Many people have written about the recent failure of the peace initiative between the north and the south in an historical, cultural, political and religious context. However, virtually nothing has been written about understanding this inevitable failure as a result of psychological trauma which professionally explains the intractability and inevitability of the conflict. It is no surprise to anyone who understands the spiraling effects of trauma that the peace agreement between the north and the south were often so short lived, tenuous or even destined to failure. The unresolved trauma of deeply wounded emotions on both sides of this conflict produces an unavoidable feed back loop. Each time peace is considered, past memories of injury, insult, humiliation, loss, fear and hatred are rekindled by the unresolved hyper-vigilant behavior of Post Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD). This unresolved hyper-vigilance causes traumatized individuals to search for threats and a sense of danger even when none exists. Because hyper-aroused suspicion pervades the psyche of the Sudanese people, minor circumstances of misunderstanding can take on the intensity of intense danger. This unresolved trauma has the potential to, once again, polarize the two faction groups reinforcing their beliefs that attack and revenge are the only viable options.

Post Traumatic Stress Disorder is a very real and destructively unconscious, psychological behavior. The longer individuals, or in this case an entire culture, are exposed to the trauma of war, the more pervasive, irreversible and incurable post traumatic symptoms become. Eventually if/when peace is achieved the trauma patterns of behavior will be so deeply embedded in the psyche of the culture that the violence will continue to perpetuate itself within the social structures of the society. So that, domestic violence, substance abuse, spousal and child abuse will take on proportions of a greater magnitude than the violence of the war itself. Unless the Sudanese people seriously consider the effects of trauma on the culture they will unintentionally spawn hyperactive, learning impaired, violence-prone citizens in their future. For each, day, month and year that the violence continues, the Sudanese leaders and people of both sides will become more entrenched in the reenactment of victimization. They must seriously consider that after 50 years of war, an unconscious traumatic thought process has gained an unrelenting grip on their psyches from which they cannot escape without serious external, peaceful intervention.

How many more generations must wait without hope? How much longer must the Sudanese infrastructure have to be stunted and neglected because their national finances are spent on weapons rather than hospitals and universities. How many more children have to be reared in poverty and schooled in revolution and hatred? How much longer must mothers agonize over their children as they watch them go into the military, not knowing whether theyll be ambushed, captured, mutilated or killed?

There will be many opportunities for embracing true peace in the future and unfortunately they will result in the same conclusion failure – if we do not recognize the underlying cycle of unresolved, psychological traumatic behavior.  It is tragic that each of these future failures will cost many more lives and increase the bitterness, hopelessness and helplessness of the Sudanese people who have already suffered beyond the capacity of normal human endurance. How much longer? How many more failed opportunities must we endure before we consider the implacable grip that trauma has on the leaders and citizens and this nation?