9 July 2013 — RT

Follow RT’s day-by-day timeline of the Gitmo hunger strike

An image grab taken from a video uploaded on YouTube on July 8, 2013 by user Reprieve UK

The Guantanamo Bay hunger strike reached 150 continuous days on July 5, with 45 of the 106 hunger strikers being force-fed. In an effort to raise awareness of the issue, Mos Def volunteered to undergo the painful procedure used on the detainees daily.

His experience was captured in a shocking four-minute film released by Reprieve Human Rights organization and directed by award-winning director Asif Kapadia. 

The clip first shows Mos Def dressed in a Gitmo-style uniform. He is being shackled and strapped into a chair with his hands and head tightly belted. One person acting as a prison doctor holds the rapper’s head, while another one forces a plastic tube down his nostril.

The element of theatricalism created by HD Cam close-ups and studio lightning vanishes as soon as Mos Def obviously reacts to the excruciating pain.

Mos Def coughs, groans, and twists as the tube rushing down his esophagus brings tears to his eyes. While his whole body bends in agony, another man hurries to the scene to hold him down. The tube is quickly removed.

A genuine expression of terror crosses Mos Def’s face when a doctor moves back to re-insert the tube. The rapper begs for the procedure to be stopped.

Three men start forcing the rapper back into the chair as he cries out and tries to resist. But they soon realize that Mos Def is not acting – he is in serious pain.

“I can’t do it,” Mos Def says before breaking into tears.

The viewers are then reminded that every such procedure in Guantanamo typically takes two hours to complete.

“I didn’t really know what to expect,” Mos Def said after the experience.

“The first part of it is not that bad, but then you get this burning and it starts to be really unbearable, like something is going into my brain and it reaches the back of my throat,” he said, adding that he “really couldn’t take it.”