Thanks for downloading this podcast. I'm Nicola Kelly. I first heard about the mental health crisis

in Zanzibar when I was researching the drug epidemic that's been raging there for years,

and I thought, I wonder if all the heroin and cannabis passing through Zanzibar has had any

bearing on rates of psychosis, and it turns out it had. As I delved further, the story started

to take unexpected twists and turns. I found that a huge proportion of mentally ill patients

on this idyllic tropical island have been locked up, beaten and exploited, sometimes by their

families, but usually by herbalists and exorcists. It's a tough story to tell, but I think it's a

necessary one. I hope you enjoy it. For this week's assignments on the BBC World Service,

we're on the Tanzanian island of Zanzibar. What are the socks for? Why are you putting socks on your

feet? We need to cover ourselves, because when you are open, the average speed is easier to get

in you. When you cover yourself, it's not possible for the average speed to get in. In a damp,

dilapidated hall, a throng of patients gather, desperately seeking a way to rid themselves

of the evil spirits they believe have possessed their minds. You're going to get hot in those socks?

No, it's not hot because the power of God, you don't feel hot. This treatment's really important,

isn't it? It's a really important, yeah, it's very important. I believe it, then, 100%. You get cured.

This is Ashura, an affable pious lady. Her hands folded modestly in front of her.

She has travelled over 7,000 kilometres from her home in Britain to find relief from acute mental

suffering. I had anxiety and depression and I'm using tablets in London, but when I come in

this place, I feel like I don't need tablets. So, are you more convinced that traditional medicine

like this or in a healing? Very, very effective. More so than medication in the work. Yeah, yeah.

She's referring to a remarkable form of psychological therapy trusted by swathes of the population

here in predominantly Muslim Zanzibar, the age-old spiritual practice of exorcism.

...