Guinea-Bissau
-- Punishment of students by police New!
Date: November 2020
Duration: 3½ minutes
We are in a police station in Guinea-Bissau, a West African country of 2 million people of whom we know little. It gained independence from Portugal in 1973.
Officially there is no corporal punishment there but, as US State Department reports make clear, it's the sort of place where in practice the police do whatever they like.
Half a dozen young people, said to be students, mostly female (or possibly all female -- it's hard to tell), are brought in one by one and made to lie face down on the floor. Each is briskly whipped 5 strokes on the clothed buttocks before jumping up and making a hasty exit. The instrument is unclear. The reason for the punishment is not known.
It is a somewhat chaotic scene: one raucous onlooker (presumably a police officer, possibly the camera operator), apparently finding the proceedings amusing, is heard loudly shouting and jeering repetitively. This is irritating, but does not entirely drown out the sound of the whipping.
The picture quality is very poor.
HERE IS THE CLIP:
