Trauma, Development, Dispossession: "Telling the Story" of Refugees and Suffering in Somali Ethiopia

Authors

  • Christina Zarowsky McGill University and Douglas Hospital Research Centre

DOI:

https://doi.org/10.25071/1920-7336.21937

Keywords:

Ethiopia, Somali refugees, returnees, collective suffering, emotion, humanitarian organizations, ethnography, psychosociology

Abstract

Ethnographic research about "the refugee experience" of Somalis in eastern Ethiopia is discussed, focusing on interactions of returnees with relief and development agencies, the story of one community, and a discussion of some Somali emotion words. Exclusively psychological or psychiatric approaches to working with refugees may not provide a satisfactory point of access to displacement-related distress among Somali refugees. Highly individualizing models of suffering, focusing on psychological distress, are of only limited salience to populations of Somali refugees and returnees in the Horn of Africa - politics, poverty, and perceived collective injustice must be addressed in conjunction with any exploration of emotional distress and personal suffering.

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Published

1997-11-01

How to Cite

Zarowsky, C. (1997). Trauma, Development, Dispossession: "Telling the Story" of Refugees and Suffering in Somali Ethiopia. Refuge: Canada’s Journal on Refugees, 16(5), 11–17. https://doi.org/10.25071/1920-7336.21937

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