August 4th, 2016 by Rachel | Tags: Disability, Peace Corps, Persons with Disabilities of Cameroon, Photography | No Comments »
During the last seven months of my Peace Corps service, I am featuring photographs and stories of several persons with disabilities living in Cameroon. All the photos are part of a series called “Persons with Disabilities of Cameroon.” The goal of presenting photographs and their stories is to create better awareness about the plights that persons with disabilities face in a developing country. When I return to the US, I hope to exhibit this series in a gallery and publish a book to educate others about persons with disabilities living in developing countries as this topic is so rarely discussed in the media.
A woman with disability, Eba-Dylis, who is from Kumbo, a town located two hours east of Bamenda, was born in 1976 in Kumbo with no disability.
Then one day in 2007, her life was changed forever.
“I came to Bamenda to obtain a driver’s license to go to UK [and to see my sister]. So a few days later, I was watching a TV, a Nigeria cassette at 12 PM. Then I yawned. At that moment, I could not see. Then I closed my right eye so that I could see if I could see out of my left eye but I could not see anything. I could not see anything out of both of my eyes. I asked my younger sister’s doctor to look into my eyes. She told me that the eyes were red. I sent her to a store to buy the medicines and eye drops. When she bought it, I put the eye drops in my head. She told me that blood was coming out of my eyes. Immediately my younger sister came into the house and asked me where the blood on the pillow came from. I told her from my eyes. Then we went to the hospital. I was told that my eyes were highly inflamed. At this moment, I wasn’t seeing anything at all. The doctor told me that he has to give me some tablets to take everyday in the hospital so that he can see the reaction. I went for five days. On the fifth day, the doctor gave me tablets for Saturday and Sunday and told me to come on Monday. While at home, my sister’s friend, a girl who is a traditional herbalist came to me with cowries she drew from the ground and she told me that she has seen that I am traveling to a white man country and I accepted it. Then she said that she sees [spirituality] herbs in my hands which indicate that I will be a traditional herbalist. She said that if I go to the white man country, I will have a mental problem.”
Eba-Dylis later clarified to me that she never told the traditional herbalist that she was going to the UK. The traditional herbalist drew the conclusion herself.
“Then she informed me to go to a traditional herbalist who is a grandfather who knows more about traditional medicine. She also told me to get enough money to buy goats, palm wine, cowries, salt and palm oil to give to the grandfather so that he can bless me and wash me so that I can see again. I left Bamenda for Kumbo early in the morning to see the grandfather. When I left for Kumbo, I went to my auntie’s house. I told her to join me to the grandfather’s place and she refused. And since I was needed to go out of the country, I went to my grandfather’s place alone. While there, he said the cause of my blindness is the forces of the other world. They are responsible for my blindness. At that time, I called my first son from school to come join me at my grandfather’s place to start the treatment. While there, he used a stick and dropped in a potion he made and wrote with it on a board. Then he washed the board and took liquid from the board that he washed off and dropped it in my eyes. The minute he dropped it in my eyes, my eyes and all my head was burning. My son had to put cold water on my head. It continued like that for three weeks. So my mother who was in Douala was very angry about it. She assaulted the grandfather and told me to go away from the grandfather’s place. She asked me why I would prefer traditional healer even though I was a nurse by profession. I told her I decided to go to a traditional healer and was sent to the traditional healer by another traditional healer. I believed much in the traditional healer [first one] because she told me that she has seen that I’m going to the white man country although I had not told her. She knew I was going to the UK from drawing the cowries. At this moment, my mother and I left for hospital where I was diagnosed that the retinas have been detached from the lenses. For that reason, I’ll never see again. From then, I went to the School for the Blind in Kumbo for nine months and then I finished school. Then I became a volunteer at my paris for one year. That same year, 2008, I formed an association for persons with disabilities called ‘Foomonyuy’ which means god’s gift. Then in 2010, I founded Bui Women with Disabilities. Then in 2013, I got a certificate in counseling. Presently, I am a volunteer with TC Africa Incorporation in USA. They work with persons with disabilities, people living with HIV, and street children. I identify persons with disability and bring them to the office.”
Before she went blind, she was a nurse at a private clinic in Douala, Cameroon’s second largest city. She had to stop working as a nurse when she became blind. She never had the chance to go to the UK. She is now living with obstacles.
“I have so many challenges. Getting a job for instance, last year, department of HIV Treatment at General Hospital in Bamenda had entrance examination for social counseling. I was the last person to go and take the exam. The first question was ‘How are you going to work when you don’t have eyes?’ I said, ‘I have come because I can do the work and I have my laptop with the speech program that can help me read the text.’ I was not taken. They have taken those who don’t have a certificate in counseling. I believe they bribed them with money.”
