Transgenerational Trauma Among Descendants of the 1904-1908 Genocide

Clinical psychologist Edwina Mensah-Husselmann says supporting young people processing inherited trauma is not about shielding them from painful truths, but about providing them with the tools, language and support to hold that truth with strength, pride and purpose. 

She was speaking at the ‘Trilogy to the Future’ dialogue, a build-up to the inaugural Genocide Remembrance Day tomorrow.

Husselmann said “when young people are equipped with historical understanding and emotional resilience, they become the bridge between survival and thriving, a generation that remembers not to remain wounded but to lead with restored dignity and renewed vision”.

The 1904-1908 Ovaherero and Nama genocide didn’t only leave its victims dispossessed of land and cattle; the violence inflicted on the Ovaherero and Nama by the German colonial authorities left scars from deep-rooted trauma passed on from generation to generation.

“These unresolved traumas manifest themselves in negative behaviour such as substance abuse and emotional numbing, educational underperformance, lateral violence, including community conflict and increased crime, because of unresolved grief,” Mensah-Husselmann said.

EPIGENETICS

In acknowledging the ongoing effect of the genocide, the emerging science of epigenetics emerges in contemporary discourse.
Epigenetics is the study of how behaviour and environment cause changes affecting gene expression.

“On a bio-neurological level, trauma goes and sits in our cells and that’s where we get inflammatory diseases like arthritis and colon disease… it is as a result of an over-active nervous system being in distress and what we call muscle memory,” Mensah-Husselmann said.
“That trauma response is sitting in our cells being passed on.

Just like the phrase ‘it runs is the blood’, we can inherit things like anxiety, she explained in response to a question on the link between past trauma and current trauma experienced by descendants of the 1904-1908 genocide.

In an essay titled ‘Understanding Epigenetics as a Descendant of Holocaust Survivors’, Elle Rosenfeld of the Jewish Women’s Archive acknowledges that epigenetic changes travel across time via intergenerational mechanisms.

“Results show that the offspring of Holocaust victims were more likely to have these altered chemical patterns even in the absence of trauma as epigenetic changes occur from the body’s expectation that the offspring will endure the same environment as their parents,” says Rosenfeld.

“Theoretically, intergenerational trauma ensues when a stressor alters a parents germ cells thus causing ingrained qualities to be passed down through generations,” she notes.

Stress, anxiety, poverty and land insecurity as a result of colonial dispossession have been identified as primary drivers of negative behaviour such as substance abuse among descendants of Namibia’s 1904-1908 genocide.

LAND BOUGHT FOR A BOTTLE OF WHISKY

The collective history of genocide is embedded in Ovaherero and Nama identity, and in acknowledging the effect on these communities, human rights activist Joyce Muzengua says.

Negative stereotypes attributed to these communities as being more susceptible to alcohol disorders compared to other communities are not only harmful but a reminder of the trans-generational impact of genocide.

Some members of these communities have turned to alcohol as a maladaptive coping mechanism.

“If collective healing does not take place, there is a chance that the generation after us will still carry the wounds of the past or the gene memory of the past,” Muzengua said at the panel discussion.

Asked whether alcohol disorders among affected communities can be seen as a symptom of unresolved trauma and a coping mechanism rather than a negative stereotype, Muzengua said the three are not mutually exclusive.

They existed side by side in understanding how communities deal with unresolved trauma as a collective, she added.

“Alcohol use is embedded in our culture but for some it can progress to a point where it becomes a disorder (addiction).

“Given that in some instances land was traded for a bottle of whisky, the relationship with alcohol among indigenous people becomes a subject worth interrogating in itself,” Muzengua said. 

REMEMBRANCE AND HEALING

Tomorrow Namibia, will hold its first Genocide Memorial Day and already some descendants have signaled disinterest in participating.

A well-known member of the Nama community says those disaffected will not attend because of an apparent misrepresentation of historical facts like the date when the concentration camps were officially closed.

At the second instalment of the ‘Trilogy to the Future’ dialogue, panelists Suzie Shefeni and Elmaria Kapunda presented ‘Stories of Women During Colonial Namibia’.

These stories seek to inform Namibians of the struggles they encountered, how these struggles have helped form contemporary Namibia, and how Namibia’s future can be shaped by addressing social-economic challenges Namibians face as a result of their history.

– Vitalio Angula is a socio-political commentator and independent columnist.

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