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The Library, Documentation and Information Department of the African
Studies Centre Leiden has compiled this web dossier to coincide with the
photo exhibition
Helden op stokken,
on display at the African Studies Centre from 26 June until 17 September 2008. A brief introduction outlines the situation of
Africans with disabilities and recent initiatives to promote their rights
and improve their well-being. There follows a selection of publications and
films on disability in Africa available in the ASC library collection. The
titles are arranged in sections on disability in general, physical
disability, mental disability and education for disabled persons. Each title
links directly to the corresponding record in the library’s
online
catalogue, providing further details and, in many cases, an abstract.
The dossier concludes with a selection of web resources.
1. Introduction
2. Disability in general
3. Physical disability
4. Mental disability
5. Education for disabled persons
6. Selected web resources For further information, please email us at
asclibrary@ascleiden.nl or phone
+31 (0)71 527 3354.
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Photo: Anna Gevers |
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According to UN statistics, there are currently over 600 million persons
with disabilities throughout the world of whom 400 million live in
developing countries and 80 million in Africa. A World Health Organization
source maintains that about forty percent of Africa’s population consists of
people with disabilities, including 10-15 percent of school-age children.
This percentage would translate into about 300 million people with
disabilities in Africa. Disability is caused by many factors, including
malnutrition and disease, environmental hazards, traffic and industrial
accidents, and civil conflict and war, and the number of people with
disabilities continues to increase.
The vast majority of Africans with disabilities are excluded from schools
and opportunities for work, virtually guaranteeing that they live as the
poorest of the poor. School enrolment for the disabled is estimated at no
more than 5-10 percent and as many as 70-80 percent of working age people
with disabilities are unemployed. The social stigma associated with
disability results in marginalization and isolation, often leading to
begging as the sole means of survival.
The OAU (now African Union), African governments and NGOs have taken steps
to address the disability problem in Africa. In 1988, the African
Rehabilitation Institute (ARI) was established in Harare. This Specialized
Agency of the AU reports to the political organs of the AU on disability
issues and coordinates all matters relating to disability in Africa.
Pressures exerted by disabled persons organizations contributed to the
proclamation of the African Decade of Disabled Persons (2000-2009) at the
OAU Assembly of Heads of State and Government, meeting at Lomé in July 2000.
The aim of the Decade is to promote awareness and commitment to full
participation, equality and empowerment of persons with disabilities in
Africa. Responsibility for organizing the Decade was given to ARI, together
with the Pan African Federation of Disabled Persons (PAFOD) , the African
Union of the Blind (AFUB) and other regional organizations of persons with
disabilities. A Plan of Action was adopted at the Pan African Conference on
the African Decade of Disabled Persons in February 2002.
The Secretariat of the African Decade of Persons with Disabilities (SADPD)
office opened in Cape Town in 2004 and with the support of key donors from
Denmark and Sweden work started in Ethiopia, Kenya, Mozambique, Rwanda and
Senegal. Since then the Secretariat’s work has spread throughout the region
of West Africa. Work has also been initiated in the southern African
countries Namibia and Tanzania, and plans have been made for South Africa.
An important development for the further equalization of opportunities of
persons with disabilities in Africa was the coming into force in May 2008 of
the UN Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities. The UN
Convention is the result of a collective global effort, in which various
African countries as well as the SADPD participated.
Little research has been carried out on the disability problem in Africa.
There is a need for research on such topics as disability patterns, the link
between poverty and disability, and the effects of malnutrition on health
and intellectual development, with the results being used to design
effective intervention programmes.
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Online articles
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Disability as embodied memory? A question of identity for the amputees of
Sierra Leone, by Maria Berghs
In: Wagadu, vol. 4, 2007
Comparison of job satisfaction between able-bodied workers and workers with
disabilities in Oyo State, Nigeria, by J. Abiola Ademokoya.and O. C.
Akhigbe
In: African Symposium: an on-line African Educational Research Journal, vol.
6, no. 3/4, 2006, p. 9-16
Reclaiming agency, ensuring survival: disabled urban Ghanaian women's
negotiations of church and family belonging, by Denise M. Nepveux
In: Disability Studies Quarterly, vol. 26, no. 4 (2006)
Women & disability: exploring the interface of multiple disadvantage, by
Tony Emmett and Erna Alant
In: Development Southern Africa, vol. 23, no. 4, 2006, p. 445-460
Stakeholders influences in CBR projects in Southern Africa, by Harry
Finkenflügel
In: Asia Pacific Disability Rehabilitation Journal, vol. 16, no. 2, 2005, p.
3-28
Disability and rehabilitation in Zimbabwe: lessons and implications for
rehabilitation practice in the U.S - Disability and Rehabilitation in
Zimbabwe, by Elias Mpofu
In: Journal of Rehabilitation, Oct.-Dec. 2002
Web links
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Helden op stokken
Site of the book on disabled persons in Africa, published in the Netherlands
in April 2008, and the accompanying photo exhibition.
Living with disabilities in Africa
USAID site providing information on various disability programmes in Africa,
especially in support of disabled victims of war, but also helping people
born with disabilities or disabled by non-war related causes in various
countries.
African Decade of
Persons with Disabilities (2000-2009)
The African Decade of Persons with Disabilities is an initiative of the
Non-Governmental community of Africa in cooperation with member States and
Governments of the Organization of African Unity to further equalization of
opportunities of persons with disabilities. Info on background, the
Secretariat (opened in Cape Town in 2004), plan of action, training
matierals, news & events.
African
Rehabilitation Institute (ARI)
Pan-African Network Programme for Manpower Development and Research in the
field of Rehabilitation and Disability Prevention. ARI collaborates with
African governments, African and international NGOs, and with the United
Nations Specialized Agencies, for the purpose of developing a concept of
African self-reliance in various fields of disability prevention, medical
rehabilitation, special education, equalization of employment opportunities
for disabled persons, giving priority in the area of training professional
personnel, qualified to plan, direct and evaluate programmes in these
specialized fields. Website gives details of ARI mandate, projects,
research, education resources, members and regional offices.
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Pan African Federation of
the Disabled (PAFOD)
PAFOD is a continental organization of disabled peoples’ organizations,
which constitutes 53 National Assemblies organized within five sub-regional
federations - WAFOD, SAFOD, CAFOD, EAFOD, NAFOD - representing West, South,
Central, East and North Africa. The site offers “A repository of events,
information, documents and activities pertaining to disability issues and
occurring within the African Region. Its objectives include facilitating the
exchange of information and strengthening communication between all National
Assemblies, across the five sub regions and with our other international
partners”.
African Union of the
Blind = Union africaine des aveugles
The African Union of the Blind (AFUB) is a continental Non-Governmental
umbrella organization of national organizations/associations of and for
blind and partially sighted people in Africa, founded in Tunis-Tunisia in
1987. Site contains info on projects & programmes, reports & policies,
publications, a photogallery.
Prosthetics
Outreach Foundation – Sierra Leone
In 2005, Prosthetics Outreach Foundation launched a programme in Sierra
Leone aimed to bring modern prosthetic care and rehabilitation services to
children and adults throughout Sierra Leone's Northern Province, a region
hit particularly hard by the recent civil war. Contains country background,
programme highlights, info on various POF programmes in the country, and
segment of a documentary film about amputees
Miss Landmine Angola 2008
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Amadou & Mariam
Site of the well-known musical duo, “le couple aveugle de Mali”
United Nations
Enable
Information on the the Convention on the Rights of Persons with
Disabilities, which received its 20th ratification on 3 April 2008,
triggering the entry into force of the Convention and its Optional Protocol
30 days later. Contains news, fact sheets, media resources, information on
disability and the the UN, and on the International Day of Persons with
Disabilities
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Printable version