During the introductory session of the first research dialogue, “J” informed us that she was a victim of Gukurahundi and at that point could not proceed to narrate her story to the group (due to choking with emotion). When interviewing her I expected to hear a horrific account of what had happened to her during Gukurahundi. However, she narrated a different incident that happened to her in the 1970s when she and a number of her school mates were abducted by some ZPRA guerrillas and forcibly taken to join the war. There were four soldiers, and in the group there happened to be only four girls. The soldiers raped the girls all the way into Botswana, and this had severely traumatized “J.” Although they were taken aside, the other students could guess what was being done to the girls, even if they could not talk about it. In contrast, “J’s” Gukurahundi experience was comparatively mild because the most she suffered was being locked up in the army detention barracks for two months. It would appear then that prolonged and sustained traumatic events caused what Lopez-Corvo (2013) calls trauma entanglement. “J’s” two major traumatic experiences had been enmeshed into one another and, because Gukurahundi had occurred after her rape incident, she viewed it as her source of pain and hurt, as it had elicited emotions that echoed similar emotions to her previous experience. It is possible therefore that the fragmented nature of her traumatic memory at this point precluded the development of a narrative, sequential account of her experience (Kaminer, 2006, p. 485). As with other participants, “J” also found the experience around the tree liberating. When asked about her most significant experience during the Tree of Life workshop, she replied: You know, the thing that made me bold enough, the very day we learnt about the tree, ...that tree was cut and it felt pain but the tree did not dry up, life goes on and so I said, ‘I am a human being whatever happened, I too will live my normal life.’ For me the thing that did it was the tree... I said, ‘Aah well I am alive, I am alright then I will move on… So it is possible to bury your past and talk about it, and heal...’ More significantly, narrating her story in an environment that both honored and acknowledged it, provided a definite cathartic effect for “J” and contributed significantly towards her healing. According to her, she was the first to volunteer to narrate her story to her group (as she had missed the workshop organized for the research group and attended a subsequent one with other members of ZVT). During the interview it was clear that something momentous had taken place in her life, as she was able to narrate her story without breaking down. Her countenance, demeanor–– she appeared happier, more self-assured and

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