In the Lion’S Mouth

Hope and Heartbreak in Humanitarian Assistance

In the Lions Mouth is an ethnographic study of humanitarian assistance. Through intense narratives about displaced persons and his interaction with them, Lewis Apektar makes the case for humanitarian aid as finely honed and specific, rather than based on a priori categories and generalities. Moreover, contrary to usual practice, Apektar contends that mental health assistance is at least as important as food and shelter and essential in Kaliti, a camp for displaced persons near Addis Ababa, Ethiopia, if the displaced are ever to break the chains of despondency that hold them down.