Cities and Mental Health in Africa: A Hidden “Jeunocide”?
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Abstract
The WHO African region records some of the highest suicide rates in the world, alongside a growing prevalence of depression among young urban adults. Does the urban experience play a role in this? Data from ethnographic fieldwork conducted in Accra, Ghana reveal that structural unemployment, lack of social mobility, promiscuity and a feeling of relegation lead to deep distress among young people. This distress, which is progressive and often unspeakable, results in a feeling of despondency, chronic irritability and a loss of meaning. The only options seem to be to leave or to wither. I propose the concept of « jeunocide » to describe the slow, silent and massive annihilation of young lives in African cities.
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