By Zuko Komisa
With everything that has happened in South Africa, it is important to acknowledge that we may be a traumatised nation.
A painful incident that affects a large number of people is referred to as collective trauma.
A family may be affected, or it may affect the entire society.
Plane accidents, natural catastrophes, mass killings, starvation, war, or pandemics are examples of traumatic occurrences that can affect groups.
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The sad reality is that these events might have an impact on people even if they haven’t personally witnessed them. For instance, watching the news coverage of an event might be upsetting.
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Point of View with Phemelo Motene spoke to Nomfundo Mogapi who is the CEO and Founder of the Center for Wellness and Leadership about how we can deal with collective trauma.
LISTEN TO THE FULL CONVERSATION HERE:
Mogapi spoke about how COVID 19, raised global awareness of collective trauma.
“With COVID 19, there is now an appreciation of this field, as the pandemic has become a global collective traumatic event. The appreciation that trauma impacts us not just personally but also at a collective level has now landed within the field of trauma. We all appreciate how society, organisations and institutions can be traumatised and have a proper relationship with how we respond to such events.”
Mogapi spoke about why it is important to transform the trauma in society through various initiatives.
Leaders are all trying to say the right things, but we almost have this paradox that the more we keep doing these things the more things get worse. But I am sure there are other explanations, but from my work, and working as a psychologist, and appreciating the multi-layered nature of trauma. I realise that unless we begin to find ways to transform trauma within these initiatives, we will, unfortunately, continue have such problems.
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