Abstract
Spirituality affects people’s well-being and can be used to cope with traumatic experiences. The present study explored the role of spirituality in coping with war-related trauma among war veterans...
Highlights
Very few qualitative studies have focused on the use of spiritual beliefs to cope with war trauma during the ongoing war and after-war experiences
Qualitative research methods were suitable for this study to help the researchers understand how war veterans in Zimbabwe have used spirituality to cope with traumatic events during and after the war
The study participants revealed several themes that showed their use of spirituality in their process of coping with trauma from the war period and in their day-to-day life
Summary
Very few qualitative studies have focused on the use of spiritual beliefs to cope with war trauma during the ongoing war and after-war experiences. Spirituality helps people get a sense of mastery and meaning from traumatic events. This meaning making through spiritual coping may curtail symptoms of posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) and better psychological well-being (Bormann, Liu, Thorp, & Lang, 2012; Slater, Bordenave, & Boyer, 2016). Spirituality and Zimbabwe’s War of Liberation in Zimbabwe. The war of liberation in Zimbabwe (1966-1979) was fought between the indigenous people of Zimbabwe against the Rhodesian forces who had colonized the country (Alexander & McGregor, 2004). At the outbreak of the war in 1966, Rhodesian forces were more prepared than the Guerrilla fighters who largely were not trained. Most indigenous freedom fighters died during the initial stages of battle (Chingono, 1999)
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