Exit!
Publish date: 20 January 2020
Issue Number: 856
Diary: IBA Legalbrief Africa
Category: General
Exit!
By Grizelda Grootboom
Jacana. $15
Exit! is the harrowing true story of Grizelda Grootboom’s journey into and through prostitution. Many people justify prostitution on the basis of the prostituted person’s choice. Grizelda’s story reveals the shallow irrelevance of this idea in a life blighted by childhood neglect and abandonment, rape, racism, poverty and lack of opportunity, coercion, betrayal and abduction. While Grizelda’s story is unique, there are many elements that are common to many of those who are prostituted worldwide. An older woman introduced her to the world of street prostitution and taught her the ropes. Prostitution was the only option that presented itself to the homeless Grizelda and the only way of getting the drugs she craved. The prostitution enabled her to survive and to buy drugs but there was never any money over to plan an escape to a better life. Exit! is not an easy read, but it is an important one. Grizelda describes an alienated world reeling from the centuries of colonialism, the decades of apartheid, and the millennia of male supremacy. A world in which prostitution is the paramount relationship between men and women. A world in which men suck women dry and women have to hustle to survive. A world in which predation is the norm.
