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THE CONCEPT AND IMPORTANCE OF POST-WAR HEALING

By: Aloysius B. Nyanti

“In working with trauma for over three decades, I have come to the conclusionthat human beings are born with an innate capacity to triumph over trauma. I believe not only that trauma is curable, but that the healing process can be acatalyst for profound awakening – a portal opening to emotional and genuine spiritual transformation. I have no doubt that as individuals, families,communities, and even nations, we have the capacity to learn how to heal and prevent much of the damage done by trauma. In doing so, we will significantlyincrease our ability to achieve both our individual and collective dreams”

(Peter A. Levine 2005:10).Whenever violence strikes a society, the life of the population, both victims and perpetrators, cannot return to normal, without a process of healing taking place (Daneshet al 2005:279). This is partly due to the fact that violence can destroy the physicalhabitat of people and thereby cause them both physical and psychological injuries,including social dislocation. Therefore, whenever a nation suffers the devastating effectsof violence, it becomes crucial to establish a systematic approach to healing of the entire population, if the cycle of violence is to be broken and significant advances towardsreconciliation and peace are to be achieved (Danesh et al 2005:276).The term and meaning of “healing” commonly used in the discourse of peace-buildingand post-conflict reconciliation, undoubtedly remains controversial. So what does theterm “healing” mean? The Mosby's Dictionary of Complementary and AlternativeMedicine (2005) defines healing as a “process of recovery, repair, and restoration”; or a process of “return to wholeness.”

Healing therefore is defined as a process of “creatingunity” in all aspects of the individual human being and community life – physical,emotional, social and spiritual (Danesh et al 2007:277). It is a process by which unity isrestored at both the individual and societal levels. It is important to note that the processof healing wounds involves four dimensions - physical, psychological, social, and

spiritual. Although the spiritual dimension of healing is often neglected in many societies,it remains central to the process of healing.“Healing or the creation of “health” – whether biological or psychological – issynonymous with the creation of “unity”: the establishment of dynamic equilibriumwithin ourselves and our interactions with the world” (Danesh et al 2007:279). If individual and community healing are seen to be the societal equivalent of unity or harmony, then their illness, the opposite of healing, could be seen to equate to disease or disunity. Taking the individual and community ‘healing/unity’ and ‘disease/disunity’allegory further, it could be argued that an unhealed society is an unhealthy society aswell (PaxEye 2008:36).According to Carol Taylor (2006), healing is a process by which a society moves from asense of brokenness to a sense of wholeness. She states that it is a process of “becomingwhole, a life-long journey of becoming fully human, involving the totality of our being: body, mind, emotion, spirit, social and political context, as well as our relationships withothers and with the Divine” (Taylor 2006).

Additionally, Brandon Hamber (2003:77)defines healing as a process or activity that improves the psychological well being of individuals, repair and rebuild communities and the social context. In other words,healing is a process of

building bridges between victims and perpetrators affected byviolence

Judith Herman (1992:133)

describes healing as a process of recovery. She states thathealing is based on the empowerment of survivors and creation of new connections. Shemaintains that, healing as a process, can only take place within the context of relationships, and cannot occur in isolation. With a renewed reconnection with others, thesurvivors can recreate the psychological faculties that were damaged or deformed bytraumatic experiences, but with the creation of a safe environment (Herman 1992:133).Paul Gutlove (2005:1) views healing as a process of peace-building. He maintains thathealing is closely related to peace-building. According to Gutlove, both healing and peace-building are ultimately about developing or repairing healthy human relationships.

Kimberly A. Maynard (1999:131) also views healing from the community cohesion perspective. She states that healing is a process of rebuilding community cohesion.In essence, all these different researchers and experts view healing as the process of “creating unity,” although they did not use the term – “unity”. However, such concepts as“wholeness,” “reconciliation,” improving “relationships,” community “cohesion,” are allfacets of the all-embracing concept of unity.Evidently there exist an urgent need of healing for both the victims and perpetrators in post-war societies including Liberia, Sierra Leone, Ivory Coast, and many other countriesthat have experienced terrible violence or civil, if there is to be any hope for a better future. This is because in the aftermath of violent conflict, peace is not simply theabsence of violence;

those who have experienced violence and war need also toexperience healing.

“To remain unhealed is to remain traumatized. Healing in this caseimplies more than economic or political empowerment - it has to take place inrelationships among both victims and victimizers” (Saa 2002:2).Through the process of healing

brothers and sisters who have descended into enmity will be able to restore shared lives and become a community once again in the society. It willalso reduce the level of pain and suffering, and increase their chances of reconnection andreconciliation.

In other words, healing is the ability of the society to cope with its painful past in order to move ahead with life once more for the many possibilities andopportunities that lie ahead in life.In a nutshell, the process of healing wounds after war is multifaceted and difficult as suchthe humanitarian cannot be separated from the political, or the immediate from the long-term, nor the rehabilitation from the development, each dimension is a necessarycomponent of peace building in the society (Otunnu 1996:52). Policy makers in particular are therefore encouraged to attach an importance to meeting these needs to avoid thereoccurrence of violence in these societies.