--- description: Robin Hammond was awarded a $30,000 grant for his work documenting mental illness in sub-Saharan Africa. title: Harrowing Photos of the Mentally Ill in Sub-Saharan Africa image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltb29a44f6d9e7cbc1/6987a7c5cd684853dd09caa2/hammondcondemned01.jpg?branch=production&width=3840&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 ---  * [World](/section/world/) ## World Update your preferences in [Account Settings](/account/preferences/) Close * [LightBox](/tag/time-section-lightbox/) ## LightBox Update your preferences in [Account Settings](/account/preferences/) Close # Harrowing Photos of the Mentally Ill in Sub-Saharan Africa by [Vaughn Wallace](/author/vaughn-wallace/) ## Vaughn Wallace Update your preferences in [Account Settings](/account/preferences/) Close Oct 16, 2013 11:00 PM CUT  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. 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.Robin Hammond—Panos by [Vaughn Wallace](/author/vaughn-wallace/) ## Vaughn Wallace Update your preferences in [Account Settings](/account/preferences/) Close Oct 16, 2013 11:00 PM CUT 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. Tonight, [**Robin Hammond**](http://www.robinhammond.co.uk/ "undefined"), a New Zealand-born photojournalist, received the $30,000 [W. Eugene Smith Grant in Humanistic Photography](http://www.smithfund.org "undefined") for his attention to one of the sub-Saharan Africa’s slowly burning fires: the plight of the mentally ill. “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.” Hammond will use the $30,000 grant to finish the project. A [book of the winning work, titled _Condemned_, is now available through FotoEvidence.](http://www.fotoevidence.com/condemned-0 "undefined") [Javier Arcenillas](http://www.javierarcenillas.com/index.html "undefined"), a Spanish photographer and clinical psychologist, received a $5000 runner-up award from the W. Eugene Smith Memorial Fund for his project, [_Red Note: Violence in Latin America_](http://www.javierarcenillas.com/essays/rednote.html "undefined"). Documenting some of Latin America’s most violent communities — cities like Mexico City, San Salvador and San Pedro Sula — Arcenillas photographed the perpetrators of violence and their victims. --- _LightBox previously featured the work of 2012 winner_ [_Peter van Agtmael_](http://lightbox.time.com/2012/10/17/peter-van-agtmael-receives-the-2012-w-eugene-smith-grant-in-humanistic-photography/#1 "undefined") _and 2011 winner_ [_Krisanne Johnson_](http://lightbox.time.com/2011/10/20/krisanne-johnson-awarded-eugene-smith-grant-humanistic-photography/#1 "undefined")_._ [**_Robin Hammond_**](http://www.robinhammond.co.uk/ "undefined") _is a photojournalist based in South Africa. TIME previously featured Hammond’s_ [_work documenting Zimbabwe under Mugabe_](http://lightbox.time.com/2012/11/08/under-mugabe-robin-hammond-records-the-suffering-of-zimbabwe/#1 "undefined")_._ **_Vaughn Wallace_** _is the producer of LightBox. Follow him on Twitter_ [_@vaughnwallace_](http://www.twitter.com/vaughnwallace "undefined")_._ ---  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. Robin Hammond—Panos  This 14-year-old boy has been tied up for six years. His mother refuses to have him admitted to Gulu Hospital which is only two kilometers away. Gulu, Northern Uganda. April 2011. Robin Hammond—Panos  The mentally ill men and women in Juba Central Prison are held in separate cells at night but during the day will mingle with the general prison population. Juba, Sudan. January 2011. Robin Hammond—Panos  Former child soldiers smoke marijuana laced with heroin at the informal settlement known as Trench Town. Thousands of Liberia’s children were conscripted to fight in the country’s bloody civil wars between 1989 and 2003\. Monrovia, Liberia. January 2013. Robin Hammond—Panos  In the capital of Somaliland, there are seven private clinics ‘treating’ people with mental disability. They house at least 600 patients. In two of the clinics, up to 80% of the patients were shackled. Hargeisa, Somaliland. May 2011. Robin Hammond—Panos  Abdi Rahman Shukri Ali, 26, has lived in a locked tin shack for years. He stays with his family in Dadaab in Eastern Kenya, the world’s largest refugee camp, where Somalis fleeing conflict and famine have sought safety. Dadaab Refugee Camp, Kenya. June 2011. Robin Hammond—Panos  A chained patient awaits treatment at the clinic of a traditional healer. Kampala, Uganda. April 2011. Robin Hammond—Panos  A Witch Doctor diagnoses a patient with mental illness by reading the way pieces of bone and shell fall on a goats skin. Northern Uganda. March 2011. Robin Hammond—Panos  Sheikh Hussein Mahmood Dirir, Quranic healer and Director of The Healing Center, treats a patient with a mental illness by reciting the Quran to her. Hargeisa, Somaliland. May, 2011. Robin Hammond—Panos  This government-run facility is meant to be a Psychiatric hospital. The Niger Delta, Nigeria. October 2012. Robin Hammond—Panos  Many Somalis will take their mentally ill relative to traditional or Quranic healers for treatment. Mogadishu, Somalia. May 2011. Robin Hammond—Panos  Mineyro Jean-Marie describes to Doctors Without Boarders Psychologist Serge Nzuya Mbwibwi how he felt when the Lord’s Resistance Army attacked his family and attempted to kidnap his daughter. Niangara, Democratic Republic of Congo. June 2011. Robin Hammond—Panos  Due to insufficient staff numbers, family members are encouraged to stay with patients at Brothers of Charity Sante Mental. This relative would often beat, tie up and drag the patient when she did not obey his instructions. Goma, Democratic Republic of Congo. June 2011. Robin Hammond—Panos  Native Doctor Lekwe Deezia claims to heal mental illness through the power of prayer and traditional herbal medicines. While receiving treatment, which can sometimes take months, his patients are chained to trees in his courtyard. They are not given shelter or protection from the elements and are visibly terrified of the doctor. The Niger Delta, Nigeria. October 2012. Robin Hammond—Panos  Reverend Apostle S. B. Esanwi, Doctor of Divinity, treats people with mental illness with prayer and traditional medicines which usually consist of roots and leaves crushed in water. He claims to have cured hundreds of patients. The Niger Delta, Nigeria. October 2012. Robin Hammond—Panos  A female patient at Galkayo Mental Health Center tries to escape the hospital. Puntland, Somalia. June 2011. Robin Hammond—Panos  Relatives of mentally ill men and women drop off family members to the City of Rest, a facility where an elderly Pastor claims to heal people with mental illness. Healing can take months, and chains are used to restrain some of the “guests.” Freetown, Sierra Leone. February 2013. Robin Hammond—Panos  While the staff at this Rehabilitation facility outside the Niger Delta city of Port Harcourt denied that they house children, the photographer found one mentally impaired child (around 8 years old) sleeping on the floor in the room for the “high risk” male inmates. The child had been there for 3 months. Another, around 14 years old was also sleeping on the floor in the same room. The Niger Delta, Nigeria. October 2012. Robin Hammond—Panos  This so called Rehabilitation facility outside the Niger Delta city of Port Harcourt holds over 170 people with mental illness or mental disability. The Niger Delta, Nigeria. October 2012. Robin Hammond—Panos  On the outskirts of Monrovia, Catherine Mills Psychiatric Hospital was destroyed in the civil war and is now occupied by refugees from the war. Liberia. January 2013. 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