Talking about trauma and South Sudan

Montgomery is a clinical psychologist in private practice and a consultant on Morning Star, a trauma healing program in Sudan with DT Global, a development company. She previously worked on a similar program in South Sudan. She has helped to develop a curriculum taught in local communities and has trained approximately 45 trainers who take the five-day program to the countryside, stated an Altrusa International of Oak Ridge news release. Montgomery was the guest speaker at one of the local club's meetings.

"Decades of conflict there (in South Sudan) have resulted in a traumatized society, and the program aims to restore peace and reconciliation," the release stated.

Montgomery said her father had what would now be diagnosed as post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) due to being in a plane crash during his service in World War II.

She defined trauma as "an overwhelming experience that impairs your ability to function and cope and may even include the threat of death."

"'Overwhelming' is a critical word there," Montgomery told her audience.

She said people can learn to help themselves through exercise and spiritual life, both things that she said were present among people with whom her program worked. She said both were already a part of the local culture with people getting exercise from walking or dancing and churches for spiritual life.

She also spoke of making sure people can resolve the effects of trauma in society. She referred to the various steps that she hopes people can go through with regard to trauma and society as "villages."

“The villages don’t have to be in the order they’re presented there," she said of the diagram she showed, which pictured a path leading between these metaphorical villages.

The first is the the village of truth, which she said means acknowledging what happened.

The second she listed was the village of mercy, which involves thinking about how others felt, including enemies.

Third, she spoke of the village of justice, at which she said the trauma survivors try to get beyond the idea of revenge killing and instead look for "a way we can come together as a community” to work out the issue. She acknowledged this can be difficult if there’s a death or murder involved.

Fourth was the village of peace in which the people involved learn to work non-violently and decide "how far do you go with your own personal freedom” and how much does the individual need to acknowledge others.

“Learn to work with other people, but not be taken advantage of,” she said describing this step.

Fifth is the village of reconciliation. Depending on what's happened, Montgomery said, people do not always reach this step.

The diagram she showed also included two other, worse paths, the village of harm to self and the village of harm to others.

Sources of trauma

Much of Montgomery's presentation focused on issues and sources of trauma in the South Sudan areas in which she's worked. She said the areas' wars had led to displacement of people and a lack of infrastructure.

She said natural events like flooding can cause trauma. In dry season, human conflicts are more likely to happen, such as wars, roofs set on fire and cattle raids.

“Human-caused events are a lot harder for us to get over because they often involve betrayal,” she said.

She focused on several issues that she saw as a problem in South Sudan: economics, gender and patriarchy, health and education.

“They intersect so much it’s like a plate of spaghetti," she said of these issues.

Regarding economics, she described the people with whom she worked as dependent on growing the food they eat, although she also talked about women selling products at markets. Cattle, she said, are the way people measure wealth. She said there were few opportunities for education or industrial jobs. Many people, she said, live in refugee camps. They are safer than other areas, but often include people speaking different languages, leading to some isolation.

Regarding gender and patriarchy, she spoke about the extent to which outside groups like her own should honor local customs or try to impose their own values.

“You see what they’re doing and it makes a certain amount of sense to them. How much do you challenge that, and how much do you just let it be?” By law, she said, women have more rights than they do by informal customs.

She said women frequently have early and arranged marriages with grooms paying for brides in cattle. Women, she said, sometimes get pregnant at a young age when their bodies aren't ready. Because older men are wealthier, they are often married to younger women. Younger men, however, she said, resort to cattle rustling to get married, which she said results in violence and revenge killing.

“You can see a cascade of problems,” Montgomery said. She also talked about poverty driving sex trafficking and rape as a weapon of war.

She said people should "never minimize" the power of women talking together at wells and other places. She also talked about activist groups such as Crown the Woman, which describes itself on its website as " a women founded and women led nonprofit, non-governmental, non-political, humanitarian and national grassroots organization that aims at empowering girls and women to ensure they harness their potential and contribute to nation building economically, socially and politically."

Regarding health, she said, health challenges are numerous. Malaria, clean water and sanitation were health issues she listed.

She said it was difficult to get emergency and adequate care. She said medical assistants, however, were “incredibly qualified.” She said there were some resources for those with HIV and AIDS. She said she had gotten advice to not dismiss traditional healers, and added they “know the people” and are able to help. Some of their potions worked while others did not, she said.

Regarding education, she said the government did not provide education in South Sudan, but in the capital city of Juba there were schools run by Catholic and Anglican churches, United Nations Children's Fund and other educational associations. She said there were problems with a lack of female hygiene products preventing some girls from attending schools and physical punishments with canes causing trauma for some students at school.

Positive memories

Montgomery ended her talk on a more upbeat note. She said people can deal with trauma by dancing and walking. She said the people she worked with already knew “some of the natural things about healing."

“There’s a very rich spiritual life. There’s a good sense of humor,” she said of the people with whom she has worked. She also said she appreciated looking at the natural world, showing images in her presentation of a gecko, an elephant and a sunrise.

Ben Pounds is a staff reporter for The Oak Ridger. Call him at (865) 441-2317, email him at This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. and follow him on Twitter @Bpoundsjournal.

This article originally appeared on Oakridger: Talking about trauma and South Sudan