Over a year ago there was a news report from one of the Eastern European nations which chronicled the severe neglect of children who were mentally and physically handicapped. The conditions these children were left in were filthy and appalling. It was not fit for a dog, let alone a human being. It was an eye-opener. Most people don’ t think such things still happen in Europe. Obviously, they are wrong. There are conditions which will always make a society, no matter how well developed or how rich, look poor in its actions to a particular group of people. Some may say, to each its own, as we are passionate about different issues until the very thing we paid selective blindness and deafness to finds a way to our doorstep. However, this article is not about mental health in Europe. It’ s about mental health in Africa and how Africans generally view this issue.
Debul, craseman, kissi, craseyard, foolu-lu-- any of that sound familiar? The issue of mental health is a subject many people don’ t like to talk about, and most certainly not Africans. We don’ t want to hear of it. We have found all sorts of coping mechanisms to explain it away, from labeling them as witches to devils to hiding them away in our homes. We as a culture are still grappling with what to do about those who are amongst the most vulnerable in our society. It is my opinion that we are aware of these things but make a conscious effort not to think about it because it is depressing or it is not our area of concern.
A little over a year ago in church, an all-African church, in the third row sat a little boy rocking back and forth and uttering nonsensical words. I recognized right away that he may have some sort of mental challenges but sadly most in the room did not. They were telling him to hush up, looking at him with disapproving stares as his mother sat next to him, helpless.
A cursory Google search will yield all sorts of unimaginable tales about the treatment of individuals who are mentally or physically challenged on the continent. It is said a society will be judged on the basis of how it treats its weakest and most vulnerable members, among them are the mentally ill and physically disabled. We are society, we are who make up the civilization hence, we all have our fair share of this burden to bear. If you disagree with me, then let me ask you, when was the last time you saw a man roaming the streets of Freetown or Makeni and cared? You probably labeled them as just another“ mad man or woman.” And who knows, maybe you giggled a little because you felt their action of scratching all over or the way they talked to themselves or rummaged through the bin was funny. In fact, let’ s go one step further. Some of us know of families who are talked about in our neighborhood with a son or a daughter that they hide away from public view for one reason or another. Some parents are simply afraid and ashamed of the name calling and being ostracized.
In Kenya 3 million people are living with intellectual and mental disabilities. It makes you wonder the total number of the population living in the same circumstances on the continent? The statistics are heart wrenching to say the least. The World Health Organization( WHO) estimates about 14 percent of the total global disease burden could be attributed to mental, neurological and substance
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