Traumer og ånder efter krig i Uganda: Konfigurationer af vold og behandling
Tidsskrift for Forskning i Sygdom og Samfund March 20, 2026 Lars Hedegaard Williams, Lotte Meinert 2 citations
After 20 years of civil war in northern Uganda, trauma, evil spirits, and violence continue to afflict lives in the Acholi region. The brutality and many unburied bodies left by the war are experienced as causing various forms of spiritual and social contamination. Biomedical understanding describes these disturbances as PTSD, local traditional healers (ajwaki) call them cen, and churches view them as the devil's work. There is broad agreement that something is wrong and people suffer, but the varying conceptualizations point to different treatment paths. Through a detailed case study, the authors analyze these problems and treatments using concepts of social contagion, contamination, and configuration, arguing that trauma and spirit problems are constituted both by war violence and the limited treatment options available.