Africa

SOUNDBITE: Abena

Freedom means waking up to do what I love without any restrictions, getting the necessary support, and also just feeling very liberated.

VO:

Human Rights Watch has been speaking with people who are locked up simply because they have a mental health condition, to see how their lives have changed since returning home to their communities.

SOUNDBITE: Abena 

I love art, I love yoga, I love hiking. You know, I love Africa.

SOUNDBITE: Mimi (a pseudonym)

It is good to be, to be back to the community. My family has been very supportive. Their support is very important, like if you get a supportive family and a supportive community where people don’t stigmatize you or people don't criticize you.

VO:

In Ghana, like in many countries, people with psychosocial disabilities or mental health conditions face stigma on a daily basis. This stigma means people with psychosocial disabilities, are often locked away in “prayer camps” and traditional healing centers where they maybe subjected to shackling and other human rights abuses.

SOUNDBITE: Mimi (a pseudonym)

From what I remember, I was not happy to be there. Being locked up in your room. I don’t remember being shackled but I said I remember when they were taking it [the shackles] off. When they took it off, I would go back into the room and they would lock the door. I would be there in the room alone during the night. I really didn’t like that experience, being alone locked up.

VO:

People with psychosocial disabilities should not be locked up or shackled. Instead, the government should support them to live in the community. Since 2011, Human Rights Watch has been documenting what life is like for people with psychosocial disabilities when locked away, often in chains.

SOUNDBITE: Bernard

I was there for two years [prayer camp.] And during those times to my children were not old at all. So I think of them a lot. So I sometimes cry, bitterly with loud voice, calling them, but this was my situation.

SOUNDBITE: Abena

I have not been shackled, but I've been physically restrained. You know, about four, five strong men holding me down, for me to receive injections that were not necessary.

VO:

Human Rights Watch found that families often take people with real or perceived psychosocial disabilities to faith-based or traditional healers because of the widely held beliefs that such disabilities are caused by curses or evil spirits, and because their communities have limited, if any, mental health services.

SOUNDBITE: Abena 

The quality of care has to be improved.

SOUNDBITE: Mimi (a pseudonym)

In our country there’s so many misconceptions about mental health.

SOUNDBITE: Mimi (a pseudonym)

I think education is very important.

SOUNDBITE: Abena

Yeah, I have been ostracized a lot. You know, there were times where I lost employment opportunities. And it affected, like, almost all aspects of my life.

VO:

The Ghanaian government should provide rights-respecting mental health services at the community level and ensure that people with psychosocial disabilities get adequate support for housing, independent living, and job training.

SOUNDBITE: Bernard

Good community means community which is decent. You do things on your own. You can socialize at any place that you want to. And you can attend church. That's what I know is a good community. You have your freedom, you have your peace, you can move about freely.

SOUNDBITE: Mimi (a pseudonym)

I am really happy when I am able to achieve something and I get good results from it. Something I enjoy doing like maybe swimming or cooking something that releases stress or helps me to relax. I also love to see family and friends too, they make me happy.

SOUNDBITE: Mimi (a pseudonym)

In the future I am hoping that the awareness will be created and the stigma will be reduced and people will be much more enlightened about mental health issues and how to offer support especially when the person is going through a crisis.

SOUNDBITE: Abena

People close to me, they are very very supportive, because they understand and they have seen my growth.

SOUNDBITE: Abena

Being independent is a must. It is something that we all have to demand and have. So you can actually, you know, be yourself, live your best life. You know, to the fullest.

END CREDITS

Uganda

"Nsubuga", Farmer

This is where the pipeline will pass.I am very worried because it is so close to my house and I don’t know what will happen.

Narration

All along the route of the planned East African Crude Oil Pipeline (EACOP), the echoes of communities voicing the same concerns. If built, the 1,443 kilometer pipeline would link the Tilenga and Kingfisher oil fields in western Uganda to the Tanzanian coast.

Diana Nabiruma, Africa Institute of Energy Governance

There is a lot of resistance against the EACOP because the Tilenga, Kingfisher, and EACOP oil projects are bad for people, are bad for nature, and are bad for climate change.

Maxwell Atuhura, Environmental Activist

I object the pipeline because it has displaced thousands and thousands of people without enabling them to regain their land elsewhere.

Narration

TotalEnergies and the Chinese company CNOOC acquired the rights to develop

the oil fields along with Ugandan and Tanzanian companies. Uganda has considerable renewable energy potential. It doesn’t need the pipeline.

"Nsubuga", Farmer

There were trees all over here but they were cut and the government isn’t saying

anything about this.

Narration

Like some 90% of farmers, Nsubuga accepted money in exchange for a plot of his land,but he described a process that was lengthy and confusing and many promises, including some assistance with the school fees, unkept.

"Nsubuga", Farmer

Over the years, the same coffee plants our grandparents had farmed helped pay the children school fees throughout the school year,but now this is not the case anymore and the children’s school fees are always going up.

Narration

Problems around the relocation of the families’ graves, caused more resentment towards

TotalEnergies.The compensation offered at the time wasn’t always enough for the

traditional rituals to be conducted.

Not far from here, Lubega is one of the few farmers who refused compensation

from TotalEnergies.

"Lubega", Farmer

The first time they came they told us that a mature coffee tree will be valued at 33,000 Ugandan shillings (US$9). We told them that it takes a lot of time to grow coffee until it’s this big.You have to dig the pit, buy the seedlings, plant the coffee, so their valuation was unfair.

That’s why I first refused to sign the contract. I don’t think the forms they brought were clear.

I didn’t notice certain words, couldn’t read them. A lot was not clear.

Narration

TotalEnergies promised farmers would not be worse off but those leaving their land have not

been fairly compensated. The money received didn’t allow them to purchase land as fertile or as big in the same area. 100,000 people across Uganda and Tanzania will lose their land and livelihoods.

Maxwell Atuhura, Environmental Activist

People were dependent on their land for survival, schooling their children, medication and all sorts of income in their home. They lost it. And it was long-term, the families

grew up being supported by that land. But one project is coming and

taking it in just a few hours!

Narration

In a response to Human Rights Watch reporting about inadequate compensation, TotalEnergies said they continue to pay close attentionto respecting the rights of communities concerned

and added they believe the compensation paid met the standard of full replacement value.

"Lubega", Farmer

Once the pipeline starts working, I don’t know if I will still be able to grow

stuff like beans or coffee. I fear it will never be the same. Those who resist and those

who defend them, risk arrest and continuous threats from the Ugandan authorities.

Diana Nabiruma, Africa Institute of Energy Governance

If you’re campaigning to stop the expansion of the fossil fuel industry, it is very difficult.

More so if you’re working in a country such as Uganda where the civic space is repressed.

Now when they realize that arrest can't stop you, then intimidation, threats,

delegitimization,and other types of activities that aim at stopping the work that we do

are perpetrated against us.

Maxwell Atuhura, Environmental Activist

The method of continuing has been silencing those who want to talk. They [Ugandan authorities] create fear to talk about these dangers to see that nobody else should

talk about it.

Narration

Jealousy, a farmer and a pastor from the northern part of the country, decided to take the fight against EACOP and TotalEnergies to France.

Jealousy, pastor and farmer

Then when I was coming back to my motherland Uganda, I reached at Entebbe airport,

I was arrested, detained in jail for nine hours. And after I came back, I got

intimidation calls from different people. They called me, I didn't know them,

saying you’re sabotaging government,you’re sabotaging the oil project.

Narration

And while the farmers wonder what the futureholds for them, activists hope international

financial backers will steer clear of supporting EACOP.

Diana Nabiruma, Africa Institute of Energy Governance

We would also like to see the international community ensuring that investments or money is flowing into the green economic sectors. It's not enough for them to take away funding from the fossil fuel sector. They must ensure that the funding that has been going to that sector flows to renewable energy and other green economic sectors so that Ugandans and people elsewhere, can prosper while conserving nature.

We can’t name the Ugandan filmmakers for security reasons. We would like to thank them and all the contributors who spoke with us.