CONDEMNED – MENTAL HEALTH IN
AFRICAN COUNTRIES IN CRISIS
Where there is war, famine, displacement, it is the
most vulnerable that suffer the greatest.
Abandoned by governments, forgotten by the aid
community, neglected and abused by entire societies. Africans with mental
illness in regions in crisis are resigned to the dark corners of churches,
chained to rusted hospital beds, locked away to live behind the bars of filthy
prisons.
Some have suffered trauma leading to illness. Others
were born with mental disability. In countries where infrastructure has
collapsed and mental health professionals have fled, treatment is often the
same – a life in chains.
I started documenting the lives of the mentally ill in
African countries in crisis in an attempt to raise awareness of their plight. I
travelled to war ravaged areas of Congo, South Sudan, Mogadishu and Uganda. I
spent time with the displaced in refugee camps in Somalia and Dadaab. In
Nigeria I went to see the impacts of corruption on facilities for the mentally
ill.
After 12 years of documenting human rights issues I’ve
never come across a greater assault on human dignity. These people are unseen
and therefore their suffering ignored. This project is being produced in the
hope that no longer will ignorance be able to be used as an excuse for
inaction.
© Robin Hammond / Panos.
Robin Hammond
is a freelance photojournalist born in New Zealand. He has been part of the
photo agency Panos Pictures since 2007.
The winner of
four Amnesty International awards for Human Rights journalism, Robin has
dedicated his career to documenting human rights and development issues around
the world, but especially in sub-Saharan Africa.
In 2011 Hammond
won the Carmignac Gestion Photojournalism Award which allowed him to document
in Zimbabwe for four months. Actes Sud published a book of the photos to
coincide with an exhibition of the work in Paris in November 2012. In 2013 he
won the FotoEvidence book award that will result in the publication of his long
term project on mental health in Africa, Condemned. The same body of work was
exhibited in September 2012 at the photojournalism festival Visa Pour l’Image.
After living in
Japan, the United Kingdom and South Africa, Robin Hammond currently lives in
Paris, France.
He contributes
to many international newspapers and magazines including National Geographic,
Time Magazine, The Sunday Times Magazine, The New York Times, and Polka
Magazine. He also works regularly with various non-governmental organisations.
All images © Robin Hammond / Panos
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