Abstract
The COVID-19 pandemic has been, and will continue to be, exposed to young democracies who are grappling with deep-seated multi-generational and multi-layered traumas which are embedded in past and present conflicts as well as injustices. In the lead-up to the COVID-19 pandemic, South Africa, being a young democracy, has experienced an increase in anger, violence and vengeance due to on-going poverty, lack of service delivery, housing and land, etc., at all levels of society. The COVID-19 pandemic has exacerbated the injustices that are based on the legacy of generational trauma and pain that are caused mainly by an unjust political system, centuries of colonialism, violence, and conflict. These injustices have also exposed the commitment and promises that the religious sector made, during the hearing of the faith communities at the Truth and Reconciliation Commission (TRC), to the reconstruction and development of the country as well as to reconciliation and healing of the nation. Since South Africa became a democracy, the transition process, the first democratic election, the TRC process, political promises, corruption and currently the COVID-19 pandemic have restrained the state of trauma in the country. This restraint has led to a state of frozenness. This contribution argues that the concept of divine discomfort and specifically the notions of accountability and justice can contribute to exploring new ways for religion to deal with the eruption of multi-generational and multi-layered ‘frozen trauma’.
Highlights
In the lead-up to the COVID-19 pandemic, South Africa, being a young democracy, experienced an increase in anger, violence and vengeance due to ongoing poverty, lack of service delivery, housing and land at all levels of society
The COVID-19 pandemic has exacerbated those injustices that are based on the legacy of generational trauma and pain that are mainly caused by an unjust political system, centuries of colonialism, violence, and conflict
Since South Africa became a democracy, the transition process, the first democratic election, the Truth and Reconciliation Commission (TRC) process, political promises, corruption and currently the COVID-19 pandemic have reiterated the effect of past trauma in the country
Summary
In the lead-up to the COVID-19 pandemic, South Africa, being a young democracy (just more than 25 years), experienced an increase in anger, violence and vengeance due to ongoing poverty, lack of service delivery, housing and land at all levels of society. The current state president, Mr Cyril Ramaphosa, at the funeral of Miss Winnie Madikizela-Mandela in 2019, acknowledged the failure in dealing with the traumas of South Africa’s past (Ramaphosa 2018) He indicated that South Africa needs a new language to speak about its traumatic past and that failing to attend to it will continue to impact current and future generations. He used words such as ‘hurt’, ‘pain’, ‘woundedness’ and ‘anger’ to voice the trauma experienced by the majority of the people in South Africa and emphasized social healing With this new language, he acknowledged the legacy of generational trauma and pain in society, mainly caused by an unjust political system and centuries of colonialism, as well as how this inheritance is transmitted to the current generation and will continue to be transmitted to future generations if it is not transformed.
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