UGANDA - In “Bewitched”, Daan Bauwens, Rien Bauwens and Yann Verbeke head to Uganda. A team of young Ugandan psychologists visits fishing villages on the shores of Lake Victoria. They are going to tell that there is such a thing as mental health and that it it can be helpful to talk about it. Because too often people with problems go to a witch.
Daan Bauwens, Rien Bauwens and Yann Verbeke follow the psychologists during their work.
"People often get depressed because of economic problems," says Nansubuga Redemptor, one of the psychologists, "The big problem is that they often think it doesn't help to talk to someone."
Belief in witchcraft appears to be hugely popular around Lake Victoria. Ugandan psychology professor James Mugisha says: “In Uganda, people do not believe that the cause of illness is internal, the cause of illness is external. Someone is annoyed by you. That person, living or dead, sends you something that attacks you. "
The Munnange organization that wants to change this is the brainchild of Maika Luyssaert, a psychologist from Ghent.
TV
- Bewitched, Vranckx/De Nomaden, VRT (Belgian public broadcaster), 23/03/2019.
