Integrative Approaches to Trauma Work with Victims of Postelection Violence in an African Nation

Abstract

This article is written in the broad context of armed civil conflicts, genocidal wars, transportation accidents, tribal clashes and ritual killings, and the resultant mass trauma of political violence and the brutal and devastating ethnic hostilities that erupt with contested results of most political elections in Africa. The specific context was the terrible situation in which Kenya found itself in the aftermath of the conflicted Presidential Elections of December 2007. The article reports on a trauma counselling workshop that was organised for volunteers and aimed at preparing them to gain a uniform orientation and well‐delineated perspective for working with victims of trauma and violence within the returnee university population. The paper presents integrated techniques of trauma work drawn from both African and Western healing traditions which formed the content of the revised invited address delivered by the author during the workshop.