From south to north of Madagascar, I visit many centers of Lutheran influence between 2015 and 2017. The pastors of these Lutheran centers that I meet have for reflexe the slightest psychological disorder to diagnose all mental illnesses under the same label: possession. Devoly (the devil) is another name, another “suitcase” borrowed from English missionaries (Devil, the devil) that I often hear during my visits to the Toby (psychiatric center) to explain to me inexplicable, to describe to me all the strange behaviors that arise in the individual. Too many are the people who are described as possessed before me.
However, I note that the care applied differs from one place to another depending on the financial means of each psychiatric asylum but also personal initiatives of villagers, pastors or mpiandry (white shepherds who bless the sick).
Far from wanting to denounce an inappropriate practice towards mental illness, this series of photos aims to honor these patients from the shadows. The time of a photo shoot.
For three years (from 2015 to 2017), I went to psychiatric asylums in Madagascar ...