Otros usos del Lactosuero

Reasons that were clustered under the supernatural subtheme were: belief in God/Allah, gods of the land, witchcraft and spirits of the dead (the term “spirits of the dead” were used interchangeably with “ancestors” and the meaning is the same). Most of the individual respondents believed that their exposure was as a result of the influence of these supernatural forces. The views expressed were very similar to those expressed by the focus group. Similar beliefs have been found in traumatic brain injury patients living in rural African communities (Mokhosi & Grieve, 2004). The name “God” was used consistently by Christian respondents whereas “God/Allah” were used interchangeably by Muslim respondents. God/Allah according to the respondents is believed to be the creator

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of the universe and have control over everything he created. According to the respondents God/Allah permits certain events to occur on purpose. A quote from a respondent to illustrate how God/Allah permits the occurrence of traumatic events:

“I think this is the work of God. Sometimes he would want to test my faith in him. Maybe he realised that my husband was suffering as a result of the illness so he felt there was a need to end his life so he wouldn’t go through the pain anymore and I can also rest because I was always at home doing eventually everything for him. So I will say it is the work of God.”

God’s will/fate was also used in relation to events which were unavoidable (the subtheme preceding this section). The difference here is that in this instance God is perceived to have a specific benevolent purpose in mind, whereas in the ‘fated’ examples the event is simply dismissed as inevitable. There are some similarities in terms of tentativeness between the focus group and individual causes of traumatic events.

Even though the individual seems to settle on the idea that it was God’s work, the tentativeness of statements as well as the multiple secondary reasons offered creates the idea of uncertainty. This kind of speculative answering was commonly found in the individual interviews. It was as if respondents had not really thought extensively about the reasons for their traumatic events. This is interestingly very similar to findings of De Villiers (2013) that indicated that isiXhosa-speaking individuals suffering from PTSD had only made tentative judgments about causality. However, in the current sample it was not only those with tentative attributions that were suffering. The researcher noted that even

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those with more certain attributions also exhibited traumatic stress. Whereas, common cognitive understandings (e.g. Ehlers & Clark, 2000) state that people who understand the cause of the traumatic event should experience less symptoms, this was not the case among the current Mole-Dagbon sample. The mechanism of God/Allah seems to be somewhat different to those of the gods of the land.

The gods of the land are termed “smaller gods” by respondents and are believed to either cause a traumatic event for an individual or the community as a whole. The view held is that traumatic events are mostly associated with these gods when an individual engages in immoral behaviour. Twumasi (1996) has indicated that the supernatural (e.g. gods of the land) is believed to know everything and some people are afraid to engage in an immoral life for fear that they will be caught and punished. In instances where acts are not considered immoral (and therefore do not deserve punishment from the gods),

individuals attributed traumatic events to witchcraft.

Individual respondents held the belief that human activities are not necessary to activate witchcraft. Instead, witches are believed to act out of malevolence to cause harm to other people. An individual example illustrates this by relating illness to witchcraft:

“I am now suffering from this terrible leg ache. This started after I lost my wife and I suspect the witches in my wife’s family are behind this. They only want to cause me pain for no reason. They do this mostly out of jealousy.”

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Similarly to what has been said in the focus groups, the respondent believed that the acts of witches could be driven by mere jealousy for another person. However, in a few instances individuals also indicated that the occurrence of a witchcraft related traumatic event could also be initiated by an argument between people. A witch can cause a distressing event for another as retribution after an argument. A quote to illustrate this view:

“I believe it could be as a result of a witch. Maybe my wife had a misunderstanding with someone who has the witchcraft powers and the person decided to kill her”.

Respondent uses “misunderstanding” in this instance to signify “argument”. These two words were used interchangeably by most respondents who commented on the act of witches. However, they implied “argument”. The idea that witchcraft leads to traumatic events is slightly more nuanced with the individual expressions of the idea in that a witch may act in their own self-interest rather than being randomly malicious. Other researchers have also found that witches may act of their own interest and volition to cause harm to others (Awedoba, 2006; Okello & Neema, 2007). What seems to be central to

explanations of witchcraft is the idea of malice and jealousy driving random traumatic events. These events stand in contrast to explanations for random events that are attributed to fate or coincidence. Certain events were also associated with the ancestors or spirits of the dead.

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Spirits of the dead were believed to be capable of causing a range of traumatic events. This view of the individuals of Mole-Dagbon is in line with natives of Uganda who believe in distressing events as having its origins from poor relationships that existed between the living and the dead (Okello, 2006). Thus the spirits of the dead are believed to exert these events as a form of punishment to the living. A quote from a man who lost his wife:

“My wife was requested to become a regent after she lost her auntie who is a queen mother. My wife refused to act accordingly because I was sick then. Since she is very dear to her auntie, her spirit might have punished her for disobeying the elders”.

From this individuals’ perspective, spirits of the dead act with purpose. Thus, punitive measures were meted out when an individual’s actions were contrary to their desires or assumed request. These supernatural forces were not only believed to react to the person who infringed on their desires but could extend these reactions to the close relations of the person.

“After I lost my wife, my legs got swollen and I am suspecting this is resulting from what my wife’s’ refusal to be a regent. I am her husband so the spirits know I also contributed to her not accepting to act in place of her auntie.”

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Thus in this instance the respondent believe his current illness could also result from the ancestors/spirits of the dead. The difference between supernatural agents using

witchcraft and that of the ancestral spirits seem to be that the ancestors act with and within reason rather than out of spite, jealousy and malice. It could be suggested that experiences that are attributed to random malice should be more traumatizing than those that are more understandable and almost ‘sanctioned’ if we consider current Western understandings of posttraumatic stress disorder. It can of course not be surmised from the current sample and study whether this was the case, but the difference in frameworks for event attribution here may be a valuable avenue for future exploration.