Bajju Women in Northwestern Nigeria: Stressors and Healing Practices

• In Event: Black Spirituality and Healing Practices

Abstract

My study examines the socio-economic and cultural stressors that are experienced by Bajju women with lived/vicarious experience with Domestic Violence living in Southern Kaduna, Nigeria. It documents self-care strategies and healing practices they use to address these stressors and to improve their psychosocial health and well-being, individually and collectively. I use qualitative, relational research that engages a wide range of research participants. Those research participants remember and reclaim forgotten ancestral knowledge and practices.

I plan to discuss selected primary stressors I identified in this research and share some of the practices that community members use to address these stressors and heal from intergenerational trauma. I will also reflect on the process of conducting research with this community.

While understanding the caring/healing practices of Bajju women survivors of domestic violence is important, this research has implications for the effective implementation of Nigeria's National Mental Health Act (2021) to support the psychosocial health of women. I will thus share recommendations on ways to integrate some of the ancestral healing practices in implementing this policy framework.

Authors

• Deborah Dauda, UMass Boston School for Global Inclusion and Social Development (SGISD)

• Gideon Madaki, Bajju Women Self-Care Study (BWSCS) Research Group

• Amos Matoh, Bajju Women Self-Care Study (BWSCS) Research Group

• Rebecca Luka Aboi, Bajju Women Self-Care Study (BWSCS) Research Group

• Victoria L. Gambo, Bajju Women Self-Care Study (BWSCS) Research Group