Understanding the Principles of Trauma Informed Care in the African Context
Introduction
Trauma is part of the human story, but it is not experienced or understood in the same way everywhere. In many African countries, people live with the effects of colonisation, political conflict, poverty, gender based violence, communal tension, disasters, forced migration, and daily struggles for survival. At the same time, African communities are rich in resilience, spirituality, family support, humour, and communal care. Any serious conversation about trauma informed care in Africa must hold both truths together. It must acknowledge real wounds while also recognising deep strengths.
This article explains the core principles of trauma informed care and discusses how they can be understood and applied in the African context. It aims to use simple language, connect with everyday realities, and encourage practitioners, leaders, and communities to rethink how they offer care.
What is trauma informed care
Trauma is more than the event itself. It is the way the event overwhelms a person’s sense of safety, control, and connection to others. It may result from one major incident, such as an accident or assault, or from ongoing experiences, such as domestic violence, child neglect, humiliation, discrimination, or chronic poverty (Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration, 2014). Trauma can affect emotions, thinking, relationships, and even the body. People may become easily upset, withdrawn, angry, numb, suspicious, or constantly on alert.
Trauma informed care is an approach to services that recognises the widespread impact of trauma, understands common pathways to recovery, and actively seeks to avoid causing further harm (SAMHSA, 2014). It is not a specific therapy method. Rather, it is a way of organising policies, practices, and relationships so that people feel safe, respected, and empowered.
At the heart of trauma informed care is a shift in questions. Instead of asking “What is wrong with you?” we ask “What has happened to you?” and “What has helped you to survive until now?” This change invites empathy and curiosity rather than judgement and blame.
Why trauma informed care matters in the African context
Many African societies have faced generations of historical and collective trauma. These include the lasting effects of slavery, colonisation, forced labour, land dispossession, ethnic conflicts, and political repression. Contemporary challenges such as poverty, unemployment, gender based violence, early marriage, unsafe migration, trafficking, and weak health and social protection systems continue to create conditions of ongoing stress (Kirmayer et al., 2014).
Young people may grow up in homes affected by alcohol misuse, parental separation, or family violence. Women may experience intimate partner violence or sexual abuse and then face stigma and silence when they seek help. Refugees and internally displaced persons may live with memories of war, loss, and dangerous journeys. Health workers, teachers, police officers, and social workers may carry their own unspoken trauma while serving others.
In this environment, people who come to clinics, schools, places of worship, traditional healers, or community organisations often carry visible and invisible wounds. If systems respond with harsh words, shame, rushed treatment, or physical punishment, they can easily repeat the pattern of harm. Trauma informed care invites African institutions to become places of safety and healing, not of re-traumatisation.
At the same time, African communities have powerful protective factors. These include extended family networks, communal child rearing, faith communities, elders, traditional leaders, storytelling, music, dance, and collective rituals of mourning and celebration. Trauma informed care in Africa should therefore not simply copy models from Western countries. It should be adapted so that it honours local culture, language, spirituality, and community values.
Core principles of trauma informed care
International frameworks describe several core principles of trauma informed care. These principles can be understood in ways that fit African realities. The following sections explore five key principles: safety, trust and transparency, collaboration and shared power, empowerment and choice, and cultural, historical, and gender sensitivity (SAMHSA, 2014).
Principle 1: Safety
Safety is the foundation of trauma informed care. For people who have been hurt, safety is not only about physical security. It is also about emotional and psychological safety. They need to feel that they will not be shamed, threatened, or silenced.
In an African clinic, safety might include private spaces for consultations, clear explanations of procedures, and respectful language. In schools, it might mean classrooms where teachers do not use humiliation or physical punishment, in line with child protection guidelines. In community settings, safety may involve ensuring that group discussions do not expose survivors of violence to further stigma or gossip.
Many Africans have deep respect for authority figures such as elders, teachers, and religious leaders. This can be used positively to promote safe practices. Leaders can model calm, nonviolent ways of handling conflict. They can openly say that violence, ridicule, and harassment are not acceptable in homes, schools, workplaces, or places of worship.
Principle 2: Trust and transparency
Trust grows when people know what to expect and when they see that words and actions match. Many people in African countries have experienced systems that feel unpredictable or unfair, such as sudden changes in school rules, unclear hospital charges, or arbitrary decisions in legal or bureaucratic processes. For someone who has lived through trauma, this can be especially frightening.
Trauma informed services therefore try to be as transparent as possible. They explain rights, costs, and procedures in simple language and in local languages, not only in English or French. They give honest information about waiting times, limits of confidentiality, and possible outcomes of treatment or support. When mistakes happen, they acknowledge them rather than hiding them.
Trust is also built over time through consistent behaviour. If a health worker promises to follow up, they try their best to do so. If a teacher says that bullying will not be tolerated, they act fairly when incidents are reported. This kind of reliability can slowly restore a person’s belief that institutions can be safe and supportive.
Principle 3: Collaboration and shared power
Trauma often involves an experience of powerlessness. People may have been hurt by those who had more power, such as parents, partners, employers, soldiers, or officials. Trauma informed care therefore tries to reduce unnecessary power differences and to create opportunities for collaboration.
In African cultures, respect for hierarchy is strong, but this does not mean that collaboration is impossible. Health workers, counsellors, traditional healers, social workers, and teachers can still invite people to participate in decisions about their care. For example, a nurse can ask a patient about their concerns and preferences before suggesting a treatment plan. A teacher can involve students in setting agreed rules for classroom behaviour. A faith leader can encourage open dialogue about sensitive topics, rather than only giving top down instructions.
Collaboration can also extend to families and communities, especially when individual decisions are closely linked to family expectations. With the person’s consent, it may be helpful to involve trusted relatives or community members in discussions, while still respecting the person’s rights and boundaries.
Principle 4: Empowerment, voice, and choice
Many survivors of trauma have had their voices ignored or silenced. Trauma informed care actively works to return a sense of agency and dignity. This means recognising strengths, not only problems, and offering real choices wherever possible.
In African settings, empowerment may look like allowing a young person to choose who accompanies them to a counselling session. It may involve asking women experiencing violence what kind of support feels safest, rather than pressuring them into actions that may increase danger. It may include offering different types of services, such as individual counselling, group support, faith based guidance, or traditional healing, and letting people choose what fits their beliefs and comfort.
An empowerment lens also pays attention to language. Instead of labelling people as “victims,” “mad,” or “stubborn,” practitioners can talk about “survivors,” “people living with distress,” or “people facing difficult circumstances.” Small changes in language can shift how people see themselves and how others see them.
Principle 5: Cultural, historical, and gender sensitivity
Trauma does not happen in a vacuum. In Africa, experiences of trauma are shaped by histories of colonisation, structural inequality, gender norms, ethnic relations, and spiritual beliefs (Kirmayer et al., 2014). Trauma informed care must therefore be deeply sensitive to culture, history, and gender.
Cultural sensitivity means recognising both the strengths and the challenges within local traditions. For example, extended family systems can be a source of strong support but can also pressure women to stay in abusive relationships. Respect for elders can protect children but may also make it hard for children to disclose abuse by older relatives. A trauma informed approach does not simply reject culture, nor does it blindly celebrate it. It listens carefully, works with cultural strengths, and gently challenges harmful practices.
Historical sensitivity involves acknowledging past injustices that still influence trust today. Communities that have experienced state violence, discrimination, or neglect may naturally be cautious about formal services. Practitioners can build trust by acknowledging these histories and by working in partnership with local leaders.
Gender sensitivity is essential, given high rates of violence against women and girls in many African countries. Trauma informed care must recognise the specific risks and barriers that women, girls, and gender diverse people face. It should protect their safety, respect their choices, and challenge attitudes that normalise violence or blame survivors.
From trauma informed to healing centered
Some scholars have suggested that services should not only be trauma informed but also healing centered. Healing centered engagement, as described by Ginwright (2018), focuses not only on trauma and harm but also on hope, identity, culture, and collective healing. Instead of seeing people mainly through the lens of their wounds, it asks what gives them meaning, joy, and strength.
This idea fits well with many African traditions of healing, which naturally involve community gatherings, music, dance, storytelling, prayer, and rituals. These practices can help people reconnect with themselves, others, and a sense of purpose. A healing centered approach in Africa might involve integrating psychosocial support with cultural ceremonies, peer support groups, youth clubs, and faith based activities, while also ensuring that harmful elements such as victim blaming or witchcraft accusations are not reinforced.
Moving towards trauma informed care in African systems
Implementing trauma informed care in African countries will not happen overnight. Many systems are under-resourced. Staff are often overworked and underpaid. Mental health services remain limited in many regions. However, small, deliberate steps can make a real difference.
Possible starting points include the following actions.
-
Basic training for frontline workers on trauma, its effects, and the principles of trauma informed care.
-
Simple changes to increase safety and dignity in clinics, schools, shelters, correctional facilities, and community programmes.
-
Inclusion of trauma awareness in curricula for nurses, doctors, teachers, social workers, police officers, and clergy.
-
Community dialogues involving traditional leaders, elders, and faith leaders about violence, trauma, and healing.
-
Policies that formally prohibit degrading treatment, corporal punishment, and sexual exploitation, with clear accountability structures.
-
Support systems for staff, recognising that many helpers are also survivors of trauma.
By starting where they are, with the resources they have, African institutions can slowly become more trauma informed and, over time, more healing centered.
Conclusion
Understanding the principles of trauma informed care in the African context requires more than importing foreign models. It calls for deep listening to the lived experiences of African individuals, families, and communities. It also calls for honest reflection on how history, culture, gender, and power shape both trauma and healing.
The core principles of trauma informed care include safety, trust and transparency, collaboration and shared power, empowerment and choice, and cultural, historical, and gender sensitivity. When these principles are applied in ways that honour African strengths, traditions, and spiritual resources, services can move from simply managing problems to supporting genuine healing and restoration.
In a continent marked by both pain and resilience, trauma informed and healing centered care offers a hopeful path. It invites systems to become more human, more just, and more responsive to the invisible wounds that so many people carry. In doing so, it does not only help individuals. It also strengthens families, communities, and nations.
References
Ginwright, S. (2018). The future of healing: Shifting from trauma informed care to healing centered engagement. Occasional Paper, 25, 1–8.
Kirmayer, L. J., Gone, J. P., & Moses, J. (2014). Rethinking historical trauma. Transcultural Psychiatry, 51(3), 299–319. https://doi.org/10.1177/1363461514536358
Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration. (2014). SAMHSA’s concept of trauma and guidance for a trauma informed approach (HHS Publication No. SMA 14 4884). Author.