Harrowing Photos of the Mentally Ill in Sub-Saharan
Africa
Robin Hammond—Panos
Severely mentally disabled men and
women are shackled and locked away in Juba Central Prison for years on end. The
new nation of South Sudan faces a tremendous challenge to build a modern
country capable of caring for all of its citizens. Juba, Sudan. January 2011.
At its most elemental,
photojournalism documents conflict — conflict between individuals, between
nations, between ideologies, between humanity and nature. Literally and
figuratively, photographers capture conflagrations large and small. Some burn
strong and fast; others — often the more frightening, and more destructive —
burn more slowly. They smolder.
“Where there is war, famine,
displacement, it is always the most vulnerable who suffer the greatest” says
Hammond. The mentally ill, he notes, are a “voiceless minority condemned to
lives of quiet misery.”
Based in South Africa, Hammond
traveled for two years to regions of severe crisis — eastern Congo, Mogadishu,
northern Uganda, Liberia and South Sudan — photographing in stark detail the
barbaric conditions endured by tens of thousands of Africa’s mentally ill.
Broken, largely forgotten, the mentally ill suffer abominable degradations,
literally chained and caged throughout their days.
Time and time again while working on
his project, Hammond found himself at a loss for words in the face of the
unspeakable.
“I discovered a entire section of
communities abandoned by their governments, forgotten by the aid community,
neglected and abused by entire societies,” he said. “This is not just a
document of what shouldn’t be. This work is my protest.”
Friday, 20 September 2013
Maga is a small city located east of Maroua, in the extreme
north of Cameroon few kilometres from the Chad border, south of D’jamena.
I found that place one of the highlight of my trip in the Northern Cameroon
with a mix of many different cultures and of great landscapes. Here, an
artificial lake was created in 1979 to give birth to the SEMERY project, an
attempt to develop the rice culture so that local people can improve their
standard of living.
Maga itself is a crossroad for Mousgoum and Choa people.
Mousgoum people are pride farmers and fishermen who have a large influence over
the area together with the Kotoko people. 4 kilometers from here, one can
discover beautiful clay “Sare” which used to be the traditional dome-shaped
houses for a family.
Choa people who are arab speaking nomads who periodically enter the Cameroon
territory with their animals during the dry season so they can survive. Women
form these tribes seem to have extremely beautiful traditional red dresses and
to wear a profusion of earrings, collars, etc…
I only spent one day sailing along the shore but it gave me a strong motivation
to come back for several days and meet these different people. It’s not totally
clear if this would be safe enough to stay overnight but I’ll try to collect as
much information as possible before doing so.
Another curiosity is to meet the hippos who found a great ecosystem to proper.
It’s really spectacular to observe between 30 and 40 hippos at sunset. The show
is really impressive especially because they may be aggressive if we come to
close with boats.
Here is one of the latest shot I made during that great afternoon when leaving
the area with hippos. This is a local Mousgoum fisherman who came back to Maga
with his fishing nets.
Wednesday, 28 August 2013
let celebrate the king's day all together
I have a dream that my four little children will one day live in a
nation where they will not be judged by the color of their skin but by the content of
their character.
Tuesday, 27 August 2013
historical election petition hearing
bonjour, y a du toneur au GHANA la verdict de l'election presidentielle de juin 2012 avait connu quelque contradiction sera donner, le jeudi 29 aout 2013 par cour de grande instance du Ghana . la population a peur, certaine disent que si leur partie politicque ne l'emporte pas ils serons pret pour ses battre et les autres disent qu'il faut qu'il y la paix..... a suivre dans qulque jours
Ali Baba Mahamat Valamdou.
Anthony Lake, Directeur général de l'UNICEF, parle à une
mère et ses enfants dans un centre d'alimentation nutritionnelle de Mao, au
Tchad
N’DJAMENA, Tchad, 4 avril 2012 – Alors que la
malnutrition atteint des niveaux d’urgence dans tout le Sahel, mettant en
danger au moins un million d’enfants, le Directeur général de l’UNICEF
Anthony Lake, en déplacement dans la région aujourd’hui, a demandé
que l’on redouble d’efforts de toute urgence pour mettre fin à la crise et
briser le cycle des catastrophes.
« C’est une région qui est toujours au bord d’une crise. Les familles et les
enfants ont été affaiblis par les sécheresses de 2005 et 2010.
Maintenant l’insécurité s’aggrave dans plusieurs pays où l’on compte des
centaines de milliers de personnes déplacées, où les prix alimentaires
augmentent et où les récoltes sont mauvaises », a déclaré M. Anthony Lake
aujourd’hui au cours de sa visite dans l’ouest du Tchad.
« Les enfants ont plus de mal maintenant à "rebondir" et à
résister aux dangers que représentent la polio, la rougeole, la méningite et le
choléra, a-t-il ajouté. Les populations du Sahel sont menacées par une
"tempête parfaite" qui met en danger un million d’enfants ».
Dans le cadre des préparatifs à la crise, l’UNICEF a mobilisé des
nutritionnistes et mis en place des centaines de centres de réadaptation
nutritionnelle dans les huit pays du Sahel, où quelque 15 millions de
personnes sont affectées, d’après les estimations. En janvier et février, des
dizaines de milliers d'enfants ont été traités pour malnutrition aiguë sévère
dans les centres de réadaptation nutritionnelle qui se remplissent d’autant
plus vite que c’est le début de la saison de soudure – traditionnellement la
pire période de l’année dans un environnement hostile, où la logistique est
compliquée.
L’alarme a été déclenchée en décembre 2011, lorsque la crise
nutritionnelle au Sahel apparaissait à l’horizon, mais la réponse n’a pas été à
la hauteur des besoins. Cette semaine les comités nationaux de l’UNICEF de
36 pays ont lancé une campagne de médias sociaux pour sensibiliser le
public à l’intervention d’urgence et faire agir les gouvernements en faveur des
enfants au Sahel.
Avec le concours du Ministère de la santé, UNICEF-Tchad a mis sur pied
261 centres de réadaptation nutritionnelle et prévoit d’en doubler encore
le nombre au cours des deux prochains mois. Le Tchad compte également le
nombre le plus élevé de cas de polio en Afrique (2e dans le monde, après le
Pakistan). Le Tchad est aussi touché en ce moment par une flambée de méningite.
L’UNICEF considère que la crise actuelle représente une nouvelle occasion de
lutter contre les causes chroniques des taux élevés de malnutrition au Sahel en
aidant les gouvernements et les communautés à bâtir des systèmes de santé
solides, des services sociaux, à mettre en place une protection sociale et à
appuyer des moyens de subsistance durables et un changement de comportement.
L’UNICEF a reçu près de la moitié des 120 millions de dollars E.-U. dont
il a besoin pour sauver la vie des enfants et des femmes qui souffrent des
conséquences de ces multiples dangers – mauvaises récoltes dues à la sécheresse,
prix élevés des denrées alimentaires et insécurité dans certaines parties du
Sahel.
« Il ne s’agit pas seulement de sauver des vies aujourd’hui », a
déclaré Anthony Lake. « Il s’agit de prévenir de nouvelles urgences
demain avec la bonne sorte de nutrition donnée au bon moment, surtout pour les
enfants de moins de trois ans. Il s’agit aussi de consolider les systèmes
de santé de manière à prévenir une nouvelle situation d’urgence tragique et de
manière à éviter que les enfants ne se retrouvent dans des centres
nutritionnels ».
« Ce sont des pays sans littoral aux climats éprouvants et à la topographie
difficile. Ils ont besoin d’aide avant et après ces crises », a-t-il
ajouté. À propos de l'UNICEF L'UNICEF intervient dans 190 pays et territoires pour aider les
enfants à survivre et à s'épanouir, de leur plus jeune âge jusqu'à la fin de
l'adolescence. Premier fournisseur mondial de vaccins aux pays en
développement, l'UNICEF soutient la santé et la nutrition des enfants, l'accès
à de l'eau potable et à des moyens d'assainissement, une éducation de base de
qualité pour tous les garçons et toutes les filles et la protection des enfants
contre la violence, l'exploitation sous toutes ses formes et le SIDA. L'UNICEF
est entièrement financé par des contributions volontaires de particuliers,
d'entreprises, de fondations et de gouvernements.
A groundbreaking new
report by UNICEF finds that, while much progress has been made in
abandoning female genital mutilation/cutting, millions of girls are still at
risk – and sets out key steps needed to eliminate the practice for once, and
for all.
NEW YORK, United States of America, 22 July 2013 – “I don’t want any part of
my body to be cut. I don’t want to be circumcised,” says 10-year old Kheiriya
Abidi from Boorama town, North-West Somalia.
Kheiriya is terrified of the blood, the pain and physical torture she will
have to suffer if her genitals are cut.
The pressure on her to be cut is mounting every day, and she is often
ridiculed and insulted by her friends for being ‘different’. Female genital
mutilation/cutting (FGM/C) is rooted deep in Somali culture; the practice is
nearly universal. Girls and women are made to have their external genitalia
removed fully or partially– some when they are just infants, others when they
hit puberty – in the name of preserving female honor, chastity, beauty,
ensuring their marriage ability.
Fatima, 7, sits on a bed in her home in Afar region,
Ethiopia. She was subjected to FGM/C when she was 1 year old.
But Kheiriya refuses to be one of them. She is standing strong in the face
of criticism with support from her family and community health workers who are
part of a larger movement to eliminate FGM/C. Increasing opposition
A groundbreaking new report by UNICEF shows that more girls like Kheiriya,
as well as women and men, are saying no to FGM/C than ever before, and more
communities than ever are abandoning the centuries-old tradition.
In Female Genital Mutilation/Cutting: A statistical overview and exploration
of the dynamics of change, UNICEF compiles and analyses data from 74 nationally
representative surveys that were conducted over a 20-year period in 29
countries across Africa and the Middle East in which FGM/C is practised.
“This report is the most comprehensive compilation of statistics and data
analysis on FGM/C to date,” says UNICEF Statistics and Monitoring Specialist
Claudia Cappa. “It’s extremely important because it illustrates, for the first
time, what we know about how widespread is the practice is, the attitudes
surrounding the practice and the reasons why this practice is continued. It’s
also the first report that includes data for countries like Iraq for which we
didn’t have national figures.”
The findings of the report point to a sharp decline in FGM/C in numerous
countries in which it is practised. Prevalence has dropped by as much as almost
half among adolescent girls in Benin, the Central African Republic, Iraq, Liberia
and Nigeria. “In most of the countries surveyed, majority of girls and women
who have undergone the practice do not see benefits to it and think that the
practice should stop,” says Ms. Cappa. “More mothers are aware that FGM/C can
lead to their daughter’s, or a girl’s, death. So, there is a better
understanding of the consequences, which, in itself, is very important
progress.” “We don’t talk”
Perhaps one of the most striking revelations is the degree of discrepancy
between the low support for FGM/C and the high prevalence of its practice. Even
in countries in which most girls and women are cut, a significant proportion of
the population opposes the practice.
Josephine Akissi Coulibaly, a former FGM/C practitioner,
in her traditional ceremonial attire at her home in Katiola, Côte d'Ivoire.
She abandoned the practice, thanks to advocacy work by UNICEF partner
organization OIS Afrique.
“It confirms that there is a social obligation, that the practice is
relational,” explains UNICEF Senior Child Protection Specialist Francesca
Moneti. “I do what I do because I know that you expect me to do it, and vice
versa. The clear programmatic insight from the report is you have to make
visible the fact that people in their private sphere don’t support the
practice. So, I may not support cutting, and you may not support it, but I see
you cutting your girl, and you see me cutting my girl, and you think I support
it because you see me cutting my girl – but we don’t talk.”
The report sets out some key steps needed to eliminate FGM/C – one of which
is finding ways to make attitudes that favour abandonment of the practice
visible, so families know they are not alone. Ms. Moneti emphasizes that
increasing visibility would generate a chain reaction against FGM/C that would
lead to a relatively quick end of the practice.
“By that, I mean decades before it will completely disappear in a population
group… but that’s not a very long time in development terms, especially if you
think that the practice has been around for over 1,000 years,” she says. Speaking out loudly and clearly
More than 125 million girls and women alive today have been subjected to
FGM/C in the 29 countries in Africa and the Middle East in which it is
concentrated, and 30 million girls are at risk of being cut within the next
decade.
“FGM/C is a violation of a girl’s rights to health, well-being and
self-determination,” says UNICEF Deputy Executive Director Geeta Rao Gupta.
“What is clear from this report is that legislation alone is not enough. The
challenge now is to let girls and women, boys and men speak out loudly and
clearly and announce they want this harmful practice abandoned.”
Click to enlarge: 29 countries, more than 125 million
girls and women [PDF]
