Cultural Scripts of Trauma among Eastern African Population
The Voice of Survivors, Clinicians, and Ethnographers

Project by

Celestin Mutuyimana
Early-Career Fellow 2023–2024

The voice of trauma survivors and the diversity of cultures need to be considered in diagnostic and treatment of mental disorders. However, especially in an African context, this is not really known. Therefore, one can make an argument that despite the efforts of treating trauma-related disorders their prevalence among the African population is still very high. Furthermore, different studies have been conducted that not only indicated the magnitude of trauma-related disorders but also formulated recommendations for policy changes.

However, most of the results of these studies are only available in a scientific format, as articles, papers, and so on. But how can people with low economic and scientific means benefit from the results of these studies? And how can the participants of these studies contribute to policy changes and their implementation? This project aims to bridge these gaps by giving voice to the real experts of trauma: the survivors, from a culture different to the Global North one, to explain their sufferance and propose interventions that they think will be helpful to them.