Thread by @wmnjoya

One big cause of mental unwellness is the clash between our human instinct to care and heal, and the workplace on the other. It's called emotional labor.

Emotional labor causes so much internal pain because there is a government and PR machinery to deny that it exists.

Imagine feeling emotional and mental anguish from gaslighting at work, and then when you talk about it, the PR guy at @MOH_Kenya, who is directly responsible for the pain, denies reality and says that the problem is with you. That's mental anguish x2.

The assault of such neoliberal policies at the workplace has been called by researchers a form of "terror on the soul." It has been widely documented by researchers, but Oprah types want to tell us mental torture at work is unrelated to mental unwellness.

Psychiatry and psychology must be challenged to DECOLONIZE. As Fanon said in Black Skin, White Masks, there is no need for feel good sermons and scientific jargon when the reality that's making people unwell is staring us in the face.

The government of Kenya and the media have a very elaborate propaganda machinery of divorcing people's sorrows at work from mental health. Wahura herself talked about the role of government propaganda, and it's dishonest to honor her while suppressing what she actually said.

The fact that Wahura spoke so articulately about the problem of the healthcare system and GoK propaganda shows that SHE IS STRONG. She spoke out, and to honor her is to talk of the work she left us to do. We must fight for dignifying work.

There's no honor in feel good denials.

To mourn people with honor is not to limited to saying how nice they were. It extends to saying that their lives mattered enough for us to do something about what they told us.

We must demand work that makes people feel dignified and impactful. Work is our imprint on the world.