TATENDA MICHELE KUFAKWAME
A stealthy disaster looms in the soul of Africa, (where) amidst the rich rhythms of life, (there’s) a surge of suicides that demands our immediate attention.
Untold stories of sorrow, resilience, and a continent yearning for hope lurk behind the statistics. Suicide is referred to as consciously committing the murder of oneself. While the best-known statistics stand for suicide deaths, these are understated, and the truth is far more serious when attempted suicides are included. Approximately 700,000 individuals (about half the population of Hawaii) die by suicide each year, per estimates in and across Africa.
There usually are many more attempted suicides for every suicide according to the World Health Organization. The World Health Organization (WHO) regards suicide mortality reduction to be a public health aim. To that purpose, the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals (UN SDG) include suicide mortality reduction as an indicator under goal 3.4.
In that light, the purpose of this piece is to raise the general public's understanding of the urgency of(dealing with) suicide and attempts at it in Africa. In addition, this paper will give several significant factors which might be contributing to variances in African suicide rates.
It is significant to begin by collecting useful facts and statistics about the African continent's suicide rates, danger indicators, and trends. Doing so will serve as an excellent basis for an awareness strategy and will help us understand the problem's scale.
Approximately 11 people per 100,000 people commit suicide in the African region annually, a rate significantly greater than a global average of 9 per 100,000 people, per the agency's Africa section. Incorporating these statistical findings would go a long way in illustrating the size of the rate at which suicide occurs in Africa.
It is important to understand the cultural contexts within Africa. Acknowledging that cultural factors have an impact on mental wellness and suicide helps concerned parties establish an angle to diffuse the situation. Showing the various cultural components that may lead to mental health difficulties and suicide in African cultures is critical.
In that context, raising community awareness and sensitisation about suicide could include supplying information about suicide and its prevention, the burden of suicide attempts and suicide, risk and protective factors, vulnerable groups, or the role that communities can play in suicide prevention. This would enable communities to intervene in small-scale ways, using existing human and economic resources, before progressing to large-scale community-wide measures.
Economic disparities, in many African countries, have significantly contributed to elevated levels of poverty and economic inequality. Individuals experiencing financial difficulties are more vulnerable to mental health issues, such as depression, which can lead to suicide.
According to Phiri and Mukuka (2017: 1), “It is commonly believed that the social costs of unemployment, such as lower income, lower levels of life satisfaction, and higher levels of depression, all add notably to suicide or serious suicidal ideation, are worsened throughout recessionary periods brought on by economic crisis.” The statement was derived from an article titled DOES UNEMPLOYMENT AGGRAVATE SUICIDE RATES IN SOUTH AFRICA?
The media's depiction of suicide has the potential to affect public feelings and, circumstances, trigger suicide spikes or contagion. The media has the greatest impact on suicidal behavior when a method of suicide is specified, especially when described in detail. When a suicide story is published or portrayed dramatically and prominently, for instance, with photographs showing the departed or large headlines and when celebrity suicides are reported.
In my opinion, it is critical that African governments collaborate with other states within the continent to promote mental health and suicide prevention. As vital components of public health, civil society organisations and the international community may just aid the already in motion strategies that serve the purpose of fighting the occurrences of suicide.
I strongly believe that we can put an end to the terrible trend of increasing suicide rates in Africa by engaging in proactive and comprehensive actions that offer hope to those in despair. Most importantly the fight against suicide should be taken on by every African, standing together in solidarity and putting our soldiers on we should fight the battle for saving lives. Remembering that it could be me, or you, or your loved one who loses their life to suicide.
Tatenda Michele Kufakwame is an emerging scholar at the Department of Anthropology and Development Studies at the University of Johannesburg.