A Healing Journey

Abstract

Healing from the traumatic impact of the neoliberal age entails an evolving process. Central to this process is the enactment of remembrance and mourning.¹ Several documented cases verify that collective traumas linked to particularly inhumane atrocities return to “haunt” the group’s descendants.² Studies have also shown that if a trauma has not been sufficiently spoken of and acknowledged at the time of its occurrence, traces of it can remain and surface in the family 50 or 100 years later.³ Remembering the trauma story includes a systematic review of the meaning of the event.⁴ Here, recovery from trauma requires the reconstruction of meaning and the rebuilding of hope. The therapeutic task involves accessing systems of symbolization that situate the traumatic experience within a new perceptual framework. Though fragmentation and dissociation often lay in the wake of cultural traumas, rituals of remembrance can facilitate healing. Public acts of commemoration thus serve as effective modalities of care for black Americans recovering from the traumatic impact of the neoliberal age.⁵ This chapter presents an African American rite known as the Maafa Commemoration that can be understood as a healing resource which is capable of helping black Americans transform the traumatic effects of racially driven neoliberalism.