English Podcast

Generational trauma, inherited from our ancestors, can have a profound impact on our lives. This trauma can be passed down through gene expression and is even linked to conditions like PTSD. The novel "Homegoing" by Yaa Gyasi explores the effects of generational trauma on the descendants of two sisters. One character, Akua, experiences nightmares and unknowingly harms her own children due to the trauma passed down to her. The speaker also shares their own personal experience with generational curses in their family and the importance of breaking these cycles. They emphasize the need to address and become aware of these issues, seek help without shame, and celebrate accomplishments in order to heal and break the cycle of trauma. It is possible to overcome and heal from generational trauma, and by doing so, we can end the pain that has been passed down to us. Welcome everyone to Healing from Things Untold, today's episode is called Healing from those before us for those after us. I am your host Tatiana Wagner. At some point in our lives everyone experiences some form of trauma, but what about the ones you can't explain or you didn't go through but were inherited from those before you? Do any of you know that someone can experience something so traumatic that their body tries to adapt to it through gene expression? Or that some twin studies have even estimated that the hereditability of PTSD is between 30 and 70%? But as Stephanie M. Hutchins once said, your pain didn't start with you but it can end with you. Today we will dive deep into the question of how does generational trauma in the historical background we inherit affect our beliefs and the beliefs that we pass on to our own children. In today's episode we will break down the content into the theme of generational trauma addressed in the novel Homegoing, my own personal experience in the connection to the theme, as well as touching base on the necessary steps to take to heal generations to come and break those generational curses. To start off with a little background about our chosen novel for the theme, I chose to analyze the story Homegoing by Yaa Gyasi. Gyasi is a Ghanaian-American novelist who published her novel Homegoing in 2016. Homegoing is a book that follows the storyline of two sisters and their descendants through slavery, Jim Crow, the Civil War, and other areas of oppression for those in the African diaspora, specifically those of Ghanaian descent. Throughout the novel, Gyasi touched base on the effects of ancestors and the trauma they had to endure on their descendants and the many generations after them. One of the main characters that we saw this trauma in was Akua. Akua was a descendant of Afia, who was the daughter of Mom. Afia was conceived through the rape of Mom, and a fire was set the night of Afia's birth. In the first chapter of the book, it reads, a fire raged through the woods just outside her father's compound and moved quickly, tearing a path for days. It lived off the air. It slept in the caves and hid in the trees. It burned up and through, unconcerned with what wreckage it left behind. Throughout this story, you really see the start and continuation of the trauma endured throughout a lineage. In chapter one, it also goes on to say, he felt each loss as a blow to his own family. He knew then that the memory of the fire that burned, then fled, would haunt him, his children, and his children's children, for as long as the line continued. And that it did. We see that in Akua, as she constantly has nightmares about the woman on fire. The woman possesses Akua, which causes her to set her own children aflame subconsciously. It's sad to see how we can literally predict our actions and how they will affect the generations to come, which exactly is what Kobe Ultra did the night Ophia was born. On a more personal note, and the reason I chose this topic, is my own family and their generation of trauma, or the term my mom always uses, is generational curses. To us, these are known as the cycles we cannot break and strongholds that have become such a norm, not only within our household and lineage, but the black community as a whole. Whether it be oppression and stereotypes, or rape and molestation, teen pregnancy, lack of education, and so many other barriers that have been looked over by those before us. I even saw a sermon online from a pastor not too long ago that dives into how most people's actions are a direct result of trauma, both bad and good. The example he used is how because some parents didn't have good parents growing up, they didn't know how to raise their own children and became bad parents themselves, or how some parents who also had bad parents do everything opposite that their parents did so that they can become good parents. Regardless, they both are trauma responses. Even in a study I learned about when I first became interested in psychology, talked about trauma and how it is passed down, and how it was even used to explain the trauma effects behind slavery. In the study, a generation of rats were given peppermints to smell, along with receiving a shock. After giving birth to those after them, when smelling peppermints, the descendants also experienced pain, such discomfort, because the generation before them did. This also connects back to and aligns with the idea of gene expression mentioned earlier in the podcast. It's as if it's computed into our DNA to remember subconsciously what our ancestors went through before us. Now that everything has been addressed, and it's one thing to address a problem, but it's better to come up with solutions. Generational trauma slash curses is something I've been taught and aware of since I was little. The first step to fixing these problems is to address them and become aware. Akua wasn't even aware of the presence in history behind the fire in her family, and the significance that it has. If so, she might have been able to better understand what was going on and how to fix it. When you sweep stuff under the rug and never address it, or have a, what happens in this house stays in this house mindset, it is so much harder to heal trauma. The second step is to ask for help and don't be ashamed to do so. In black culture, especially black women, most, if not all, have a strong black woman complex, which has and can prevent them from reaching out to get help that they need. It is important to acknowledge our struggles and be okay with having them so that we can eventually fix them. That's why in my household, education and going to college and being first generation of students and not going through teen pregnancy has been such an accomplishment because we are breaking barriers. This brings me to the last step. Praising the good deeds and acknowledging the accomplishments made in the black household, whether big or small. In my family, we are so big on praising each other for our accomplishments, whether it be getting a job or graduating, because everything counts in a society that is designed to destroy us. There is something so beautiful about the accomplishments of my people and it being acknowledged to the full extent. While trauma takes time to mend, it is possible and it is happening every day and with every generation. As mentioned before, your pain didn't start with you, but it can't end with you. Break those generational curses and heal from the trauma untold. Thank you for listening. I am your host, Tatiana Wagner, signing off.