Journal of Social Development in Africa (1998). 13,1,53-58 
Wilderness Therapy with Militarised 
Youths in Traumatised Communities 
GAVIN ROBERTSON AND STEVEN DE KIEWIT* 
In South Africa, the combination of state repression and insurrectionary struggle 
has resulted in high levels of militarisation, particularly of the youth who were the 
most active participants in revolutionary struggle (Marks & McKenzie, 1995). In 
the 1970s and 1980s the inability or failure of the police to protect black 
communities led to the development of alternative policing systems. Drawing on 
this tradition, the beginning of the 1990s saw the formation of the Self-Defence 
Units (SDUs) by the African National Congress (ANC) and, in response, the 
formation of the Self-Protection Units (SPUs) by the Inkatha Freedom Party (IFP) 
(Rakgoadi, 1994). The youths involved in these informal structures perceived their 
key identity to be that of "defenders of their communities" (Marks & McKenzie, 
1995). 
In the Kathorus region (comprising the townships of Katlehong, Thokoza and 
Vosloorus) in the East Rand of Gauteng Province, the early 1990s saw thousands 
of people die as political parties fought to take control of territory. (1) 
The East Rand battles were first reported as clashes between hostel dwellers 
supporting the IFP, and township dwellers predominantly supporting the ANC. As 
the fighting continued, ingredients of tribalism, criminal activity and conflict with 
the security forces were added to the political dilemma. (2) 
Many residents died simply because of their origins. Divisions between Zuluspeaking 
hostel dwellers supporting the IFP and township dwellers predominately 
supporting the ANC became deeply implanted in the communities' perceptions. 
The ANC-aligned SDUs fought rival groups for control of sections of the 
townships and residents were forced to flee their homes. Empty houses became 
battlegrounds for the SDUs and the IFP-aligned SPUs. 
The tracts of deserted homes became 'no-go zones' which people entered at 
their peril. Residents ran the risk of being killed if a member of a rival grouping saw 
them in the wrong area. The no-go zones created displacees - members of the 
community who had lost their homes during the fighting and were without a place 
to stay. Many initially found refuge in emergency shelters, such as church halls, and 
then moved in with relatives. Hostel dwellers occupied houses near the hostels. 
(1) Star, SDUs Blamed for Killings, 14 December 1995, p 14. 
(2) Weekly Mail Townships Where Police No Longer Fear To Tread, 7 August 1994, p 6. 
* The authors work for the National Peace Accord Trust. Contact address: NPAT, 112 
Algernon Road, Norwood, 2192, P O Box 1338, Saxonwold 2132, South Africa.
54 Gavin Robertson and Steven De Kiewit 
Some Zulu-speaking families in ANC-controlled areas were forced from their 
homes into the hostels for safety. The dispute over the ownership and return of 
occupied houses has remained one of the most divisive factors between the hostels 
and the township communities. (3) 
While the fighting raged, peace workers in the townships picked up bodies as 
often as they brokered cease-fires. They were under suspicion from both the IFP 
and the ANC, particularly if they were seen to be with either side for too long. 
Eventually the peace workers began to win some respect from both parties. 
Even though the death figures remained high until early 1994, political parties 
began meeting regularly in three Local Peace Committees. A massive security 
operation by the armed forces and the police forced a calm on the region in early 
1994 and the peace process began to take root By late 1994 this process began to 
be consolidated by peace workers and members of political parties (Seiler, 1997). 
During the first half of the 1990s, the teenage soldiers, as members of either an 
SDU or SPU, were viewed as heroes by the community. The subsidence of the 
extreme conflict resulted in a change to their status. These militarised youths 
became marginalised, rejected and often criminalised. As a result, they were no 
longer seen as heroes but as enemies of the community. 
The attempts made to work with these youths were often abandoned and 
traditional types of therapeutic intervention appeared unsuccessful. The lack of 
success may be attributed to, first, the youths' suspicion of authority figures; 
secondly, their fear of possibly needing to reveal their role in the killings; and 
thirdly, their perception that therapy is for "mad" people and that they are not 
"mad." It was thought that a more robust therapeutic intervention was required. 
This notion prompted the establishment, in 19%, of the Wilderness Therapy 
Project of Kathorus, sponsored by the National Peace Accord Trust. The project 
brings together young men who were formerly enemies, involved in either an SDU 
or SPU, and also includes the young women involved in supportive roles during the 
conflict 
The therapeutic intervention comprises a seven-day trail in the Drakensberg 
(Dragon Mountains). The trail is conducted by a psychologist experienced in 
wilderness therapy and an assistant, a former SDU commander. The assistant was 
drawn from the community to receive ongoing practical and theoretical training 
with the view to conducting trails independently at a later stage. 
A Jungian Therapeutic Approach 
The wilderness therapy intervention is conceived of and conducted in the light of 
the work of C G Jung. Within this framework, psychic growth has a ideological 
(3) Weekly Mail, Out of Control, Not Us Say Defence Units. 27 December 1995, p 16.
Wilderness Therapy with Youths in Traumatised Communities 55 
drive towards wholeness. This drive is understood, as in the work of Jan Smuts 
(1926), not merely as an artificial construction but as a vera causa, part of the 
motive force behind all growth in the universe towards wholeness. Jung referred 
to this drive towards wholeness in psychic growth as individuation and to the 
culmination of this process as transformation. He believed that human beings have 
an instinct for wholeness and that transformation is a natural, albeit hazardous, 
process which involved an on-going dialogue between the ego and the Self. 
Transformation is brought about when the Self, or archetypal image of God, 
replaces the ego as the centring mechanism within the psyche (Edinger, 1973). For 
Jung, "...all transformation includes experiences of transcendence and mystery 
and involves symbolic death and rebirth" (Samuels, 1986). 
Jung refined Freud's theory of the unconscious by positing the existence of a 
personal and a collective unconscious. Whilst the personal unconscious is a 
relatively superficial, accessible and variable layer in the psyche, the collective 
unconscious is a deeper, relatively inaccessible and more stable layer. It is 
universal, impersonal and collective in that it is common to all human beings. 
One of the major components of the collective unconscious is the archetypes. 
One may view the archetypes as dispositions of the mind, the forms, or riverbeds, 
along which the current of psychic life has always flowed (Moreno, 1974). The 
most basic of all the archetypes is the oneness of nature - the essential self. A 
wilderness area, in its natural state, facilitates theexperience of oneness. Itprovides 
the terrain which may foster the individuation process due to its inherent drive 
towards wholeness. 
The Wilderness Process 
In symbolic terms, wilderness is associated with the unconscious: 
"...everything which surrounds the conscious, its edges, its limits, and 
which threatens death and extinction. [It] can be a place of misery and exile, 
but may also be the occasion of new insights for the community or 
individual" (Chetwynd, 1982). 
The use of archetypal imagery and symbolism is central to the therapeutic 
construction of the experience which is designed to facilitate the individuation 
process. The physical obstacles, challenges, achievements and their parallel 
psychological equivalents are dealt with in terms of being the same process. The 
archetypal significance of the physical terrain is primary to the psychological 
processes involved during the trail. Although the particular structure of a trail is
56 Gavin Robertson and Steven De Kiewit 
dependent on the assessed therapeutic needs of the group, trails may be broadly 
grouped as either a "rebirthing" or a "transcendent" experience. A rebirthing trail 
follows a watercourse through tunnels, rock arches, and forests within a widening 
valley system. The transcendent trail involves ascending the mountain and spending 
at least one night on the summit. Mythology holds that mountains are the centre 
of the world, the seat of the immortals, the place where the gods assemble. 
Mountains symbolise the highest longings and aspirations of human beings 
(Chetwynd, 1982). 
Most trails include overnight stays in or near sacred Bushman caves. The caves 
were the site of the healing trance dance. The Bushmen addressed issues of social 
harmony, well-being and the healing of individuals by means of the communal 
trance or healing dance (Yates, et al, 1990). The rock art associated with this 
healing ritual (Lewis-Williams, 1994) still remains on the cave walls. The 
symbolic value of the caves and the rock art is incorporated into the healing process 
of the trail. The project uses a copy of a Bushman rock painting as a logo. This 
painting depicts a human figure pursued by a beast The logo is used as a graphic 
representation of an analogy used in the therapeutic process which holds that the 
participants on the trail (the human figure) are pursued by their traumatic past and 
other negative or shadow issues (the beast). 
Logo used by the Wilderness Therapy Project ofKathorus
Wilderness Therapy with Youths in Traumatised Communities 57 
During the time spent in the mountains, participants sometimes experience trauma 
flashbacks. These are processed within the particular therapeutic milieu facilitated 
by the wilderness experience. The whole group tends to assume a supportive 
function in response to this type of situation as the group internalises the underlying 
notion that the group's well-being depends on each individual's well-being. An 
example of this process was related to a journalist during an interview with a former 
SDU after returning from wilderness therapy: 
During the first night on the trail, a participant dreamed a faceless enemy was 
attacking him. On the second night, he fought back, shredding his sleeping bag."/ 
tried to work out what it was I had not yet dealt with," he says. The other SDU 
members slept at his sides the rest of the night to protect and comfort him. (4) 
The therapeutic process also involves reconciliation in that members of opposing 
groupings participate together and begin to change previously held negative 
perceptions and build more constructive relationships. The assistant therapist 
guides the participants towards changing the words of "war songs" that emerged 
during the conflict in the community. Towards the end of the experience in the 
mountains, participants are usually singing songs with words appropriate to a 
different phase in the community's development The reconciliation between 
participants during the wilderness experience may be seen to have a ripple effect 
in terms of shifting the perceptions of the communities regarding formerly opposed 
groupings. 
Many of the participants on the trail regard the experience as a type of rite of 
passage or initiation process. Due to the extreme conflict and disruption of 
community processes, most of these youths had failed to be involved in any 
community-sanctioned ritual indicating their role within the community. They 
return from the wilderness experience to the community with the status of heroes. 
However, the whole discourse around their heroic status within the community has 
changed and is no longer in terms of violence and war. In order to enhance the 
community's changed response to the returning youths, each participant in the 
wilderness experience receives a copy of a video recording of the trail. These video 
recordings, that are eagerly shown to family and friends, serve to boost the heroic 
status of the youths in the perceptions of their communities. The transformation 
process is then reinforced by the community, allowing the youths to become more 
integrated and to serve as role models to other youths. 
After returning from the wilderness experience, some youths begin to make use 
of the counselling service available. All participants in the experience become 
members of an informal 'club.' The youths elected to call it, "The Mountain Club." 
This informal structure serves an ongoing therapeutic function, allowing youths to 
(4) Star and S A Times International, Youths Scarred By The Township War Learn To Fight 
The Beast Within, 19 February 1997.
58 Gavin Robertson and Steven De Kiewit 
discuss their experiences, continue building relationships, and become involved in 
cultural and sporting activities. The club, as it accommodates the needs of 
members, is developing in various directions, including assisting members to 
become involved again in community affairs. Members have functioned as peace 
monitors at a commemoration ceremony and assisted as mentors to children 
participating in an adventure therapy programme. The club's current plans include 
the initiation and continued involvement of members in reparative projects within 
the community. 
References 
Chetwynd, T, (1982) A dictionary of symbols, Paladin Grafton Books, London. 
Edinger, E F (1973) Ego and Archetype, Penguin Books, Harmondsworth. 
Lewis-Williams, J D (1994) "Rock art and rituals: Southern Africa and beyond," 
Complutum, 5, pp 277-289. 
Marks, M & McKenzie, P (1995) "Political Pawns or Social Agents?: A look at 
militarised youth in South Africa," Paper for the Centre for the Study of 
Violence and Reconciliation, University of the Witwatersrand, Johannesburg. 
Moreno, A (1974) Jung, gods and modern man, Sheldon Press, London. 
Rakgoadi, P (1994) "The Role of Self-Defence Units (SDUs) in a Changing 
Political Context," Paper for the Centre for the Study of Violence and 
Reconciliation, University of the Witwatersrand, Johannesburg. 
Samuels, A(ed) (1986) A critical dictionary of Jungian analysis, Routledgeand 
Kegan Paul, London. 
Seiler, M (1997) "Building Community-Based Social Development in 
Traumatized Communities," Paper presented at the National Conference on 
Peacemaking and Conflict Resolution, Duquesne University, Pittsburgh, 
Pennsylvania. 
Smuts, J C (1926) Holism and Evolution, Viking Press, New York. 
Yates, R; Parkington, J & Manhire, T (1990) Pictures from the past: a history of 
the interpretation of rock paintings and engravings of Southern Africa, 
Centaur Publications, Pietermaritzburg.