WEBVTT

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Last year ...

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was hell.

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(Laughter)

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It was my first time eating
Nigerian [jollof].

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(Laughter)

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Actually,

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in all seriousness,

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I was going through a lot
of personal turmoil.

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Faced with enormous stress,

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I suffered an anxiety attack.

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On some days I could do no work.

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On other days,

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I just wanted to lay in my bed and cry.

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My doctor asked if I'd like to speak
with a mental health professional

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about my stress and anxiety.

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Mental health?

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I clammed up and violently
shook my head in protest.

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I felt a profound sense of a shame ...

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I felt the weight of stigma.

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I have a loving, supportive family

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and incredibly loyal friends,

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yet I could not entertain the idea

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of speaking to anyone
about my feeling of pain.

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I felt suffocated
by the rigid architecture

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of our African masculinity.

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"People have real problems, Sangu.

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Get over yourself."

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The first time I heard "mental health,"

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I was a boarding school student,

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fresh off the boat from Ghana

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at the Peddie School in New Jersey.

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I had just gone through
the brutal experience

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of losing seven loved ones
in the same month.

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The school nurse,

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concerned about what I'd gone through --

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God bless her soul --

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she inquired about my mental health.

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"Is she mental?" I thought.

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Does she not know I'm an African man?

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Like Okonkwo in "Things Fall Apart,"

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we African men neither process
nor express our emotions.

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We deal with our problems --

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(Applause)

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We deal with our problems.

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I called my brother and laughed
about [oyinbo] people --

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white people --

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and their strange diseases --

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depression, ADD and those "weird things."

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Growing up in West Africa,

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when people used the term "mental,"

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what came to mind was a mad man

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with dirty, dread-locked hair,

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bumbling around half-naked on the streets.

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We all know this man.

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Our parents warned us about him.

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"Mommy, mommy, why is he mad?"

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"Drugs!

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If you even look at drugs,

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you end up like him."

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(Laughter)

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Come down with pneumonia,

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and your mother will rush you
to the nearest hospital

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for medical treatment.

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But dare to declare depression,

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and your local pastor will be
driving out demons

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and blaming witches in your village.

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I called into the World
Health Organization.

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Mental health is about being able
to cope with the normal stresses of life.

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To work productively and fruitfully,

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and to be able to make
a contribution to your community.

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Mental health includes our emotional,

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psychological

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and our social well-being.

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Globally, 75 percent
of all mental illness cases

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can be found in low-income countries.

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Yet most African governments

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invest less than one percent of their
health care budget on mental health.

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Even [West,]

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we have a severe shortage
of psychiatrists in Africa.

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Nigeria, for example,
is estimated to have 200

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in a country of almost 200 million.

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In all of Africa,

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90 percent of our people
lack access to treatment.

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As a result

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we suffer in solitude,

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silenced by stigma.

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We as Africans often respond
to mental health with distance,

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ignorance,

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guilt,

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fear

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and anger.

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In a study conducted by Arboleda Flórez,

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directly asking what
is the cause of mental illness,

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34 percent of Nigerian respondents
cited drug misuse.

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19 percent said divine wrath
and the will of God.

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(Laughter)

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12 percent --

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witchcraft and spiritual posession.

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But few cited other known
causes of mental illness ...

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like genetics,

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socio-economic status,

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war,

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conflict,

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or the loss of a loved one.

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The stigmatization against mental illness

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often results in the ostracizing
and demonizing of sufferers.

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Photojournalist Robin Hammond
has documented some of these abuses.

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In Uganda,

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in Somalia,

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and here in Nigeria.

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For me,

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the stigma is personal.

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In 2009,

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I received a frantic call
in the middle of the night.

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My best friend in the world --

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a brilliant, philosophical,
charming, hip, young man --

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was diagnosed with schizophrenia.

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I witnessed some of the friends
we'd grown up with recoil.

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I heard the snickers,

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I heard the whispers.

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"Did you hear he has gone mad?"

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He [suffered through] derogatory,
demeaning commentary

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about his condition --

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words we would never say
about someone with cancer,

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or someone with malaria.

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Somehow when it comes to mental illness,

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our ignorance eviscerates all empathy.

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I stood by his side as his
community isolated him,

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but our love never wavered.

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Tacitly, I became passionate
about mental health.

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Inspired by his plight,

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I helped found the Mental Health
Special Interest Alumni Group

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at my college.

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And during my tenure as a resident
tutor in graduate school,

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I supported many undergraduates
with their mental health challenges.

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I saw African students struggle,

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and unable to speak to anyone.

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Even with this knowledge,

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and with their stories in tow,

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I in turn struggled,

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and could not speak to anyone
when I faced my own anxiety,

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so deep is our fear of being the mad man.

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All of us --

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but we Africans especially --

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need to realize that our mental struggles

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do not detract from our virility,

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nor does our trauma taint our strength.

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We need to see mental health
as important as physical health.

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We need to stop suffering in silence.

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We must stop stigmatizing disease,

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and traumatizing the afflicted.

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Talk to your friends.

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Talk to you loved ones.

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Talk to health professionals.

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Be vulnerable.

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Do so with the confidence
that you are not alone.

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Speak up if you're struggling.

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Being honest about how we feel

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does not make us weak;

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it makes us human.

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It is time to end the stigma
associated with mental illness.

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So the next time your hear "mental,"

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do not just think of the madman ...

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Think of me.

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(Applause)

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Thank you.

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(Applause)