveal how she challenges the popular representation of wars in Congo as a “rape pandemic” and negative stereotypes of Congolese men as irrational, violent, rapists and perpetrators. I will instead examine how Ruined represents the exploitative nature of global capitalism by blurring the binary between women (victims) and men (perpetrators).