Trauma in the Tissues of Social Life: Community Experiences after the 2025 Post-Election Violence in Tanzania

Trauma in the Tissues of Social Life: Community Experiences after the 2025 Post-Election Violence in Tanzania | Research Square window.SnipcartSettings = { analytics: { enabled: false } }; (function() { var accessVector = localStorage.getItem('access_vector') || ''; window.dataLayer = window.dataLayer || []; if (accessVector) { window.dataLayer.push({ user: { profile: { profileInfo: { snid: accessVector } } } }); } })(); (function(w,d,s,l,i){w[l]=w[l]||[];w[l].push({'gtm.start':new Date().getTime(),event:'gtm.js'});var f=d.getElementsByTagName(s)[0],j=d.createElement(s),dl=l!='dataLayer'?'&l='+l:'';j.async=true;j.src='https://www.googletagmanager.com/gtm.js?id='+i+dl;f.parentNode.insertBefore(j,f);})(window,document,'script','dataLayer','GTM-K279D39R'); Browse Preprints In Review Journals COVID-19 Preprints AJE Video Bytes Research Tools Research Promotion AJE Professional Editing AJE Rubriq About Preprint Platform In Review Editorial Policies Our Team Advisory Board Help Center Sign In Submit a Preprint Cite Share Download PDF Research Article Trauma in the Tissues of Social Life: Community Experiences after the 2025 Post-Election Violence in Tanzania Emanuel Maphie This is a preprint; it has not been peer reviewed by a journal. https://doi.org/ 10.21203/rs.3.rs-8741086/v1 This work is licensed under a CC BY 4.0 License Status: Posted Version 1 posted You are reading this latest preprint version Abstract Research on political violence often centres on clinical diagnoses such as PTSD, overlooking how communities collectively experience and internalise trauma. Following the 2025 post-election violence in Tanzania, many communities reported persistent fear, mistrust, silence, and emotional disruption long after unrest subsided. This qualitative phenomenological study explored the lived experiences of both direct survivors and neighbouring residents exposed to prolonged uncertainty. Semi-structured interviews with 36 participants from Dar es Salaam, Arusha, and Mwanza were analysed using Braun and Clarke’s thematic analysis. Six interconnected themes emerged: anticipation of violence, breakdown of trust, emotional silence, children absorbing fear, political identity as suspicion, and trauma embedded in everyday spaces. These patterns reveal how trauma extended beyond individuals into the collective social fabric. The findings show how political violence can evolve into collective trauma that reshapes social relations, perceptions of safety, and community identity, with implications for psychosocial intervention and reconciliation. collective trauma political violence lived experience elections Tanzania qualitative research Introduction Political violence disrupts far more than physical safety; it unsettles the psychological and social foundations on which communities depend for stability, belonging, and meaning (Hamber, 2009 ). When unrest unfolds within familiar neighbourhoods, homes, markets, and streets, the experience of threat does not remain confined to moments of confrontation but gradually seeps into the routines of everyday life (Hirschberger, 2018 ). Sounds, movements, conversations, and even ordinary spaces begin to acquire new meanings associated with danger, uncertainty, and caution. In such contexts, fear is not episodic but continuous, and safety is no longer assumed but constantly evaluated (Kaminer et al., 2008 ). The result is a transformation of how individuals relate to their environment and to one another. In late October 2025, Tanzania, an East African country long regarded as relatively peaceful and politically stable, experienced significant unrest following its general elections. The 29 October 2025 vote was intended to elect a president, members of parliament, and local councillors. Incumbent President Samia Suluhu Hassan of the long-ruling Chama Cha Mapinduzi (CCM) was declared the winner with an exceptionally high vote share (around 97–98%), amid widespread reports of electoral irregularities and restricted competition (Reuters, 2025 ; Africanews, 2025 ). Prominent opposition actors, including the strongest opposition party, Chama cha Demokrasia na Maendeleo (CHADEMA), were effectively barred from meaningful participation due to legal disputes, disqualifications, and criminal charges against key figures (Africanews, 2025 ; Amnesty International, 2025 ) Protests soon emerged in major urban centres, Dar es Salaam, Arusha, Mbeya, and Mwanza, as citizens denounced what they perceived as a non-competitive and authoritarian electoral process. Demonstrators cited electoral manipulation, suppression of dissent, and declining civic freedoms as central grievances (Reuters, 5, 2025; The Guardian, Oct 31, 2025; AP News, Nov, 2025). Longer-term political trends shaped these reactions. Since the mid-2010s, Tanzania has faced growing criticism over shrinking civic space, restrictive media and assembly laws, and constraints on opposition organising, particularly during the presidency of John Magufuli. Although Samia Suluhu Hassan initially signalled reforms after assuming office in 2021, many restrictive frameworks persisted, contributing to mistrust toward electoral institutions such as the National Electoral Commission (Human Rights Watch, 2023 ; Amnesty International, 2024 ; Freedom House, 2024 ). Security forces responded to protests with tear gas, gunfire, curfews, mass arrests, and communication blackouts, with rights groups documenting excessive use of force and disputed casualty figures (Amnesty International, 2025 ; Reuters, Nov 14, 2025). International observers, including the African Union, later criticised the electoral process, prompting renewed calls for democratic reform and accountability (Africanews, 2025 ; Reuters, Nov 5, 2025). Although the visible violence was geographically contained and temporally bounded, these measures disrupted everyday mobility, communication, and social interaction in ways that extended far beyond the immediate sites of confrontation. Residents were left navigating uncertainty about who could be trusted, which routes were safe, whether it was acceptable to speak openly, and whether violence might resume. Such conditions created a prolonged state of psychological unease that persisted even after calm appeared to have returned. Notably, this episode occurred in a country long regarded as relatively peaceful within the region, a reputation that magnified the psychosocial shock experienced by communities whose collective identity had historically been anchored in notions of stability, unity, and civic coexistence (Paget, 2017 ). Understanding the psychological consequences of such events requires moving beyond the conventional focus on individual pathology. Much of the existing literature on trauma emerging from political violence relies on diagnostic frameworks such as Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD), anxiety disorders, or depression (American Psychiatric Association, 2013 ; de Jong, 2010 ). While these frameworks are important for identifying clinical distress, they often overlook how trauma operates at a collective and relational level. In communities exposed to political violence, fear is shared, silence becomes communal, and mistrust is socially reproduced (Hirschberger, 2018 ). The psychological disruption extends beyond individuals, altering patterns of interaction, communication, and belonging across the community. This progression can be understood as a conceptual pathway from political violence to psychological disruption, and ultimately to collective trauma. Political violence first produces immediate emotional reactions, fear, shock, confusion, and hypervigilance, among those directly or indirectly exposed (Tankink & Slegh, 2017 ). As these reactions are experienced simultaneously across households and neighbourhoods, they begin to shape how people relate to one another. Conversations become guarded, political identities become sources of suspicion, and public spaces lose their sense of normalcy (Eyerman, 2001 ). Hirschberger ( 2018 ) suggests that over time, these shared emotional responses accumulate into a socially embedded condition where trauma is no longer merely an individual psychological state but a characteristic of the community’s social life. This transformation reflects what Erikson ( 1976 ) described as damage to the “tissues of social life” that bind people together. The concept of collective trauma has been further developed by scholars such as Alexander et al. ( 2004 ), Eyerman ( 2001 ), and Hirschberger ( 2018 ), who argue that trauma can alter collective memory, identity, and social relations long after the precipitating event. Collective trauma is visible not only in symptoms of fear but also in patterns of silence, spatial memories attached to particular places, intergenerational transmission of anxiety, and disruptions in trust. These characteristics are often overlooked when trauma is assessed solely through clinical categories. In politically volatile contexts, trauma becomes embedded in the social environment, shaping how communities interpret safety, belonging, and future possibilities (Eyerman, 2001 ). This perspective is particularly important in the Tanzanian context. Tanzania has long been regarded as relatively peaceful compared to several neighbouring countries that have experienced civil wars or prolonged political instability (Paget, 2017 ). However, in recent years, electoral tensions, restrictions on civic expression, contested political processes, and episodic confrontations between citizens and state authorities have increased (Paget, 2017 ; Kamat, 2018 ; Kibwana, 2020). These developments have introduced new psychosocial strains into communities that historically associated national identity with peace and unity. The 2025 post-election violence, therefore, represents not only a political rupture but also a significant psychosocial episode that challenged long-standing assumptions about safety, coexistence, and civic trust. Studies from other African settings provide insight into how such events shape community psychology. Research following Kenya’s 2007–2008 post-election violence demonstrated that individuals who were not directly attacked still reported persistent anxiety, mistrust, and fear due to their proximity to unrest (Kaminer et al., 2008 ). In Rwanda and Sierra Leone, scholars have shown how collective memories of violence continue to shape social relations decades later (Tankink & Slegh, 2017 ; Shaw, 2002). Similar findings have emerged from South Africa, where political and community violence produced enduring patterns of silence and guarded interaction (Hamber, 2009 ). These studies suggest that the psychosocial impact of political violence often extends far beyond immediate victims and becomes woven into the collective experiences of communities. Despite these insights, there is limited scholarship examining such processes within Tanzania. Most research on Tanzanian elections focuses on political processes, governance, and democratic participation, with little attention to the psychosocial consequences for ordinary citizens. Even fewer studies explore how communities interpret and make meaning of fear, mistrust, and silence following political unrest (Tankink & Slegh, 2017 ). This gap is significant because Tanzania’s historical narrative of peace may obscure the subtle yet profound ways in which recent political events have altered community life. Understanding these changes requires listening to the voices of those who lived through the uncertainty rather than relying solely on institutional or political accounts. Understanding these processes is not only of academic importance but also critical for informing psychosocial interventions, reconciliation efforts, and community rebuilding in politically sensitive environments. If trauma has become embedded in social relations and everyday spaces, then healing must similarly address the collective dimensions of experience. This study, therefore, provides an entry point for rethinking how political events are understood, not only as matters of governance and security but also as experiences that leave lasting imprints on the psychological and social lives of communities. Literature Review Political violence inflicts harm that extends beyond immediate bodily injury to the psychological and social fabric of affected communities. Erikson ( 1976 ) conceptualised collective trauma as damage to the “tissues of social life” that bind people together, thereby disrupting trust, belonging, and shared meaning. Subsequent theorists have elaborated that collective trauma is not merely the aggregation of individual distress but a social phenomenon manifested in altered collective memory, ruptured social bonds, and transformed public narratives (Alexander et al., 2004 ; Eyerman, 2001 ; Hirschberger, 2018 ). These perspectives emphasise how trauma can be produced and maintained through communal processes such as rumour, silence, spatial memory, and the intergenerational transmission of fear, which reconfigure everyday interaction and the symbolic landscape of communities. Contemporary psychological anthropology provides further insight into how communities live with the aftermath of violence. Scholars such as Byron Good ( 1994 , 2013 ) and Alexander Hinton ( 2016 ) argue that post-conflict experiences are shaped not only by psychological symptoms but by how meaning is culturally reconstructed in everyday life. In these accounts, trauma becomes embedded in symbolic landscapes, ordinary routines, and shared narratives through which communities interpret safety, danger, and belonging. Silence, spatial avoidance, altered identity performance, and changes in social interaction are understood as culturally mediated responses that reorganise how people inhabit their environments after violence. From this perspective, trauma is less a clinical state than a lived social condition expressed through meaning-making processes that attach new significance to places, practices, and relationships. Empirical work from a range of African settings demonstrates how political violence generates psychosocial patterns consistent with collective trauma. Kenya’s post-election violence of 2007–2008, for example, produced persistent anxiety, hypervigilance, and breakdowns in neighbourhood trust even among those who were not directly injured, indicating that fear diffuses through social networks and proximity (Kaminer et al., 2008 ). Studies from Rwanda document how spatial markers, commemorative practices, and familial narratives transmit traumatic meaning across generations, thereby anchoring collective memory in places and rituals (Tankink & Slegh, 2017 ). In South Africa, long-term exposure to political and community violence contributed to cultures of guarded communication and normalised suspicion that complicated reconciliation efforts and civic life (Hamber, 2009 ). A recurring theme across these contexts is anticipatory fear, a temporally forward-looking anxiety about the recurrence of violence that shapes mobility, speech, and civic participation (Tankink & Slegh, 2017 ). These findings resonate strongly with psychological anthropological observations that trauma reshapes not only memory but also how people move through space, speak to one another, and interpret ordinary surroundings (Good, 2013 ; Hinton, 2016 ). Despite this comparative literature, Tanzania has been relatively underrepresented in studies examining the psychosocial consequences of episodic electoral unrest. Much of the literature on Tanzanian elections has prioritised institutional analysis, electoral administration, party politics, and governance over the lived psychological experiences of ordinary citizens (Kamat, 2018 ; Paget, 2017 ). However, recent reports and documentation suggest that Tanzania’s longstanding image of relative stability masks emergent patterns of political tension and constrained civic space. The Legal and Human Rights Centre’s (LHRC) 2024 human rights report highlights a range of rights concerns across the country, including restrictions on assembly, arrests, and localised instances of violence (Legal and Human Rights Centre, 2024 ). Government planning documents addressing violence against women and children (e.g., the National Plan of Action to End Violence Against Women and Children, NPA-VAWC II, 2024/25–2028/29) also signal recognition that community safety and psychosocial well-being are pressing policy concerns (United Republic of Tanzania, 2024). Contemporary news and observer statements from the 2025 electoral period provide further evidence that political developments can generate a pervasive atmosphere of fear and uncertainty. International observers and major news outlets reported episodes of unrest, alleged excessive force, curfews, and restrictions on communications that accompanied the October 2025 elections; such events were followed by calls for investigation and reconciliation from national and international actors (Reuters, 2025 ; The Guardian, 2025; AP, 2025a). These developments do more than interrupt political activity; they alter the texture of everyday life, constraining movement and civic expression and thereby seeding longer-term social mistrust. From a psychological anthropological perspective, such disruptions reshape the symbolic landscape of communities, as places, routines, and social cues acquire new meanings associated with danger and uncertainty (Good, 1994 ). Moreover, Tanzania’s public health and social service frameworks suggest intersecting vulnerabilities that may amplify the psychosocial impact of political unrest. National strategies addressing violence against women and children and broader child-protection initiatives indicate persistent service gaps and psychosocial risks that could interact with politically induced stressors to worsen community-level suffering (United Republic of Tanzania, 2024). Where household stressors, service disruptions, or pre-existing social tensions are present, the psychosocial effects of an electoral crisis may be magnified, accelerating the conversion of widespread fear into entrenched collective patterns (de Jong, 2010 ). Theoretically, two gaps motivate the present study. First, much theorising on collective trauma derives from contexts of protracted civil war or genocide; less is known about how collective trauma emerges in settings characterised by episodic but intense political unrest, contexts in which the violence is temporally bounded but socially pervasive. Second, there is limited empirical work documenting how such dynamics unfold specifically in Tanzania, where prior assumptions about national stability obscured subtle yet consequential psychosocial shifts. Addressing these gaps requires qualitative work that centres lived experience, traces the social mechanisms of fear transmission, links empirical patterns to collective trauma theory, and attends to the cultural processes of meaning-making emphasised in psychological anthropology. This study addresses these needs by employing a phenomenological approach that privileges participants’ accounts of their lived experiences and uses thematic analysis to identify recurring social patterns. Through in-depth interviews with residents in affected Tanzanian communities, the study investigates how individual fear, neighbourhood mistrust, spatial memory, and intergenerational narratives cohere into a discernible collective phenomenon. By situating Tanzanian evidence alongside comparative African cases and anchoring interpretation in both collective trauma theory and psychological anthropology, the study extends understanding of how political violence, though episodic, leaves enduring marks on the symbolic and social landscapes of communities. Theoretical Framework This study is guided by Erikson’s ( 1976 ) theory of collective trauma, which posits that trauma can damage the “tissues of social life” that bind communities together, including trust, belonging, and everyday patterns of interaction. Unlike individual trauma, collective trauma manifests through altered social relations, communal fear, and disruptions to shared meanings. This framework is particularly suited to understanding how participants’ experiences of mistrust, silence, and hypervigilance reflected not isolated psychological reactions but transformations in community life. To deepen this interpretation, the study also draws on Alexander et al.’s ( 2004 ) cultural trauma theory and psychological anthropological perspectives advanced by Good ( 1994 , 2013 ) and Hinton ( 2016 ). These perspectives emphasise how communities reconstruct meaning after violence through symbolic landscapes, spatial memory, altered identity performance, and communal narratives. Participants’ accounts of political identity becoming threatening, clothing colours acquiring political meaning, and ordinary places becoming reminders of unrest illustrate how trauma reshaped cultural interpretations of safety, identity, and space. Together, these approaches provide a comprehensive lens for understanding how the 2025 post-election violence evolved into a form of collective trauma embedded not only in social relations and communication patterns but also in the symbolic environments and meaning-making processes of Tanzanian communities. Methodology This study employed a qualitative phenomenological design to explore how individuals experienced and interpreted the psychological aftermath of the 2025 post-election violence within their communities. Phenomenology was considered appropriate because it prioritises the lived meanings people attach to events rather than measuring predefined psychological symptoms, making it particularly suitable for examining how trauma becomes socially embedded within shared experiences of fear, mistrust, and silence (Creswell & Poth, 2018 ; Moustakas, 1994 ). Collective trauma is manifested through shared perceptions and social interpretations; therefore, understanding how participants describe their experiences in their own words provides insight into how political violence reshaped everyday interactions and communal life. A purposive sampling strategy was used to recruit participants who had direct or indirect exposure to the unrest. Purposive sampling is widely recommended in phenomenological studies because it enables the selection of individuals with rich experiential knowledge of the phenomenon under study (Patton, 2015 ). Thirty-six participants, comprising 16 men and 20 women aged 21–67 years, were recruited from Dar es Salaam, Arusha, and Mwanza. In these urban centres, incidents of unrest, curfews, and heightened security presence were reported. Seventeen participants were direct witnesses or survivors of violent incidents, while nineteen were neighbouring residents who were not physically harmed but lived within the same atmosphere of fear and uncertainty. Participants were recruited through community contacts, local leaders, and referrals using a snowball approach. Inclusion criteria required that participants reside in the affected communities during the unrest, be adults aged 18 years and above, and be willing to share their experiences voluntarily. Data were collected through semi-structured, in-depth interviews conducted between six and eight weeks after the violence, allowing participants time for initial emotional stabilisation while experiences remained vivid. Each interview lasted 45 to 60 minutes and was conducted at locations chosen by participants to ensure privacy and comfort. Interviews were conducted primarily in Swahili, with occasional use of English at the participants' preference. With informed consent, interviews were audio recorded and complemented by field notes to capture nonverbal cues and contextual observations. Audio recordings were transcribed verbatim and, where necessary, translated into English. Translations were carefully cross-checked against original transcripts to preserve meaning and ensure semantic accuracy (Temple & Young, 2004). Data analysis Data were analysed using Braun and Clarke’s ( 2006 ) six-phase thematic analysis framework. The researcher began by familiarising themselves with the transcripts through repeated reading, followed by systematic coding of meaningful units related to fear, mistrust, silence, space, and social interaction. Codes were then grouped into potential thematic categories, which were reviewed and refined to ensure coherence with both the coded data and the entire dataset. Themes were defined and named to capture their essential meaning, then integrated into the report with supporting participant quotations and theoretical interpretation. For instance, codes such as avoiding political discussions, whispering at home, and fear of neighbours were clustered into the theme “Breakdown of Community Trust.” In contrast, observations about children’s behavioural changes and imitation of adult fear informed the theme “Children Absorbing Communal Fear.” This iterative process ensured that themes emerged inductively from participants’ accounts rather than being imposed by the researcher. Ethical Consideration Ethical clearance for the study was obtained from the relevant university research ethics committee. Participants were informed of the study's purpose, their right to withdraw at any time, and the measures taken to ensure confidentiality and anonymity. Written informed consent was obtained prior to interviews, and pseudonyms were used in transcripts and reports to protect participants’ identities. Given the sensitivity of the topic, participants were also provided with information on where to seek psychosocial support should discussions evoke distress (Orb, Eisenhauer, & Wynaden, 2001 ). Study Trustworthiness To ensure rigour, the study adhered to Lincoln and Guba’s ( 1985 ) criteria for trustworthiness. Credibility was enhanced through prolonged engagement with the data, the use of direct participant quotations, and peer debriefing with qualitative research colleagues. Dependability was maintained through an audit trail documenting coding decisions and theme development. Confirmability was supported by maintaining a reflexive journal to minimise researcher bias and ensure that findings were grounded in participants’ narratives. Transferability was facilitated through rich, contextual descriptions that allow readers to assess the applicability of the findings to similar settings. Researcher’s Reflexivity Given the politically sensitive nature of the topic, the researcher engaged in continuous reflexivity throughout the research process. A reflexive journal was maintained to document personal assumptions, emotional responses, and potential biases during data collection and analysis (Finlay, 2002 ). The researcher’s background in psychology and familiarity with Tanzanian communities facilitated rapport with participants while also requiring deliberate efforts to maintain neutrality and avoid interpretive imposition. Findings This section presents the lived experiences of participants as they narrated the psychological and social aftermath of the 2025 post-election violence within their communities. While initial coding produced six distinct themes, deeper interpretive analysis revealed that these experiences were interconnected and best understood through three higher-order conceptual categories that illuminate how collective trauma manifested in everyday life. These categories are: (1) Anticipatory Fear and Hypervigilant Living, (2) Fracturing of Social Trust and Communication, and (3) Trauma Inscribed in Children and Everyday Spaces. Rather than existing as isolated psychological reactions, participants’ accounts demonstrated how fear, mistrust, silence, and spatial memories became woven into daily routines, relationships, and family life. The findings show that trauma was experienced not only as something remembered, but as something continuously lived through altered patterns of sleeping, speaking, interacting, and moving within familiar environments. Through participants’ voices, this section illustrates how political violence evolved into a collective condition that reshaped social relations, perceptions of safety, and community identity across Dar es Salaam, Arusha, and Mwanza. Anticipatory Fear and Hypervigilant Living The study findings indicate that, across interviews, participants described a persistent sense of waiting for violence to return. This was not merely a retrospective fear grounded in what had already occurred, but an embodied anticipation that unrest could resume at any moment. Participants conveyed this state through phrases that reflected heightened bodily alertness and ongoing sleep disturbances. Many reported remaining attentive to sounds at night, waking frequently, or struggling to relax even when conditions appeared calm. These descriptions suggest that fear was experienced not only cognitively but physically, shaping how participants rested, listened, and moved within their homes. Such accounts demonstrate how anticipatory anxiety became woven into daily life, reflecting the deep psychological imprint left by the unrest. One of the participants, a 34-year-old male shopkeeper from Mwanza, explained the following: Even after things calmed down, my body did not believe it. Every loud sound felt like the beginning again. Similarly, a 52-year-old woman from Arusha also noted the following on the same: We slept with one ear open. You never knew if the night would remain quiet. Sleep was light and easily broken, as the body remained alert to the slightest sound. Even in darkness, fear lingered, shaping the experience of rest. Further, one of the participants, a university student in Dar es Salaam, described how the sounds of motorbikes at night triggered anxiety: When I heard motorcycles passing fast, my heart would race. I thought maybe people were running again. The sound alone was enough to trigger fear, as if the events were repeating themselves. This anticipatory fear illustrates how trauma became embedded in bodily experience rather than remaining confined to recollection. Participants did not describe fear as a past event stored in memory, but as an ongoing condition shaping their present state. Their accounts reflected heightened alertness, tension, and difficulty relaxing, even in moments of apparent calm. Physical reactions, such as disrupted sleep, rapid startle responses, and constant vigilance for unusual sounds, indicated that the body remained prepared for threat. In this way, trauma was lived through sensory and physiological responses that persisted beyond the immediate period of violence. These embodied experiences demonstrate how collective trauma can be sustained through the body’s continued anticipation of danger. The findings also show that hypervigilance shaped participants’ sleep patterns, mobility, and sound attention in their daily lives. Many reported difficulty sleeping through the night, waking frequently to monitor their surroundings, or reacting sharply to minor noises. Routine movements, such as walking through the neighbourhood or stepping outside after dark, were approached with heightened caution and constant environmental scanning. Participants described becoming unusually attentive to sounds such as footsteps, vehicle noises, or distant voices, interpreting them as potential signals of danger. This persistent state of alertness demonstrates how fear influenced not only emotional states but also practical behaviours and bodily rhythms. In this way, hypervigilance became a defining feature of everyday living in the aftermath of the unrest. One of the participants, a young mother in Mwanza, reported the following on the matter: I repeatedly checked the door before going to sleep. Even slight noises woke me up. It felt impossible to fully relax, as if danger could return at any moment. Participants’ narratives indicate that the violence fundamentally disrupted their sense of temporal safety, the implicit belief that time unfolds in a stable and predictable manner. Before the unrest, daily life followed familiar rhythms structured by routines and expectations that tomorrow would resemble today. Exposure to violence fractured this continuity, replacing temporal predictability with uncertainty and vigilance. Nights became periods of watchfulness rather than rest, and quiet days were approached with caution rather than comfort. Participants did not only fear what had already occurred; they also feared what might happen again, and this anticipation altered how they experienced the passage of time. In this way, time ceased to be a neutral backdrop to life and became charged with latent threat and apprehension. This disruption was accompanied by a perceptual shift from experiencing life as a predictable flow to perceiving it as a fragile calm that could shatter without warning. The absence of visible unrest did not restore a sense of normalcy; instead, it was interpreted as a temporary pause in potential violence. Every day, quietness was understood as provisional rather than reassuring, requiring constant psychological readiness. These experiences reflect the broader temporal dimension of collective trauma, in which the future is viewed through the possibility of recurrence rather than recovery. Participants’ orientation toward what lay ahead was shaped by guardedness and caution, as the expectation of stability gave way to the anticipation of renewed disruption. Thus, collective trauma manifested not only in memory and present behaviour but also in how communities imagined and related to their future. Fracturing of Social Trust and Communication The study’s findings highlight a pervasive transformation in relationships with neighbours and community members. Political affiliation, once regarded as an abstract civic matter with limited impact on everyday interaction, became a source of suspicion and guarded engagement. Participants described becoming cautious about whom they greeted, visited, or spoke with, as political differences were perceived as posing a potential threat to personal safety. Importantly, participants’ experiences were not uniform; several indicated that being perceived as aligned with the ruling party or the opposition shaped how others treated them and influenced the degree of fear they experienced. Familiar social bonds were strained as individuals began to reassess others through the lens of assumed political alignment. This shift altered the ease and spontaneity that previously characterised neighbourhood relations. As a result, ordinary social interactions became sites of careful calculation rather than expressions of trust and familiarity. One of the participants, a 45-year-old man from Dar es Salaam who identified himself as a member of the ruling party, stated as follows: You start wondering who supports whom. The same person you shared tea with becomes someone you fear. I had a friend with whom we used to drink beer at my pub. Unfortunately, he was the first to show up at my pub and ask them to burn it. The reason is simply that I did not belong to his political party and that I am a member of the ruling party. Another participant, a female market vendor from Arusha, reflected as follows on the fracturing of social trust and communication: Politics entered our relationships. We stopped greeting each other normally, especially when you belong to the ruling party. Ordinary social courtesies became strained as political identity shaped how we related to one another. These accounts show that suspicion was not evenly distributed but was influenced by how individuals were perceived politically. Participants who were known or assumed to belong to particular political groups described heightened targeting, mistrust, and social distancing from neighbours who had previously been close. Participants also described how casual social interactions became calculated. Conversations were shortened, eye contact avoided, and topics carefully filtered. In the interviews, a young teacher from Mwanza shared the following: You measure every word. You are not sure who will report what you say. Speaking casually no longer felt safe, as conversations carried the risk of unintended consequences. Further, the study findings show that this breakdown of trust extended into homes. Participants reported whispering during conversations and avoiding open discussion even with family members. This intrusion of fear into private spaces demonstrates how collective trauma penetrated the most intimate domains of daily life. One participant shared the following on the matter: Even inside the house, we whispered. The children asked why we speak that way. Our own home no longer felt like a place for open conversation. Such narratives indicate that trauma disrupted the communicative fabric of communities by altering how people spoke, what they felt able to say, and with whom they felt safe to converse. Ordinary conversations that once flowed freely became cautious, abbreviated, and strategically filtered to avoid perceived risk. In this context, silence emerged as a protective strategy, allowing individuals to shield themselves from potential misunderstandings, accusations, or political misidentifications. At the same time, this silence functioned as a symptom of deepening mistrust, signalling the erosion of relational confidence among neighbours, friends, and even family members. The absence of open dialogue prevented collective processing of shared experiences and reinforced emotional isolation within communal spaces. Over time, this pattern of guarded communication contributed to a social environment in which fear was not only experienced individually but also reproduced through constrained interactions and unspoken tensions. Furthermore, another participant, a 60-year-old retired civil servant, explained the following: “We do not talk about it. It is like a wound everyone sees but pretends is not there.” Another participant added: “Speaking about it brings fear back, so people choose silence.” Here, silence functioned as a social strategy with paradoxical effects. On one hand, it protected individuals from perceived risk by minimising the chances of being misunderstood, reported, or politically misidentified. On the other hand, this same silence obstructed opportunities for collective reflection and shared meaning-making about the events that had unfolded. Without open dialogue, community members were left to privately carry fears and interpretations that could not be tested, clarified, or eased through conversation. The result was a form of emotional isolation experienced within physically shared spaces, where people coexisted but did not genuinely connect. This pattern exemplifies a hallmark of collective trauma: social bonds are strained, and communal trust is weakened by mutual suspicion shaped by perceived political alignment. Political Identity as a Marker of Threat The study found that, closely linked to social mistrust, was the perception that political identity had become a source of personal risk. Participants described how previously neutral forms of self-expression, such as clothing colours, casual remarks, or attendance at social gatherings, were suddenly interpreted through a political lens. Everyday choices that once carried no particular significance were now carefully monitored to avoid misidentification or suspicion. Individuals became acutely aware that how they dressed, where they appeared, and what they said in public could be read as indicators of political allegiance. This heightened awareness constrained self-expression and fostered a climate of caution in which personal identity was continuously managed to ensure safety. In this way, political meaning seeped into routine aspects of life, reshaping how individuals navigated public and social spaces. One of the participants, a young man in Dar es Salaam, explained as follows: You could not wear certain colours. Even clothing felt political. What we wore became something to think about carefully before stepping outside. Another participant, a woman from Arusha, had the same and added the following: People were afraid of being labelled. You keep your opinions inside. It felt safer to remain silent than to risk being misunderstood. These accounts illustrate how once-neutral identity markers were reinterpreted as potential threats within a climate of fear and suspicion. Everyday acts of self-expression were constrained by the risk of misinterpretation, prompting individuals to carefully regulate how they appeared and behaved in public. Participants described adopting cautious routines, avoiding political discussions, and limiting their movement in communal spaces to reduce perceived risk. Such adjustments reveal how fear permeated ordinary social participation, narrowing the range of acceptable expression and interaction. This pattern demonstrates how collective trauma extends beyond emotional distress to reshape identity performance and diminish open civic engagement within affected communities. Children Absorbing Communal Fear The study findings revealed that participants frequently noted changes in children’s behaviour, even among those who had not witnessed violence directly. Parents and teachers observed that children became unusually quiet, easily startled by sudden sounds, and more attentive to the emotional tone of adult conversations. The findings indicated that some children asked why adults whispered when discussing certain topics, suggesting their sensitivity to the altered communicative environment. Others displayed signs of anxiety through restlessness, clinginess, or reluctance to move freely outside the home. These observations suggest that children absorbed the prevailing atmosphere of fear through observation rather than direct exposure. In this way, the community's emotional climate shaped children’s behaviour, demonstrating how collective trauma can be transmitted intergenerationally through everyday interactions. A mother from Mwanza shared: My child began asking why we whisper when discussing elections. It made me realise that children were noticing our fear even when we tried to hide it. In addition, another participant, who is a father in Arusha, observed the following: Children saw our fear. Even without seeing violence, they learned to be afraid. Our reactions taught them to expect danger in ordinary moments. Furthermore, the findings showed that teachers reported that children became noticeably quieter and more anxious in class. Students were described as easily startled by sudden sounds and less willing to participate in discussions. These behavioural shifts suggested that the broader atmosphere of fear had permeated the classroom. One teacher explained as follows: Students were easily startled. Loud sounds made them jump. The classroom no longer felt entirely separate from the atmosphere of fear outside. These accounts reveal that trauma was transmitted intergenerationally through the surrounding emotional climate rather than through direct exposure to violent events. Children appeared to internalise fear by observing adult behaviours such as whispering, heightened alertness, and cautious movement within the community. Through these everyday cues, they learned to associate ordinary situations with potential danger, even without witnessing the unrest themselves. This process illustrates how emotional responses within households and neighbourhoods serve as powerful channels for communicating fear. Consequently, collective trauma extends beyond those who directly experienced the events and becomes embedded in the developmental environments of younger generations. Trauma Embedded in Everyday Spaces In line with this theme, the findings showed that participants described how particular streets, markets, and homes retained psychological meanings long after the visible unrest had subsided. The findings revealed that locations that were once associated with routine activity and familiarity came to be linked to memories of fear, chaos, or uncertainty. Passing through these spaces often triggered recollections of the events, producing unease even in the absence of current danger. Some participants reported avoiding specific routes or feeling uncomfortable in places where incidents had occurred. These spatial associations illustrate how trauma became anchored in the physical environment, altering how individuals experienced and navigated their surroundings. In this way, everyday spaces were transformed into enduring reminders of the unrest, embedding trauma within the geography of community life. To support this, a participant from Dar es Salaam remarked as follows: That street corner no longer feels normal. I remember the chaos every time I pass. The place itself now carries the memory of what happened there. Another participant, a woman from Mwanza, further stated the following: Home did not feel like home during those days, and part of that feeling has remained. Even now, the memory lingers in how the space is experienced. These spatial memories illustrate how trauma became anchored in the physical environment of the community. Places that were once associated with routine, familiarity, and comfort were reinterpreted as reminders of fear and uncertainty. As a result, individuals no longer moved through these spaces with the same ease or sense of belonging. The emotional meanings attached to particular locations reshaped how participants navigated their neighbourhoods and experienced their surroundings. This spatial embedding reinforces the idea that collective trauma does not remain confined to memory but becomes inscribed into the environments that communities inhabit. Integrative Interpretation The study findings indicate that together, these categories show that the 2025 violence produced more than episodic distress. It altered time (anticipatory fear), relationships (mistrust and silence), identity (political suspicion), child development (learned fear), and space (traumatic reminders). Participants’ narratives demonstrate that trauma became a shared social condition rather than an individual psychological response. The findings, therefore, provide empirical grounding for understanding collective trauma as a lived reality. Fear was shared, silence was communal, and mistrust shaped everyday interactions. Trauma was not confined to memory but persisted in how people slept, spoke, walked, dressed, and raised their children. These lived experiences illustrate how political violence reshaped the social and psychological landscape of affected Tanzanian communities, leaving imprints that extended far beyond the period of unrest. Discussion The present study demonstrates that the psychological consequences of the 2025 post-election violence in Tanzania were not confined to discrete individuals who suffered bodily harm; instead, they diffused into a shared social condition that altered everyday life, social relations, and meanings attached to place and identity. Participants’ narratives, characterised by anticipatory fear, breakdown of trust, pervasive silence, constrained expression of identity, children’s behavioural changes, and spatially anchored memories, resonate strongly with classic and contemporary formulations of collective trauma while adding empirical specificity from a Tanzanian context. The pattern of diffusion of fear documented here parallels research from other African contexts where politically-inflected violence produced community-level psychosocial effects. In Kenya, after the 2007–2008 post-election violence, qualitative studies found that anxiety, hypervigilance, and erosion of neighbourhood trust affected not only direct victims but broader social networks and proximate residents (Kaminer et al., 2008 ). As in the Kenyan accounts, Tanzanian participants described bodily hypervigilance and altered daily routines (e.g., sleeping with “one ear open,” monitoring sounds) that persisted long after immediate threats had receded. Similarly, research from South Africa demonstrates that prolonged political or community violence cultivates guarded communication and normalised suspicion, which hamper reconciliation and social repair (Hamber, 2009 ). The Tanzanian narratives of curtailed greetings, shortened conversations, and the measurement of words align with these observations, suggesting a common pathway by which political unrest erodes the basic practices of sociality. Comparisons with Rwanda and other post-genocide settings are more nuanced but still informative. Rwandan studies show how traumatic events become embedded in spatial markers, commemorative practices, and intergenerational narratives, processes that anchor collective memory and identity (Eyerman, 2001 ; Tankink & Slegh, 2017 ). In the Tanzanian data, participants’ descriptions of particular streets, market corners, and homes as persistent reminders of unrest echo the idea of spatial memory: places that once signified safety acquire affective meanings that cue distress. From a psychological anthropological perspective, these places become symbolic carriers of memory through which communities continually interpret past violence in present space (Good, 1994 ). Although the scale and historical specificity differ from genocide contexts, the mechanism, trauma becoming part of the symbolic and material landscape, is comparable. Where the Tanzanian case makes a distinct contribution is by demonstrating these dynamics in an environment characterised by episodic but intense electoral unrest rather than protracted war or genocide. Many collective trauma theories were developed from large-scale conflicts (Alexander et al., 2004 ; Erikson, 1976 ). The present findings show that similar social processes, anticipatory fear, ruptured trust, silence as protection, spatial embedding, and intergenerational transmission, can arise even when the violence is temporally bounded but socially pervasive. This aligns with literature on continuous traumatic stress and contexts of recurring instability (Kaminer et al., 2008 ), and extends it by showing how state actions (curfews, communication blackouts) and the symbolic politicisation of everyday markers (colours, clothing) accelerate the communal embedding of fear. Furthermore, the anticipatory fear and hypervigilant living theme in this study aligns with Erikson’s ( 1976 ) argument that collective trauma damages the “tissues of social life,” including temporal orientation: the future is no longer imagined as secure but as potentially threatening. Anticipatory fear reframes temporal horizons, making days feel precarious, and is conceptually akin to Hirschberger’s ( 2018 ) emphasis on trauma’s social construction of threat that projects into the future. The bodily manifestations of this anticipation (sleep disturbance, heightened startle) show how collective threat becomes embodied across communities rather than remaining an individual psychological state. Fracturing of Social Trust and Communication. The breakdown of convivial practices and guarded speech align directly with Alexander et al.’s ( 2004 ) thesis that trauma alters collective identity and shared meanings. Where trust erodes, collective identity fragments, and social norms governing interaction change. Silence, in this context, functions not only as protective behaviour but also as a form of cultural trauma processing through which communities manage fear by restricting speech and interaction (Hinton, 2016 ). The social dynamics described, neighbours becoming suspicious, conversational avoidance, illustrate how trauma transforms the micro-practices that sustain social cohesion. Political Identity as a Marker of Threat. The politicisation of everyday markers (colours, clothing) indicates that identity performance itself was reconstituted under conditions of perceived risk. Political identity became a heuristic through which individuals assessed safety, deciding whom to trust, greet, or avoid. This finding is consistent with research showing that, under threat, social categories become salient diagnostic cues for navigating danger (Hirschberger, 2018 ). In the Tanzanian case, perceived political alignment reshaped everyday interaction patterns, as individuals adjusted speech, movement, and appearance to avoid misidentification. Identity was no longer expressed freely but strategically managed under conditions of uncertainty. Children Absorbing Communal Fear. Intergenerational transmission of fear through emotional climate rather than direct exposure reflects psychosocial theories about social learning and the familial embedding of trauma (de Jong, 2010 ). Children’s altered behaviour and heightened startle responses indicate that collective trauma’s effects extend into developmental trajectories, potentially producing long-term consequences for socialisation, schooling, and future civic engagement. This echoes findings from other settings in which children internalise communal anxieties (Kaminer et al., 2008 ) and suggests the need for interventions attentive to family and school systems. Trauma Embedded in Everyday Spaces. The anchoring of traumatic memory in locations aligns with literature on spatial memory and place attachment (Eyerman, 2001 ; Tankink & Slegh, 2017 ). From a psychological anthropological lens, these spaces form symbolic landscapes through which communities remember and interpret violence (Good, 1994 ). Places function as repositories of affective meaning; when associated with unrest, they sustain distress and shape patterns of movement and interaction. In practical terms, this spatial embedding means that rebuilding efforts must prioritise place-based healing over individual therapy alone. How the findings advance understanding of collective trauma The study advances collective trauma scholarship in three interrelated ways. First, it demonstrates that episodic electoral unrest, even when geographically localised, can produce social processes conventionally associated with protracted conflict, thereby qualifying temporal assumptions embedded in some theorising. Second, it elucidates mechanisms of social transmission (silence as cultural processing, spatial anchoring, identity politicisation) that explain how individual fear consolidates into collective patterns. Third, it foregrounds children and everyday spaces as critical sites of collective trauma, suggesting that interventions focused only on adults or clinical diagnoses may miss key vectors of persistence. Practical and theoretical implications Theoretically, these findings support an expanded view of collective trauma that emphasises social mechanisms and places less weight on the necessity of mass physical victimisation for trauma to become collective. In practice, they point toward multilevel interventions: community dialogue to rebuild trust, school-based psychosocial programs, and place-based reparative practices. Because silence functions both protectively and as a form of cultural processing, interventions should be trauma-informed and culturally sensitive, enabling safe collective meaning-making without exposing participants to renewed risk Implications for Policy and Intervention The findings of this study show that the psychosocial consequences of the 2025 post-election violence in Tanzania extended beyond individual distress and became embedded in social relations, communication patterns, children’s emotional development, and the meanings attached to everyday spaces. Participants described sleeping lightly, whispering inside homes, avoiding neighbours, managing how they dressed, and observing how children absorbed fear from adult behaviour. These lived experiences indicate that policy and intervention responses must move beyond generic psychosocial support and instead be directly grounded in the specific patterns revealed in the data. Effective responses should therefore address the social, intergenerational, communicative, and spatial dimensions of collective trauma identified in this study. The theme of children absorbing communal fear points to the need for school-based psychosocial support. Participants described children becoming easily startled, asking why adults whispered about elections, and displaying anxiety despite not witnessing violence directly. Schools can therefore function as stabilising environments where safety and normalcy are re-established. The Ministry of Education, working with guidance and counselling units, should integrate trauma-informed practices into classrooms. Teachers can be trained to recognise signs of anxiety and withdrawal, while structured conversations, drawing, storytelling, and play-based techniques can help children process emotions learned from the emotional climate at home. The theme of the breakdown of community trust calls for the establishment of structured community reconciliation forums. Participants described neighbours becoming suspicious, greetings becoming guarded, and friendships breaking down along perceived political lines, including accounts of a ruling party member whose pub was targeted. This erosion of trust cannot be addressed through individual counselling alone. Local leaders, community development officers, religious leaders, and civil society organisations should facilitate non-partisan community dialogues, drawing from familiar practices such as baraza la wananchi . These forums can create safe spaces for communities to collectively reflect on fear, mistrust, and the process of rebuilding relationships. The theme of emotional silence and suppression highlights the need for smaller, facilitated dialogue platforms beyond formal forums. Participants noted that people avoided discussing events because speaking about them revived fear, leading to whispering even in homes. While silence protected individuals, it also prevented communal healing. Community-based organisations can establish small, voluntary discussion groups within women’s groups, youth groups, and faith-based gatherings, where trained facilitators guide conversations in a psychologically safe manner. Such spaces can help transform silence into collective reflection. The theme of anticipatory fear and hypervigilance suggests the importance of community-level psychosocial awareness. Participants described ongoing bodily alertness, sleep disturbance, and exaggerated responses to sound long after unrest had subsided. Public health messaging through radio, community meetings, and outreach programs can educate residents about common stress reactions and coping strategies. Integrating basic mental health screening into primary healthcare services in affected areas can also help identify individuals needing professional support. The theme of political identity as a source of suspicion indicates the need for civic education initiatives that promote tolerance and peaceful political coexistence. Participants described how clothing colours, speech, and perceived political alignment influenced their treatment, prompting them to carefully manage their identity in public. Civil society and local leaders can promote non-partisan civic education through community gatherings and religious institutions to reinforce neighbourly relations despite political differences. Finally, the theme of trauma embedded in everyday spaces calls for place-based healing. Participants associated certain streets, homes, and public areas with memories of unrest and avoided them. Community-led activities, such as cleanup events, public art, or shared gatherings in these spaces, can help reassign positive meanings and support psychological restoration. Together, these interventions demonstrate that repairing collective trauma requires rebuilding trust, restoring communication, supporting children’s resilience, and reclaiming everyday spaces. Grounding responses in participants’ lived experiences ensures that policy moves from generic support to contextually relevant strategies for social healing. Limitations and directions for future research While this study provides in-depth insight into how collective trauma was experienced in the aftermath of the 2025 post-election violence, its findings should be interpreted in light of several important limitations. First, the data were drawn exclusively from participants in three urban centres, Dar es Salaam, Arusha, and Mwanza, where unrest, curfews, and security presence were most visible. Experiences in rural areas or smaller communities, where social dynamics, exposure levels, and communication patterns may differ, were not captured in this study. As such, the findings may not fully represent how collective trauma unfolded outside urban settings. Second, the study employed a qualitative design to capture participants’ experiences within weeks of the unrest. While this approach allowed for rich descriptions of immediate psychosocial effects, it does not show how these experiences may evolve, diminish, or intensify over time. A longitudinal design would be necessary to understand the trajectory of collective trauma and whether patterns of fear, silence, mistrust, and spatial memory persist, transform, or resolve. Third, although the study proposes contextually grounded policy and intervention implications based on participants’ narratives, it did not empirically test the effectiveness of these interventions. Future research should therefore evaluate how community dialogues, school-based psychosocial programs, civic education, and place-based healing initiatives function in practice and whether they meaningfully contribute to restoring social trust and psychological well-being. Finally, comparative research across different forms of electoral unrest and political contexts would help clarify which contextual factors, such as state suppression, media blackouts, or intensity of violence, most strongly contribute to the social embedding of trauma. Such work would strengthen understanding of how collective trauma emerges across varying sociopolitical environments. Conclusion This study set out to understand how the 2025 post-election violence in Tanzania was experienced not only as a series of distressing events but as a social condition that reshaped everyday life within affected communities. The findings suggest that trauma extended beyond direct exposure to violence and became embedded in patterns of anticipation, communication, identity, child development, and spatial experience. Participants’ narratives revealed how fear was shared, silence became communal, trust was strained, and ordinary places acquired new psychological meanings. These patterns provide empirical grounding for understanding how the aftermath of political violence may evolve into forms of collective trauma consistent with foundational theoretical perspectives (Erikson, 1976 ; Alexander et al., 2004 ). The study offers insight from three urban communities into how collective trauma can emerge in contexts characterised by episodic but intense electoral unrest rather than protracted war or genocide. Much existing theorisation has been grounded in large-scale conflicts; however, the present findings suggest that similar social processes, anticipatory fear, erosion of trust, silence as social protection, intergenerational transmission of anxiety, and spatial anchoring of memory—may arise even when violence is temporally limited but socially pervasive. By identifying the mechanisms through which individual fear appeared to consolidate into shared social patterns, the study contributes to ongoing discussions about how collective trauma is formed, maintained, and lived in everyday contexts. Equally significant is the study’s practical relevance. By grounding analysis in participants’ lived experiences from Dar es Salaam, Arusha, and Mwanza, the research provides context-specific insight into how communities navigated the emotional aftermath of political unrest. These insights have implications for psychosocial intervention, community reconciliation, school-based support, and place-based healing initiatives. Addressing collective trauma in this context may require more than individual clinical care; it may involve rebuilding trust, restoring communication, supporting children’s emotional resilience, and reclaiming everyday spaces as sites of safety. Beyond Tanzania, the study suggests that the psychosocial impact of electoral tensions and civic restrictions should not be overlooked, even when events do not meet conventional definitions of armed conflict. Political violence, even when brief, can leave lasting imprints on the social and psychological fabric of communities. Recognising these patterns may assist policymakers and practitioners in designing responses that attend to both individual suffering and the repair of communal bonds. In illuminating how collective trauma was lived, narrated, and socially embedded, this study provides empirical grounding for a more nuanced understanding of the psychological consequences of political violence and highlights the value of attending to community voices in shaping theory, policy, and practice. Declarations Funding Statement: The authors received no financial support for the research, authorship, and/or publication of this article. Financial Support This research received no specific grant from any funding agency, commercial sector, or not-for-profit sector. Author Contribution Emanuel Ismael Maphie is the sole author of this manuscript and was responsible for all aspects of the study. He conceptualised the study, developed the theoretical framework, and designed the research methodology. He conducted participant recruitment, data collection, transcription, translation, and thematic analysis. He interpreted the findings in relation to collective trauma theory and the Tanzanian sociocultural context. He drafted, revised, and finalised the manuscript, including the literature review, discussion, and policy implications. He also managed ethical approvals and reflexivity processes and ensured the trustworthiness and integrity of the research throughout the study. References Alexander, J. C., Eyerman, R., Giesen, B., Smelser, N. J., & Sztompka, P. (2004). Cultural trauma and collective identity. University of California Press. American Psychiatric Association. (2013). Diagnostic and statistical manual of mental disorders (5th ed.). American Psychiatric Association. AP News. (2025, November). Tanzania Catholic Church condemns the killings of protesters following the disputed election. Associated Press. https://apnews.com/article/481e9e196582629f9ae30745a10a510f AP News. (2025, November). UN rights chief calls for a probe into killings in Tanzania and allegations of concealing evidence. Associated Press. https://apnews.com/article/559871f36b2af6a0fbe3f4be841812b2 Braun, V., & Clarke, V. (2006). Using thematic analysis in psychology. Qualitative Research in Psychology, 3(2), 77–101. https://doi.org/10.1191/1478088706qp063oa Creswell, J. W., & Poth, C. N. (2018). Qualitative inquiry and research design: Choosing among five approaches (4th ed.). Sage. de Jong, J. T. V. M. (2010). Individual and collective trauma in post-conflict societies: Psychosocial interventions in post-conflict societies. Springer. Erikson, K. (1976). Everything in its path: Destruction of community in the Buffalo Creek flood. Simon & Schuster. Eyerman, R. (2001). Cultural trauma: Slavery and the formation of African American identity. Cambridge University Press. Finlay, L. (2002). Negotiating the swamp: The opportunity and challenge of reflexivity in research practice. Qualitative Research, 2(2), 209–230. https://doi.org/10.1177/146879410200200205 Hamber, B. (2009). Transforming societies after political violence: Truth, reconciliation, and mental health. Springer. Hirschberger, G. (2018). Collective trauma and the social construction of meaning. Frontiers in Psychology, 9, 1441. https://doi.org/10.3389/fpsyg.2018.01441 Kaminer, D., Eagle, G., Stevens, G., & Higson-Smith, C. (2008). Continuous traumatic stress: The impact of living in contexts of ongoing political violence. Journal of Interpersonal Violence, 23(1), 6–28. https://doi.org/10.1177/0886260507307651 Kamat, V. R. (2018). Youth, education, and development in Tanzania: Contestations and transformations. Ohio University Press. Legal and Human Rights Centre. (2024). Tanzania human rights report 2024. https://humanrights.or.tz Lincoln, Y. S., & Guba, E. G. (1985). Naturalistic inquiry. Sage. Moustakas, C. (1994). Phenomenological research methods. Sage. Orb, A., Eisenhauer, L., & Wynaden, D. (2001). Ethics in qualitative research. Journal of Nursing Scholarship, 33(1), 93–96. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1547-5069.2001.00093.x Paget, D. (2017). Tanzania: Shrinking space and opposition protest. Journal of Democracy, 28(3), 153–167. https://doi.org/10.1353/jod.2017.0050 Patton, M. Q. (2015). Qualitative research and evaluation methods (4th ed.). Sage. Reuters. (2025, November 5). Tanzania vote violated democratic values, AU observers say. Reuters. https://www.reuters.com/world/africa/african-union-election-observers-say-tanzania-polls-did-not-comply-with-2025-11-05/ Reuters. (2025, November 14). Tanzania president vows to investigate vote violence, acknowledges deaths. Reuters. https://www.reuters.com/world/africa/tanzania-president-vows-investigate-vote-violence-acknowledges-deaths-2025-11-14/ Tankink, M., & Slegh, H. (2017). Living with terror or living with peace? The impact of violent conflict on gender relations in post-conflict settings. Intervention, 15(1), 45–57. https://doi.org/10.1097/WTF.0000000000000143 Temple, B., & Young, A. (2004). Qualitative research and translation dilemmas. Qualitative Research, 4(2), 161–178. https://doi.org/10.1177/1468794104044430 The Guardian. (2025, October 31). About 700 killed in Tanzania election protests, opposition says. The Guardian. https://www.theguardian.com/world/2025/oct/31/tanzania-election-protests-opposition United Republic of Tanzania. (2024). National plan of action to end violence against women and children (NPA-VAWC II 2024/25–2028/29). Ministry of Health, Community Development, Gender, Elderly and Children. Additional Declarations No competing interests reported. Cite Share Download PDF Status: Posted Version 1 posted You are reading this latest preprint version Research Square lets you share your work early, gain feedback from the community, and start making changes to your manuscript prior to peer review in a journal. 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Also discoverable on Platform About Our Team In Review Editorial Policies Advisory Board Help Center Resources Author Services Accessibility API Access RSS feed Manage Cookie Preferences © Research Square 2026 | ISSN 2693-5015 (online) Privacy Policy Terms of Service Do Not Sell My Personal Information {"props":{"pageProps":{"initialData":{"identity":"rs-8741086","acceptedTermsAndConditions":true,"allowDirectSubmit":true,"archivedVersions":[],"articleType":"Research Article","associatedPublications":[],"authors":[{"id":584541156,"identity":"9955eab6-c020-4ea1-9b35-890890a2e7b0","order_by":0,"name":"Emanuel Maphie","email":"data:image/png;base64,iVBORw0KGgoAAAANSUhEUgAAAZAAAAAyAQMAAABI0h/eAAAABlBMVEX///8AAABVwtN+AAAACXBIWXMAAA7EAAAOxAGVKw4bAAAAxklEQVRIiWNgGAWjYHACNoYEBjY5EOvAAxK08BmDtSQQrYWBQS6xAcQkSotu+9ljDx5UmKXPDzv8EGiLnZxuAwEtZmfy0g0SzqTlbrydZgDUkmxsdoCQlgM5ZhKJbcdyN85OAGk5kLiNoJbzb4Ba/v1PN5yd/oFILTdAtjSwJchL5xBry413aRIJx9gMN0jnFBxIMCDGL+dzj0n+qGGTl5+dvvnDhwo7OYJaGBh4IJQBWKUBQeVIWuQbiFI9CkbBKBgFIxEAAPhsR3l1T+W+AAAAAElFTkSuQmCC","orcid":"","institution":"University of Dar es Salaam","correspondingAuthor":true,"prefix":"","firstName":"Emanuel","middleName":"","lastName":"Maphie","suffix":""}],"badges":[],"createdAt":"2026-01-30 12:38:54","currentVersionCode":1,"declarations":"","doi":"10.21203/rs.3.rs-8741086/v1","doiUrl":"https://doi.org/10.21203/rs.3.rs-8741086/v1","draftVersion":[],"editorialEvents":[],"editorialNote":"","failedWorkflow":false,"files":[{"id":105563881,"identity":"38ba8360-0e32-42c7-aa9b-a4e4437ff373","added_by":"auto","created_at":"2026-03-27 12:48:06","extension":"pdf","order_by":0,"title":"","display":"","copyAsset":false,"role":"manuscript-pdf","size":710901,"visible":true,"origin":"","legend":"","description":"","filename":"manuscript.pdf","url":"https://assets-eu.researchsquare.com/files/rs-8741086/v1/e7bcbf0f-3e15-4a36-b2a8-70e97d4123af.pdf"}],"financialInterests":"No competing interests reported.","formattedTitle":"Trauma in the Tissues of Social Life: Community Experiences after the 2025 Post-Election Violence in Tanzania","fulltext":[{"header":"Introduction","content":"\u003cp\u003ePolitical violence disrupts far more than physical safety; it unsettles the psychological and social foundations on which communities depend for stability, belonging, and meaning (Hamber, \u003cspan citationid=\"CR32\" class=\"CitationRef\"\u003e2009\u003c/span\u003e). When unrest unfolds within familiar neighbourhoods, homes, markets, and streets, the experience of threat does not remain confined to moments of confrontation but gradually seeps into the routines of everyday life (Hirschberger, \u003cspan citationid=\"CR35\" class=\"CitationRef\"\u003e2018\u003c/span\u003e). Sounds, movements, conversations, and even ordinary spaces begin to acquire new meanings associated with danger, uncertainty, and caution. In such contexts, fear is not episodic but continuous, and safety is no longer assumed but constantly evaluated (Kaminer et al., \u003cspan citationid=\"CR38\" class=\"CitationRef\"\u003e2008\u003c/span\u003e). The result is a transformation of how individuals relate to their environment and to one another.\u003c/p\u003e \u003cp\u003eIn late October 2025, Tanzania, an East African country long regarded as relatively peaceful and politically stable, experienced significant unrest following its general elections. The 29 October 2025 vote was intended to elect a president, members of parliament, and local councillors. Incumbent President Samia Suluhu Hassan of the long-ruling Chama Cha Mapinduzi (CCM) was declared the winner with an exceptionally high vote share (around 97\u0026ndash;98%), amid widespread reports of electoral irregularities and restricted competition (Reuters, \u003cspan citationid=\"CR50\" class=\"CitationRef\"\u003e2025\u003c/span\u003e; Africanews, \u003cspan citationid=\"CR1\" class=\"CitationRef\"\u003e2025\u003c/span\u003e). Prominent opposition actors, including the strongest opposition party, Chama cha Demokrasia na Maendeleo (CHADEMA), were effectively barred from meaningful participation due to legal disputes, disqualifications, and criminal charges against key figures (Africanews, \u003cspan citationid=\"CR1\" class=\"CitationRef\"\u003e2025\u003c/span\u003e; Amnesty International, \u003cspan citationid=\"CR6\" class=\"CitationRef\"\u003e2025\u003c/span\u003e)\u003c/p\u003e \u003cp\u003eProtests soon emerged in major urban centres, Dar es Salaam, Arusha, Mbeya, and Mwanza, as citizens denounced what they perceived as a non-competitive and authoritarian electoral process. Demonstrators cited electoral manipulation, suppression of dissent, and declining civic freedoms as central grievances (Reuters, 5, 2025; The Guardian, Oct 31, 2025; AP News, Nov, 2025). Longer-term political trends shaped these reactions. Since the mid-2010s, Tanzania has faced growing criticism over shrinking civic space, restrictive media and assembly laws, and constraints on opposition organising, particularly during the presidency of John Magufuli. Although Samia Suluhu Hassan initially signalled reforms after assuming office in 2021, many restrictive frameworks persisted, contributing to mistrust toward electoral institutions such as the National Electoral Commission (Human Rights Watch, \u003cspan citationid=\"CR37\" class=\"CitationRef\"\u003e2023\u003c/span\u003e; Amnesty International, \u003cspan citationid=\"CR9\" class=\"CitationRef\"\u003e2024\u003c/span\u003e; Freedom House, \u003cspan citationid=\"CR27\" class=\"CitationRef\"\u003e2024\u003c/span\u003e).\u003c/p\u003e \u003cp\u003eSecurity forces responded to protests with tear gas, gunfire, curfews, mass arrests, and communication blackouts, with rights groups documenting excessive use of force and disputed casualty figures (Amnesty International, \u003cspan citationid=\"CR6\" class=\"CitationRef\"\u003e2025\u003c/span\u003e; Reuters, Nov 14, 2025). International observers, including the African Union, later criticised the electoral process, prompting renewed calls for democratic reform and accountability (Africanews, \u003cspan citationid=\"CR1\" class=\"CitationRef\"\u003e2025\u003c/span\u003e; Reuters, Nov 5, 2025).\u003c/p\u003e \u003cp\u003eAlthough the visible violence was geographically contained and temporally bounded, these measures disrupted everyday mobility, communication, and social interaction in ways that extended far beyond the immediate sites of confrontation. Residents were left navigating uncertainty about who could be trusted, which routes were safe, whether it was acceptable to speak openly, and whether violence might resume. Such conditions created a prolonged state of psychological unease that persisted even after calm appeared to have returned. Notably, this episode occurred in a country long regarded as relatively peaceful within the region, a reputation that magnified the psychosocial shock experienced by communities whose collective identity had historically been anchored in notions of stability, unity, and civic coexistence (Paget, \u003cspan citationid=\"CR48\" class=\"CitationRef\"\u003e2017\u003c/span\u003e).\u003c/p\u003e \u003cp\u003eUnderstanding the psychological consequences of such events requires moving beyond the conventional focus on individual pathology. Much of the existing literature on trauma emerging from political violence relies on diagnostic frameworks such as Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD), anxiety disorders, or depression (American Psychiatric Association, \u003cspan citationid=\"CR5\" class=\"CitationRef\"\u003e2013\u003c/span\u003e; de Jong, \u003cspan citationid=\"CR19\" class=\"CitationRef\"\u003e2010\u003c/span\u003e). While these frameworks are important for identifying clinical distress, they often overlook how trauma operates at a collective and relational level. In communities exposed to political violence, fear is shared, silence becomes communal, and mistrust is socially reproduced (Hirschberger, \u003cspan citationid=\"CR35\" class=\"CitationRef\"\u003e2018\u003c/span\u003e). The psychological disruption extends beyond individuals, altering patterns of interaction, communication, and belonging across the community.\u003c/p\u003e \u003cp\u003eThis progression can be understood as a conceptual pathway from political violence to psychological disruption, and ultimately to collective trauma. Political violence first produces immediate emotional reactions, fear, shock, confusion, and hypervigilance, among those directly or indirectly exposed (Tankink \u0026amp; Slegh, \u003cspan citationid=\"CR54\" class=\"CitationRef\"\u003e2017\u003c/span\u003e). As these reactions are experienced simultaneously across households and neighbourhoods, they begin to shape how people relate to one another. Conversations become guarded, political identities become sources of suspicion, and public spaces lose their sense of normalcy (Eyerman, \u003cspan citationid=\"CR23\" class=\"CitationRef\"\u003e2001\u003c/span\u003e). Hirschberger (\u003cspan citationid=\"CR35\" class=\"CitationRef\"\u003e2018\u003c/span\u003e) suggests that over time, these shared emotional responses accumulate into a socially embedded condition where trauma is no longer merely an individual psychological state but a characteristic of the community\u0026rsquo;s social life. This transformation reflects what Erikson (\u003cspan citationid=\"CR21\" class=\"CitationRef\"\u003e1976\u003c/span\u003e) described as damage to the \u0026ldquo;tissues of social life\u0026rdquo; that bind people together.\u003c/p\u003e \u003cp\u003eThe concept of collective trauma has been further developed by scholars such as Alexander et al. (\u003cspan citationid=\"CR3\" class=\"CitationRef\"\u003e2004\u003c/span\u003e), Eyerman (\u003cspan citationid=\"CR23\" class=\"CitationRef\"\u003e2001\u003c/span\u003e), and Hirschberger (\u003cspan citationid=\"CR35\" class=\"CitationRef\"\u003e2018\u003c/span\u003e), who argue that trauma can alter collective memory, identity, and social relations long after the precipitating event. Collective trauma is visible not only in symptoms of fear but also in patterns of silence, spatial memories attached to particular places, intergenerational transmission of anxiety, and disruptions in trust. These characteristics are often overlooked when trauma is assessed solely through clinical categories. In politically volatile contexts, trauma becomes embedded in the social environment, shaping how communities interpret safety, belonging, and future possibilities (Eyerman, \u003cspan citationid=\"CR23\" class=\"CitationRef\"\u003e2001\u003c/span\u003e).\u003c/p\u003e \u003cp\u003eThis perspective is particularly important in the Tanzanian context. Tanzania has long been regarded as relatively peaceful compared to several neighbouring countries that have experienced civil wars or prolonged political instability (Paget, \u003cspan citationid=\"CR48\" class=\"CitationRef\"\u003e2017\u003c/span\u003e). However, in recent years, electoral tensions, restrictions on civic expression, contested political processes, and episodic confrontations between citizens and state authorities have increased (Paget, \u003cspan citationid=\"CR48\" class=\"CitationRef\"\u003e2017\u003c/span\u003e; Kamat, \u003cspan citationid=\"CR40\" class=\"CitationRef\"\u003e2018\u003c/span\u003e; Kibwana, 2020). These developments have introduced new psychosocial strains into communities that historically associated national identity with peace and unity. The 2025 post-election violence, therefore, represents not only a political rupture but also a significant psychosocial episode that challenged long-standing assumptions about safety, coexistence, and civic trust.\u003c/p\u003e \u003cp\u003eStudies from other African settings provide insight into how such events shape community psychology. Research following Kenya\u0026rsquo;s 2007\u0026ndash;2008 post-election violence demonstrated that individuals who were not directly attacked still reported persistent anxiety, mistrust, and fear due to their proximity to unrest (Kaminer et al., \u003cspan citationid=\"CR38\" class=\"CitationRef\"\u003e2008\u003c/span\u003e). In Rwanda and Sierra Leone, scholars have shown how collective memories of violence continue to shape social relations decades later (Tankink \u0026amp; Slegh, \u003cspan citationid=\"CR54\" class=\"CitationRef\"\u003e2017\u003c/span\u003e; Shaw, 2002). Similar findings have emerged from South Africa, where political and community violence produced enduring patterns of silence and guarded interaction (Hamber, \u003cspan citationid=\"CR32\" class=\"CitationRef\"\u003e2009\u003c/span\u003e). These studies suggest that the psychosocial impact of political violence often extends far beyond immediate victims and becomes woven into the collective experiences of communities.\u003c/p\u003e \u003cp\u003eDespite these insights, there is limited scholarship examining such processes within Tanzania. Most research on Tanzanian elections focuses on political processes, governance, and democratic participation, with little attention to the psychosocial consequences for ordinary citizens. Even fewer studies explore how communities interpret and make meaning of fear, mistrust, and silence following political unrest (Tankink \u0026amp; Slegh, \u003cspan citationid=\"CR54\" class=\"CitationRef\"\u003e2017\u003c/span\u003e). This gap is significant because Tanzania\u0026rsquo;s historical narrative of peace may obscure the subtle yet profound ways in which recent political events have altered community life. Understanding these changes requires listening to the voices of those who lived through the uncertainty rather than relying solely on institutional or political accounts.\u003c/p\u003e \u003cp\u003eUnderstanding these processes is not only of academic importance but also critical for informing psychosocial interventions, reconciliation efforts, and community rebuilding in politically sensitive environments. If trauma has become embedded in social relations and everyday spaces, then healing must similarly address the collective dimensions of experience. This study, therefore, provides an entry point for rethinking how political events are understood, not only as matters of governance and security but also as experiences that leave lasting imprints on the psychological and social lives of communities.\u003c/p\u003e"},{"header":"Literature Review","content":"\u003cp\u003ePolitical violence inflicts harm that extends beyond immediate bodily injury to the psychological and social fabric of affected communities. Erikson (\u003cspan citationid=\"CR21\" class=\"CitationRef\"\u003e1976\u003c/span\u003e) conceptualised collective trauma as damage to the \u0026ldquo;tissues of social life\u0026rdquo; that bind people together, thereby disrupting trust, belonging, and shared meaning. Subsequent theorists have elaborated that collective trauma is not merely the aggregation of individual distress but a social phenomenon manifested in altered collective memory, ruptured social bonds, and transformed public narratives (Alexander et al., \u003cspan citationid=\"CR3\" class=\"CitationRef\"\u003e2004\u003c/span\u003e; Eyerman, \u003cspan citationid=\"CR23\" class=\"CitationRef\"\u003e2001\u003c/span\u003e; Hirschberger, \u003cspan citationid=\"CR35\" class=\"CitationRef\"\u003e2018\u003c/span\u003e). These perspectives emphasise how trauma can be produced and maintained through communal processes such as rumour, silence, spatial memory, and the intergenerational transmission of fear, which reconfigure everyday interaction and the symbolic landscape of communities.\u003c/p\u003e \u003cp\u003eContemporary psychological anthropology provides further insight into how communities live with the aftermath of violence. Scholars such as Byron Good (\u003cspan citationid=\"CR31\" class=\"CitationRef\"\u003e1994\u003c/span\u003e, \u003cspan citationid=\"CR29\" class=\"CitationRef\"\u003e2013\u003c/span\u003e) and Alexander Hinton (\u003cspan citationid=\"CR34\" class=\"CitationRef\"\u003e2016\u003c/span\u003e) argue that post-conflict experiences are shaped not only by psychological symptoms but by how meaning is culturally reconstructed in everyday life. In these accounts, trauma becomes embedded in symbolic landscapes, ordinary routines, and shared narratives through which communities interpret safety, danger, and belonging. Silence, spatial avoidance, altered identity performance, and changes in social interaction are understood as culturally mediated responses that reorganise how people inhabit their environments after violence. From this perspective, trauma is less a clinical state than a lived social condition expressed through meaning-making processes that attach new significance to places, practices, and relationships.\u003c/p\u003e \u003cp\u003eEmpirical work from a range of African settings demonstrates how political violence generates psychosocial patterns consistent with collective trauma. Kenya\u0026rsquo;s post-election violence of 2007\u0026ndash;2008, for example, produced persistent anxiety, hypervigilance, and breakdowns in neighbourhood trust even among those who were not directly injured, indicating that fear diffuses through social networks and proximity (Kaminer et al., \u003cspan citationid=\"CR38\" class=\"CitationRef\"\u003e2008\u003c/span\u003e). Studies from Rwanda document how spatial markers, commemorative practices, and familial narratives transmit traumatic meaning across generations, thereby anchoring collective memory in places and rituals (Tankink \u0026amp; Slegh, \u003cspan citationid=\"CR54\" class=\"CitationRef\"\u003e2017\u003c/span\u003e). In South Africa, long-term exposure to political and community violence contributed to cultures of guarded communication and normalised suspicion that complicated reconciliation efforts and civic life (Hamber, \u003cspan citationid=\"CR32\" class=\"CitationRef\"\u003e2009\u003c/span\u003e). A recurring theme across these contexts is anticipatory fear, a temporally forward-looking anxiety about the recurrence of violence that shapes mobility, speech, and civic participation (Tankink \u0026amp; Slegh, \u003cspan citationid=\"CR54\" class=\"CitationRef\"\u003e2017\u003c/span\u003e). These findings resonate strongly with psychological anthropological observations that trauma reshapes not only memory but also how people move through space, speak to one another, and interpret ordinary surroundings (Good, \u003cspan citationid=\"CR29\" class=\"CitationRef\"\u003e2013\u003c/span\u003e; Hinton, \u003cspan citationid=\"CR34\" class=\"CitationRef\"\u003e2016\u003c/span\u003e).\u003c/p\u003e \u003cp\u003eDespite this comparative literature, Tanzania has been relatively underrepresented in studies examining the psychosocial consequences of episodic electoral unrest. Much of the literature on Tanzanian elections has prioritised institutional analysis, electoral administration, party politics, and governance over the lived psychological experiences of ordinary citizens (Kamat, \u003cspan citationid=\"CR40\" class=\"CitationRef\"\u003e2018\u003c/span\u003e; Paget, \u003cspan citationid=\"CR48\" class=\"CitationRef\"\u003e2017\u003c/span\u003e). However, recent reports and documentation suggest that Tanzania\u0026rsquo;s longstanding image of relative stability masks emergent patterns of political tension and constrained civic space. The Legal and Human Rights Centre\u0026rsquo;s (LHRC) 2024 human rights report highlights a range of rights concerns across the country, including restrictions on assembly, arrests, and localised instances of violence (Legal and Human Rights Centre, \u003cspan citationid=\"CR42\" class=\"CitationRef\"\u003e2024\u003c/span\u003e). Government planning documents addressing violence against women and children (e.g., the National Plan of Action to End Violence Against Women and Children, NPA-VAWC II, 2024/25\u0026ndash;2028/29) also signal recognition that community safety and psychosocial well-being are pressing policy concerns (United Republic of Tanzania, 2024).\u003c/p\u003e \u003cp\u003eContemporary news and observer statements from the 2025 electoral period provide further evidence that political developments can generate a pervasive atmosphere of fear and uncertainty. International observers and major news outlets reported episodes of unrest, alleged excessive force, curfews, and restrictions on communications that accompanied the October 2025 elections; such events were followed by calls for investigation and reconciliation from national and international actors (Reuters, \u003cspan citationid=\"CR50\" class=\"CitationRef\"\u003e2025\u003c/span\u003e; The Guardian, 2025; AP, 2025a). These developments do more than interrupt political activity; they alter the texture of everyday life, constraining movement and civic expression and thereby seeding longer-term social mistrust. From a psychological anthropological perspective, such disruptions reshape the symbolic landscape of communities, as places, routines, and social cues acquire new meanings associated with danger and uncertainty (Good, \u003cspan citationid=\"CR31\" class=\"CitationRef\"\u003e1994\u003c/span\u003e).\u003c/p\u003e \u003cp\u003eMoreover, Tanzania\u0026rsquo;s public health and social service frameworks suggest intersecting vulnerabilities that may amplify the psychosocial impact of political unrest. National strategies addressing violence against women and children and broader child-protection initiatives indicate persistent service gaps and psychosocial risks that could interact with politically induced stressors to worsen community-level suffering (United Republic of Tanzania, 2024). Where household stressors, service disruptions, or pre-existing social tensions are present, the psychosocial effects of an electoral crisis may be magnified, accelerating the conversion of widespread fear into entrenched collective patterns (de Jong, \u003cspan citationid=\"CR19\" class=\"CitationRef\"\u003e2010\u003c/span\u003e).\u003c/p\u003e \u003cp\u003eTheoretically, two gaps motivate the present study. First, much theorising on collective trauma derives from contexts of protracted civil war or genocide; less is known about how collective trauma emerges in settings characterised by episodic but intense political unrest, contexts in which the violence is temporally bounded but socially pervasive. Second, there is limited empirical work documenting how such dynamics unfold specifically in Tanzania, where prior assumptions about national stability obscured subtle yet consequential psychosocial shifts. Addressing these gaps requires qualitative work that centres lived experience, traces the social mechanisms of fear transmission, links empirical patterns to collective trauma theory, and attends to the cultural processes of meaning-making emphasised in psychological anthropology.\u003c/p\u003e \u003cp\u003eThis study addresses these needs by employing a phenomenological approach that privileges participants\u0026rsquo; accounts of their lived experiences and uses thematic analysis to identify recurring social patterns. Through in-depth interviews with residents in affected Tanzanian communities, the study investigates how individual fear, neighbourhood mistrust, spatial memory, and intergenerational narratives cohere into a discernible collective phenomenon. By situating Tanzanian evidence alongside comparative African cases and anchoring interpretation in both collective trauma theory and psychological anthropology, the study extends understanding of how political violence, though episodic, leaves enduring marks on the symbolic and social landscapes of communities.\u003c/p\u003e \u003cdiv id=\"Sec3\" class=\"Section2\"\u003e \u003ch2\u003eTheoretical Framework\u003c/h2\u003e \u003cp\u003eThis study is guided by Erikson\u0026rsquo;s (\u003cspan citationid=\"CR21\" class=\"CitationRef\"\u003e1976\u003c/span\u003e) theory of collective trauma, which posits that trauma can damage the \u0026ldquo;tissues of social life\u0026rdquo; that bind communities together, including trust, belonging, and everyday patterns of interaction. Unlike individual trauma, collective trauma manifests through altered social relations, communal fear, and disruptions to shared meanings. This framework is particularly suited to understanding how participants\u0026rsquo; experiences of mistrust, silence, and hypervigilance reflected not isolated psychological reactions but transformations in community life.\u003c/p\u003e \u003cp\u003eTo deepen this interpretation, the study also draws on Alexander et al.\u0026rsquo;s (\u003cspan citationid=\"CR3\" class=\"CitationRef\"\u003e2004\u003c/span\u003e) cultural trauma theory and psychological anthropological perspectives advanced by Good (\u003cspan citationid=\"CR31\" class=\"CitationRef\"\u003e1994\u003c/span\u003e, \u003cspan citationid=\"CR29\" class=\"CitationRef\"\u003e2013\u003c/span\u003e) and Hinton (\u003cspan citationid=\"CR34\" class=\"CitationRef\"\u003e2016\u003c/span\u003e). These perspectives emphasise how communities reconstruct meaning after violence through symbolic landscapes, spatial memory, altered identity performance, and communal narratives. Participants\u0026rsquo; accounts of political identity becoming threatening, clothing colours acquiring political meaning, and ordinary places becoming reminders of unrest illustrate how trauma reshaped cultural interpretations of safety, identity, and space.\u003c/p\u003e \u003cp\u003eTogether, these approaches provide a comprehensive lens for understanding how the 2025 post-election violence evolved into a form of collective trauma embedded not only in social relations and communication patterns but also in the symbolic environments and meaning-making processes of Tanzanian communities.\u003c/p\u003e \u003c/div\u003e"},{"header":"Methodology","content":"\u003cp\u003eThis study employed a qualitative phenomenological design to explore how individuals experienced and interpreted the psychological aftermath of the 2025 post-election violence within their communities. Phenomenology was considered appropriate because it prioritises the lived meanings people attach to events rather than measuring predefined psychological symptoms, making it particularly suitable for examining how trauma becomes socially embedded within shared experiences of fear, mistrust, and silence (Creswell \u0026amp; Poth, \u003cspan citationid=\"CR17\" class=\"CitationRef\"\u003e2018\u003c/span\u003e; Moustakas, \u003cspan citationid=\"CR45\" class=\"CitationRef\"\u003e1994\u003c/span\u003e). Collective trauma is manifested through shared perceptions and social interpretations; therefore, understanding how participants describe their experiences in their own words provides insight into how political violence reshaped everyday interactions and communal life.\u003c/p\u003e \u003cp\u003e A purposive sampling strategy was used to recruit participants who had direct or indirect exposure to the unrest. Purposive sampling is widely recommended in phenomenological studies because it enables the selection of individuals with rich experiential knowledge of the phenomenon under study (Patton, \u003cspan citationid=\"CR49\" class=\"CitationRef\"\u003e2015\u003c/span\u003e). Thirty-six participants, comprising 16 men and 20 women aged 21\u0026ndash;67 years, were recruited from Dar es Salaam, Arusha, and Mwanza. In these urban centres, incidents of unrest, curfews, and heightened security presence were reported. Seventeen participants were direct witnesses or survivors of violent incidents, while nineteen were neighbouring residents who were not physically harmed but lived within the same atmosphere of fear and uncertainty. Participants were recruited through community contacts, local leaders, and referrals using a snowball approach. Inclusion criteria required that participants reside in the affected communities during the unrest, be adults aged 18 years and above, and be willing to share their experiences voluntarily.\u003c/p\u003e \u003cp\u003e Data were collected through semi-structured, in-depth interviews conducted between six and eight weeks after the violence, allowing participants time for initial emotional stabilisation while experiences remained vivid. Each interview lasted 45 to 60 minutes and was conducted at locations chosen by participants to ensure privacy and comfort. Interviews were conducted primarily in Swahili, with occasional use of English at the participants' preference. With informed consent, interviews were audio recorded and complemented by field notes to capture nonverbal cues and contextual observations. Audio recordings were transcribed verbatim and, where necessary, translated into English. Translations were carefully cross-checked against original transcripts to preserve meaning and ensure semantic accuracy (Temple \u0026amp; Young, 2004).\u003c/p\u003e \u003cdiv id=\"Sec5\" class=\"Section2\"\u003e \u003ch2\u003eData analysis\u003c/h2\u003e \u003cp\u003eData were analysed using Braun and Clarke\u0026rsquo;s (\u003cspan citationid=\"CR15\" class=\"CitationRef\"\u003e2006\u003c/span\u003e) six-phase thematic analysis framework. The researcher began by familiarising themselves with the transcripts through repeated reading, followed by systematic coding of meaningful units related to fear, mistrust, silence, space, and social interaction. Codes were then grouped into potential thematic categories, which were reviewed and refined to ensure coherence with both the coded data and the entire dataset. Themes were defined and named to capture their essential meaning, then integrated into the report with supporting participant quotations and theoretical interpretation. For instance, codes such as avoiding political discussions, whispering at home, and fear of neighbours were clustered into the theme \u0026ldquo;Breakdown of Community Trust.\u0026rdquo; In contrast, observations about children\u0026rsquo;s behavioural changes and imitation of adult fear informed the theme \u0026ldquo;Children Absorbing Communal Fear.\u0026rdquo; This iterative process ensured that themes emerged inductively from participants\u0026rsquo; accounts rather than being imposed by the researcher.\u003c/p\u003e \u003c/div\u003e\n\u003ch3\u003eEthical Consideration\u003c/h3\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e Ethical clearance for the study was obtained from the relevant university research ethics committee. Participants were informed of the study's purpose, their right to withdraw at any time, and the measures taken to ensure confidentiality and anonymity. Written informed consent was obtained prior to interviews, and pseudonyms were used in transcripts and reports to protect participants\u0026rsquo; identities. Given the sensitivity of the topic, participants were also provided with information on where to seek psychosocial support should discussions evoke distress (Orb, Eisenhauer, \u0026amp; Wynaden, \u003cspan citationid=\"CR46\" class=\"CitationRef\"\u003e2001\u003c/span\u003e).\u003c/p\u003e\n\u003ch3\u003eStudy Trustworthiness\u003c/h3\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eTo ensure rigour, the study adhered to Lincoln and Guba\u0026rsquo;s (\u003cspan citationid=\"CR44\" class=\"CitationRef\"\u003e1985\u003c/span\u003e) criteria for trustworthiness. Credibility was enhanced through prolonged engagement with the data, the use of direct participant quotations, and peer debriefing with qualitative research colleagues. Dependability was maintained through an audit trail documenting coding decisions and theme development. Confirmability was supported by maintaining a reflexive journal to minimise researcher bias and ensure that findings were grounded in participants\u0026rsquo; narratives. Transferability was facilitated through rich, contextual descriptions that allow readers to assess the applicability of the findings to similar settings.\u003c/p\u003e \u003cdiv id=\"Sec8\" class=\"Section2\"\u003e \u003ch2\u003eResearcher\u0026rsquo;s Reflexivity\u003c/h2\u003e \u003cp\u003eGiven the politically sensitive nature of the topic, the researcher engaged in continuous reflexivity throughout the research process. A reflexive journal was maintained to document personal assumptions, emotional responses, and potential biases during data collection and analysis (Finlay, \u003cspan citationid=\"CR25\" class=\"CitationRef\"\u003e2002\u003c/span\u003e). The researcher\u0026rsquo;s background in psychology and familiarity with Tanzanian communities facilitated rapport with participants while also requiring deliberate efforts to maintain neutrality and avoid interpretive imposition.\u003c/p\u003e \u003c/div\u003e"},{"header":"Findings","content":"\u003cp\u003eThis section presents the lived experiences of participants as they narrated the psychological and social aftermath of the 2025 post-election violence within their communities. While initial coding produced six distinct themes, deeper interpretive analysis revealed that these experiences were interconnected and best understood through three higher-order conceptual categories that illuminate how collective trauma manifested in everyday life. These categories are: (1) Anticipatory Fear and Hypervigilant Living, (2) Fracturing of Social Trust and Communication, and (3) Trauma Inscribed in Children and Everyday Spaces.\u003c/p\u003e \u003cp\u003eRather than existing as isolated psychological reactions, participants\u0026rsquo; accounts demonstrated how fear, mistrust, silence, and spatial memories became woven into daily routines, relationships, and family life. The findings show that trauma was experienced not only as something remembered, but as something continuously lived through altered patterns of sleeping, speaking, interacting, and moving within familiar environments. Through participants\u0026rsquo; voices, this section illustrates how political violence evolved into a collective condition that reshaped social relations, perceptions of safety, and community identity across Dar es Salaam, Arusha, and Mwanza.\u003c/p\u003e\n\u003ch3\u003eAnticipatory Fear and Hypervigilant Living\u003c/h3\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eThe study findings indicate that, across interviews, participants described a persistent sense of waiting for violence to return. This was not merely a retrospective fear grounded in what had already occurred, but an embodied anticipation that unrest could resume at any moment. Participants conveyed this state through phrases that reflected heightened bodily alertness and ongoing sleep disturbances. Many reported remaining attentive to sounds at night, waking frequently, or struggling to relax even when conditions appeared calm. These descriptions suggest that fear was experienced not only cognitively but physically, shaping how participants rested, listened, and moved within their homes. Such accounts demonstrate how anticipatory anxiety became woven into daily life, reflecting the deep psychological imprint left by the unrest.\u003c/p\u003e \u003cp\u003eOne of the participants, a 34-year-old male shopkeeper from Mwanza, explained the following:\u003cdiv class=\"BlockQuote\"\u003e\u003cp\u003eEven after things calmed down, my body did not believe it. Every loud sound felt like the beginning again.\u003c/p\u003e\u003c/div\u003e\u003c/p\u003e \u003cp\u003eSimilarly, a 52-year-old woman from Arusha also noted the following on the same:\u003cdiv class=\"BlockQuote\"\u003e\u003cp\u003eWe slept with one ear open. You never knew if the night would remain quiet. Sleep was light and easily broken, as the body remained alert to the slightest sound. Even in darkness, fear lingered, shaping the experience of rest.\u003c/p\u003e\u003c/div\u003e\u003c/p\u003e \u003cp\u003eFurther, one of the participants, a university student in Dar es Salaam, described how the sounds of motorbikes at night triggered anxiety:\u003cdiv class=\"BlockQuote\"\u003e\u003cp\u003eWhen I heard motorcycles passing fast, my heart would race. I thought maybe people were running again. The sound alone was enough to trigger fear, as if the events were repeating themselves.\u003c/p\u003e\u003c/div\u003e\u003c/p\u003e \u003cp\u003eThis anticipatory fear illustrates how trauma became embedded in bodily experience rather than remaining confined to recollection. Participants did not describe fear as a past event stored in memory, but as an ongoing condition shaping their present state. Their accounts reflected heightened alertness, tension, and difficulty relaxing, even in moments of apparent calm. Physical reactions, such as disrupted sleep, rapid startle responses, and constant vigilance for unusual sounds, indicated that the body remained prepared for threat. In this way, trauma was lived through sensory and physiological responses that persisted beyond the immediate period of violence. These embodied experiences demonstrate how collective trauma can be sustained through the body\u0026rsquo;s continued anticipation of danger.\u003c/p\u003e \u003cp\u003eThe findings also show that hypervigilance shaped participants\u0026rsquo; sleep patterns, mobility, and sound attention in their daily lives. Many reported difficulty sleeping through the night, waking frequently to monitor their surroundings, or reacting sharply to minor noises. Routine movements, such as walking through the neighbourhood or stepping outside after dark, were approached with heightened caution and constant environmental scanning. Participants described becoming unusually attentive to sounds such as footsteps, vehicle noises, or distant voices, interpreting them as potential signals of danger. This persistent state of alertness demonstrates how fear influenced not only emotional states but also practical behaviours and bodily rhythms. In this way, hypervigilance became a defining feature of everyday living in the aftermath of the unrest. One of the participants, a young mother in Mwanza, reported the following on the matter:\u003cdiv class=\"BlockQuote\"\u003e\u003cp\u003eI repeatedly checked the door before going to sleep. Even slight noises woke me up. It felt impossible to fully relax, as if danger could return at any moment.\u003c/p\u003e\u003c/div\u003e\u003c/p\u003e \u003cp\u003eParticipants\u0026rsquo; narratives indicate that the violence fundamentally disrupted their sense of temporal safety, the implicit belief that time unfolds in a stable and predictable manner. Before the unrest, daily life followed familiar rhythms structured by routines and expectations that tomorrow would resemble today. Exposure to violence fractured this continuity, replacing temporal predictability with uncertainty and vigilance. Nights became periods of watchfulness rather than rest, and quiet days were approached with caution rather than comfort. Participants did not only fear what had already occurred; they also feared what might happen again, and this anticipation altered how they experienced the passage of time. In this way, time ceased to be a neutral backdrop to life and became charged with latent threat and apprehension.\u003c/p\u003e \u003cp\u003eThis disruption was accompanied by a perceptual shift from experiencing life as a predictable flow to perceiving it as a fragile calm that could shatter without warning. The absence of visible unrest did not restore a sense of normalcy; instead, it was interpreted as a temporary pause in potential violence. Every day, quietness was understood as provisional rather than reassuring, requiring constant psychological readiness. These experiences reflect the broader temporal dimension of collective trauma, in which the future is viewed through the possibility of recurrence rather than recovery. Participants\u0026rsquo; orientation toward what lay ahead was shaped by guardedness and caution, as the expectation of stability gave way to the anticipation of renewed disruption. Thus, collective trauma manifested not only in memory and present behaviour but also in how communities imagined and related to their future.\u003c/p\u003e \u003cdiv id=\"Sec11\" class=\"Section2\"\u003e \u003ch2\u003eFracturing of Social Trust and Communication\u003c/h2\u003e \u003cp\u003eThe study\u0026rsquo;s findings highlight a pervasive transformation in relationships with neighbours and community members. Political affiliation, once regarded as an abstract civic matter with limited impact on everyday interaction, became a source of suspicion and guarded engagement. Participants described becoming cautious about whom they greeted, visited, or spoke with, as political differences were perceived as posing a potential threat to personal safety. Importantly, participants\u0026rsquo; experiences were not uniform; several indicated that being perceived as aligned with the ruling party or the opposition shaped how others treated them and influenced the degree of fear they experienced. Familiar social bonds were strained as individuals began to reassess others through the lens of assumed political alignment. This shift altered the ease and spontaneity that previously characterised neighbourhood relations. As a result, ordinary social interactions became sites of careful calculation rather than expressions of trust and familiarity.\u003c/p\u003e \u003cp\u003eOne of the participants, a 45-year-old man from Dar es Salaam who identified himself as a member of the ruling party, stated as follows:\u003cdiv class=\"BlockQuote\"\u003e\u003cp\u003eYou start wondering who supports whom. The same person you shared tea with becomes someone you fear. I had a friend with whom we used to drink beer at my pub. Unfortunately, he was the first to show up at my pub and ask them to burn it. The reason is simply that I did not belong to his political party and that I am a member of the ruling party.\u003c/p\u003e\u003c/div\u003e\u003c/p\u003e \u003cp\u003eAnother participant, a female market vendor from Arusha, reflected as follows on the fracturing of social trust and communication:\u003cdiv class=\"BlockQuote\"\u003e\u003cp\u003ePolitics entered our relationships. We stopped greeting each other normally, especially when you belong to the ruling party. Ordinary social courtesies became strained as political identity shaped how we related to one another.\u003c/p\u003e\u003c/div\u003e\u003c/p\u003e \u003cp\u003eThese accounts show that suspicion was not evenly distributed but was influenced by how individuals were perceived politically. Participants who were known or assumed to belong to particular political groups described heightened targeting, mistrust, and social distancing from neighbours who had previously been close.\u003c/p\u003e \u003cp\u003e Participants also described how casual social interactions became calculated. Conversations were shortened, eye contact avoided, and topics carefully filtered. In the interviews, a young teacher from Mwanza shared the following:\u003cdiv class=\"BlockQuote\"\u003e\u003cp\u003eYou measure every word. You are not sure who will report what you say. Speaking casually no longer felt safe, as conversations carried the risk of unintended consequences.\u003c/p\u003e\u003c/div\u003e\u003c/p\u003e \u003cp\u003eFurther, the study findings show that this breakdown of trust extended into homes. Participants reported whispering during conversations and avoiding open discussion even with family members. This intrusion of fear into private spaces demonstrates how collective trauma penetrated the most intimate domains of daily life. One participant shared the following on the matter:\u003cdiv class=\"BlockQuote\"\u003e\u003cp\u003eEven inside the house, we whispered. The children asked why we speak that way. Our own home no longer felt like a place for open conversation.\u003c/p\u003e\u003c/div\u003e\u003c/p\u003e \u003cp\u003eSuch narratives indicate that trauma disrupted the communicative fabric of communities by altering how people spoke, what they felt able to say, and with whom they felt safe to converse. Ordinary conversations that once flowed freely became cautious, abbreviated, and strategically filtered to avoid perceived risk. In this context, silence emerged as a protective strategy, allowing individuals to shield themselves from potential misunderstandings, accusations, or political misidentifications. At the same time, this silence functioned as a symptom of deepening mistrust, signalling the erosion of relational confidence among neighbours, friends, and even family members. The absence of open dialogue prevented collective processing of shared experiences and reinforced emotional isolation within communal spaces. Over time, this pattern of guarded communication contributed to a social environment in which fear was not only experienced individually but also reproduced through constrained interactions and unspoken tensions.\u003c/p\u003e \u003cp\u003eFurthermore, another participant, a 60-year-old retired civil servant, explained the following: \u0026ldquo;We do not talk about it. It is like a wound everyone sees but pretends is not there.\u0026rdquo; Another participant added: \u0026ldquo;Speaking about it brings fear back, so people choose silence.\u0026rdquo;\u003c/p\u003e \u003cp\u003eHere, silence functioned as a social strategy with paradoxical effects. On one hand, it protected individuals from perceived risk by minimising the chances of being misunderstood, reported, or politically misidentified. On the other hand, this same silence obstructed opportunities for collective reflection and shared meaning-making about the events that had unfolded. Without open dialogue, community members were left to privately carry fears and interpretations that could not be tested, clarified, or eased through conversation. The result was a form of emotional isolation experienced within physically shared spaces, where people coexisted but did not genuinely connect. This pattern exemplifies a hallmark of collective trauma: social bonds are strained, and communal trust is weakened by mutual suspicion shaped by perceived political alignment.\u003c/p\u003e \u003c/div\u003e \u003cdiv id=\"Sec12\" class=\"Section2\"\u003e \u003ch2\u003ePolitical Identity as a Marker of Threat\u003c/h2\u003e \u003cp\u003eThe study found that, closely linked to social mistrust, was the perception that political identity had become a source of personal risk. Participants described how previously neutral forms of self-expression, such as clothing colours, casual remarks, or attendance at social gatherings, were suddenly interpreted through a political lens. Everyday choices that once carried no particular significance were now carefully monitored to avoid misidentification or suspicion. Individuals became acutely aware that how they dressed, where they appeared, and what they said in public could be read as indicators of political allegiance. This heightened awareness constrained self-expression and fostered a climate of caution in which personal identity was continuously managed to ensure safety. In this way, political meaning seeped into routine aspects of life, reshaping how individuals navigated public and social spaces. One of the participants, a young man in Dar es Salaam, explained as follows:\u003cdiv class=\"BlockQuote\"\u003e\u003cp\u003eYou could not wear certain colours. Even clothing felt political. What we wore became something to think about carefully before stepping outside.\u003c/p\u003e\u003c/div\u003e\u003c/p\u003e \u003cp\u003eAnother participant, a woman from Arusha, had the same and added the following:\u003cdiv class=\"BlockQuote\"\u003e\u003cp\u003ePeople were afraid of being labelled. You keep your opinions inside. It felt safer to remain silent than to risk being misunderstood.\u003c/p\u003e\u003c/div\u003e\u003c/p\u003e \u003cp\u003eThese accounts illustrate how once-neutral identity markers were reinterpreted as potential threats within a climate of fear and suspicion. Everyday acts of self-expression were constrained by the risk of misinterpretation, prompting individuals to carefully regulate how they appeared and behaved in public. Participants described adopting cautious routines, avoiding political discussions, and limiting their movement in communal spaces to reduce perceived risk. Such adjustments reveal how fear permeated ordinary social participation, narrowing the range of acceptable expression and interaction. This pattern demonstrates how collective trauma extends beyond emotional distress to reshape identity performance and diminish open civic engagement within affected communities.\u003c/p\u003e \u003c/div\u003e \u003cdiv id=\"Sec13\" class=\"Section2\"\u003e \u003ch2\u003eChildren Absorbing Communal Fear\u003c/h2\u003e \u003cp\u003eThe study findings revealed that participants frequently noted changes in children\u0026rsquo;s behaviour, even among those who had not witnessed violence directly. Parents and teachers observed that children became unusually quiet, easily startled by sudden sounds, and more attentive to the emotional tone of adult conversations. The findings indicated that some children asked why adults whispered when discussing certain topics, suggesting their sensitivity to the altered communicative environment. Others displayed signs of anxiety through restlessness, clinginess, or reluctance to move freely outside the home. These observations suggest that children absorbed the prevailing atmosphere of fear through observation rather than direct exposure. In this way, the community's emotional climate shaped children\u0026rsquo;s behaviour, demonstrating how collective trauma can be transmitted intergenerationally through everyday interactions. A mother from Mwanza shared:\u003cdiv class=\"BlockQuote\"\u003e\u003cp\u003eMy child began asking why we whisper when discussing elections. It made me realise that children were noticing our fear even when we tried to hide it.\u003c/p\u003e\u003c/div\u003e\u003c/p\u003e \u003cp\u003eIn addition, another participant, who is a father in Arusha, observed the following:\u003cdiv class=\"BlockQuote\"\u003e\u003cp\u003eChildren saw our fear. Even without seeing violence, they learned to be afraid. Our reactions taught them to expect danger in ordinary moments.\u003c/p\u003e\u003c/div\u003e\u003c/p\u003e \u003cp\u003eFurthermore, the findings showed that teachers reported that children became noticeably quieter and more anxious in class. Students were described as easily startled by sudden sounds and less willing to participate in discussions. These behavioural shifts suggested that the broader atmosphere of fear had permeated the classroom. One teacher explained as follows:\u003cdiv class=\"BlockQuote\"\u003e\u003cp\u003eStudents were easily startled. Loud sounds made them jump. The classroom no longer felt entirely separate from the atmosphere of fear outside.\u003c/p\u003e\u003c/div\u003e\u003c/p\u003e \u003cp\u003eThese accounts reveal that trauma was transmitted intergenerationally through the surrounding emotional climate rather than through direct exposure to violent events. Children appeared to internalise fear by observing adult behaviours such as whispering, heightened alertness, and cautious movement within the community. Through these everyday cues, they learned to associate ordinary situations with potential danger, even without witnessing the unrest themselves. This process illustrates how emotional responses within households and neighbourhoods serve as powerful channels for communicating fear. Consequently, collective trauma extends beyond those who directly experienced the events and becomes embedded in the developmental environments of younger generations.\u003c/p\u003e \u003c/div\u003e \u003cdiv id=\"Sec14\" class=\"Section2\"\u003e \u003ch2\u003eTrauma Embedded in Everyday Spaces\u003c/h2\u003e \u003cp\u003eIn line with this theme, the findings showed that participants described how particular streets, markets, and homes retained psychological meanings long after the visible unrest had subsided. The findings revealed that locations that were once associated with routine activity and familiarity came to be linked to memories of fear, chaos, or uncertainty. Passing through these spaces often triggered recollections of the events, producing unease even in the absence of current danger. Some participants reported avoiding specific routes or feeling uncomfortable in places where incidents had occurred. These spatial associations illustrate how trauma became anchored in the physical environment, altering how individuals experienced and navigated their surroundings. In this way, everyday spaces were transformed into enduring reminders of the unrest, embedding trauma within the geography of community life. To support this, a participant from Dar es Salaam remarked as follows:\u003cdiv class=\"BlockQuote\"\u003e\u003cp\u003eThat street corner no longer feels normal. I remember the chaos every time I pass. The place itself now carries the memory of what happened there.\u003c/p\u003e\u003c/div\u003e\u003c/p\u003e \u003cp\u003eAnother participant, a woman from Mwanza, further stated the following:\u003cdiv class=\"BlockQuote\"\u003e\u003cp\u003eHome did not feel like home during those days, and part of that feeling has remained. Even now, the memory lingers in how the space is experienced.\u003c/p\u003e\u003c/div\u003e\u003c/p\u003e \u003cp\u003eThese spatial memories illustrate how trauma became anchored in the physical environment of the community. Places that were once associated with routine, familiarity, and comfort were reinterpreted as reminders of fear and uncertainty. As a result, individuals no longer moved through these spaces with the same ease or sense of belonging. The emotional meanings attached to particular locations reshaped how participants navigated their neighbourhoods and experienced their surroundings. This spatial embedding reinforces the idea that collective trauma does not remain confined to memory but becomes inscribed into the environments that communities inhabit.\u003c/p\u003e \u003c/div\u003e \u003cdiv id=\"Sec15\" class=\"Section2\"\u003e \u003ch2\u003eIntegrative Interpretation\u003c/h2\u003e \u003cp\u003eThe study findings indicate that together, these categories show that the 2025 violence produced more than episodic distress. It altered time (anticipatory fear), relationships (mistrust and silence), identity (political suspicion), child development (learned fear), and space (traumatic reminders). Participants\u0026rsquo; narratives demonstrate that trauma became a shared social condition rather than an individual psychological response.\u003c/p\u003e \u003cp\u003eThe findings, therefore, provide empirical grounding for understanding collective trauma as a lived reality. Fear was shared, silence was communal, and mistrust shaped everyday interactions. Trauma was not confined to memory but persisted in how people slept, spoke, walked, dressed, and raised their children.\u003c/p\u003e \u003cp\u003eThese lived experiences illustrate how political violence reshaped the social and psychological landscape of affected Tanzanian communities, leaving imprints that extended far beyond the period of unrest.\u003c/p\u003e \u003c/div\u003e"},{"header":"Discussion","content":"\u003cp\u003eThe present study demonstrates that the psychological consequences of the 2025 post-election violence in Tanzania were not confined to discrete individuals who suffered bodily harm; instead, they diffused into a shared social condition that altered everyday life, social relations, and meanings attached to place and identity. Participants\u0026rsquo; narratives, characterised by anticipatory fear, breakdown of trust, pervasive silence, constrained expression of identity, children\u0026rsquo;s behavioural changes, and spatially anchored memories, resonate strongly with classic and contemporary formulations of collective trauma while adding empirical specificity from a Tanzanian context.\u003c/p\u003e \u003cp\u003eThe pattern of diffusion of fear documented here parallels research from other African contexts where politically-inflected violence produced community-level psychosocial effects. In Kenya, after the 2007\u0026ndash;2008 post-election violence, qualitative studies found that anxiety, hypervigilance, and erosion of neighbourhood trust affected not only direct victims but broader social networks and proximate residents (Kaminer et al., \u003cspan citationid=\"CR38\" class=\"CitationRef\"\u003e2008\u003c/span\u003e). As in the Kenyan accounts, Tanzanian participants described bodily hypervigilance and altered daily routines (e.g., sleeping with \u0026ldquo;one ear open,\u0026rdquo; monitoring sounds) that persisted long after immediate threats had receded. Similarly, research from South Africa demonstrates that prolonged political or community violence cultivates guarded communication and normalised suspicion, which hamper reconciliation and social repair (Hamber, \u003cspan citationid=\"CR32\" class=\"CitationRef\"\u003e2009\u003c/span\u003e). The Tanzanian narratives of curtailed greetings, shortened conversations, and the measurement of words align with these observations, suggesting a common pathway by which political unrest erodes the basic practices of sociality.\u003c/p\u003e \u003cp\u003eComparisons with Rwanda and other post-genocide settings are more nuanced but still informative. Rwandan studies show how traumatic events become embedded in spatial markers, commemorative practices, and intergenerational narratives, processes that anchor collective memory and identity (Eyerman, \u003cspan citationid=\"CR23\" class=\"CitationRef\"\u003e2001\u003c/span\u003e; Tankink \u0026amp; Slegh, \u003cspan citationid=\"CR54\" class=\"CitationRef\"\u003e2017\u003c/span\u003e). In the Tanzanian data, participants\u0026rsquo; descriptions of particular streets, market corners, and homes as persistent reminders of unrest echo the idea of spatial memory: places that once signified safety acquire affective meanings that cue distress. From a psychological anthropological perspective, these places become symbolic carriers of memory through which communities continually interpret past violence in present space (Good, \u003cspan citationid=\"CR31\" class=\"CitationRef\"\u003e1994\u003c/span\u003e). Although the scale and historical specificity differ from genocide contexts, the mechanism, trauma becoming part of the symbolic and material landscape, is comparable.\u003c/p\u003e \u003cp\u003eWhere the Tanzanian case makes a distinct contribution is by demonstrating these dynamics in an environment characterised by episodic but intense electoral unrest rather than protracted war or genocide. Many collective trauma theories were developed from large-scale conflicts (Alexander et al., \u003cspan citationid=\"CR3\" class=\"CitationRef\"\u003e2004\u003c/span\u003e; Erikson, \u003cspan citationid=\"CR21\" class=\"CitationRef\"\u003e1976\u003c/span\u003e). The present findings show that similar social processes, anticipatory fear, ruptured trust, silence as protection, spatial embedding, and intergenerational transmission, can arise even when the violence is temporally bounded but socially pervasive. This aligns with literature on continuous traumatic stress and contexts of recurring instability (Kaminer et al., \u003cspan citationid=\"CR38\" class=\"CitationRef\"\u003e2008\u003c/span\u003e), and extends it by showing how state actions (curfews, communication blackouts) and the symbolic politicisation of everyday markers (colours, clothing) accelerate the communal embedding of fear.\u003c/p\u003e \u003cp\u003eFurthermore, the anticipatory fear and hypervigilant living theme in this study aligns with Erikson\u0026rsquo;s (\u003cspan citationid=\"CR21\" class=\"CitationRef\"\u003e1976\u003c/span\u003e) argument that collective trauma damages the \u0026ldquo;tissues of social life,\u0026rdquo; including temporal orientation: the future is no longer imagined as secure but as potentially threatening. Anticipatory fear reframes temporal horizons, making days feel precarious, and is conceptually akin to Hirschberger\u0026rsquo;s (\u003cspan citationid=\"CR35\" class=\"CitationRef\"\u003e2018\u003c/span\u003e) emphasis on trauma\u0026rsquo;s social construction of threat that projects into the future. The bodily manifestations of this anticipation (sleep disturbance, heightened startle) show how collective threat becomes embodied across communities rather than remaining an individual psychological state.\u003c/p\u003e \u003cp\u003e \u003cb\u003eFracturing of Social Trust and Communication.\u003c/b\u003e \u003c/p\u003e \u003cp\u003eThe breakdown of convivial practices and guarded speech align directly with Alexander et al.\u0026rsquo;s (\u003cspan citationid=\"CR3\" class=\"CitationRef\"\u003e2004\u003c/span\u003e) thesis that trauma alters collective identity and shared meanings. Where trust erodes, collective identity fragments, and social norms governing interaction change. Silence, in this context, functions not only as protective behaviour but also as a form of cultural trauma processing through which communities manage fear by restricting speech and interaction (Hinton, \u003cspan citationid=\"CR34\" class=\"CitationRef\"\u003e2016\u003c/span\u003e). The social dynamics described, neighbours becoming suspicious, conversational avoidance, illustrate how trauma transforms the micro-practices that sustain social cohesion.\u003c/p\u003e \u003cp\u003e \u003cb\u003ePolitical Identity as a Marker of Threat.\u003c/b\u003e \u003c/p\u003e \u003cp\u003eThe politicisation of everyday markers (colours, clothing) indicates that identity performance itself was reconstituted under conditions of perceived risk. Political identity became a heuristic through which individuals assessed safety, deciding whom to trust, greet, or avoid. This finding is consistent with research showing that, under threat, social categories become salient diagnostic cues for navigating danger (Hirschberger, \u003cspan citationid=\"CR35\" class=\"CitationRef\"\u003e2018\u003c/span\u003e). In the Tanzanian case, perceived political alignment reshaped everyday interaction patterns, as individuals adjusted speech, movement, and appearance to avoid misidentification. Identity was no longer expressed freely but strategically managed under conditions of uncertainty.\u003c/p\u003e \u003cp\u003e \u003cb\u003eChildren Absorbing Communal Fear.\u003c/b\u003e \u003c/p\u003e \u003cp\u003eIntergenerational transmission of fear through emotional climate rather than direct exposure reflects psychosocial theories about social learning and the familial embedding of trauma (de Jong, \u003cspan citationid=\"CR19\" class=\"CitationRef\"\u003e2010\u003c/span\u003e). Children\u0026rsquo;s altered behaviour and heightened startle responses indicate that collective trauma\u0026rsquo;s effects extend into developmental trajectories, potentially producing long-term consequences for socialisation, schooling, and future civic engagement. This echoes findings from other settings in which children internalise communal anxieties (Kaminer et al., \u003cspan citationid=\"CR38\" class=\"CitationRef\"\u003e2008\u003c/span\u003e) and suggests the need for interventions attentive to family and school systems.\u003c/p\u003e \u003cp\u003e \u003cb\u003eTrauma Embedded in Everyday Spaces.\u003c/b\u003e \u003c/p\u003e \u003cp\u003eThe anchoring of traumatic memory in locations aligns with literature on spatial memory and place attachment (Eyerman, \u003cspan citationid=\"CR23\" class=\"CitationRef\"\u003e2001\u003c/span\u003e; Tankink \u0026amp; Slegh, \u003cspan citationid=\"CR54\" class=\"CitationRef\"\u003e2017\u003c/span\u003e). From a psychological anthropological lens, these spaces form symbolic landscapes through which communities remember and interpret violence (Good, \u003cspan citationid=\"CR31\" class=\"CitationRef\"\u003e1994\u003c/span\u003e). Places function as repositories of affective meaning; when associated with unrest, they sustain distress and shape patterns of movement and interaction. In practical terms, this spatial embedding means that rebuilding efforts must prioritise place-based healing over individual therapy alone.\u003c/p\u003e \u003cdiv id=\"Sec17\" class=\"Section2\"\u003e \u003ch2\u003eHow the findings advance understanding of collective trauma\u003c/h2\u003e \u003cp\u003eThe study advances collective trauma scholarship in three interrelated ways. First, it demonstrates that episodic electoral unrest, even when geographically localised, can produce social processes conventionally associated with protracted conflict, thereby qualifying temporal assumptions embedded in some theorising. Second, it elucidates mechanisms of social transmission (silence as cultural processing, spatial anchoring, identity politicisation) that explain how individual fear consolidates into collective patterns. Third, it foregrounds children and everyday spaces as critical sites of collective trauma, suggesting that interventions focused only on adults or clinical diagnoses may miss key vectors of persistence.\u003c/p\u003e \u003c/div\u003e \u003cdiv id=\"Sec18\" class=\"Section2\"\u003e \u003ch2\u003ePractical and theoretical implications\u003c/h2\u003e \u003cp\u003eTheoretically, these findings support an expanded view of collective trauma that emphasises social mechanisms and places less weight on the necessity of mass physical victimisation for trauma to become collective. In practice, they point toward multilevel interventions: community dialogue to rebuild trust, school-based psychosocial programs, and place-based reparative practices. Because silence functions both protectively and as a form of cultural processing, interventions should be trauma-informed and culturally sensitive, enabling safe collective meaning-making without exposing participants to renewed risk\u003c/p\u003e \u003c/div\u003e \u003cdiv id=\"Sec19\" class=\"Section2\"\u003e \u003ch2\u003eImplications for Policy and Intervention\u003c/h2\u003e \u003cp\u003eThe findings of this study show that the psychosocial consequences of the 2025 post-election violence in Tanzania extended beyond individual distress and became embedded in social relations, communication patterns, children\u0026rsquo;s emotional development, and the meanings attached to everyday spaces. Participants described sleeping lightly, whispering inside homes, avoiding neighbours, managing how they dressed, and observing how children absorbed fear from adult behaviour. These lived experiences indicate that policy and intervention responses must move beyond generic psychosocial support and instead be directly grounded in the specific patterns revealed in the data. Effective responses should therefore address the social, intergenerational, communicative, and spatial dimensions of collective trauma identified in this study.\u003c/p\u003e \u003cp\u003eThe theme of children absorbing communal fear points to the need for school-based psychosocial support. Participants described children becoming easily startled, asking why adults whispered about elections, and displaying anxiety despite not witnessing violence directly. Schools can therefore function as stabilising environments where safety and normalcy are re-established. The Ministry of Education, working with guidance and counselling units, should integrate trauma-informed practices into classrooms. Teachers can be trained to recognise signs of anxiety and withdrawal, while structured conversations, drawing, storytelling, and play-based techniques can help children process emotions learned from the emotional climate at home.\u003c/p\u003e \u003cp\u003eThe theme of the breakdown of community trust calls for the establishment of structured community reconciliation forums. Participants described neighbours becoming suspicious, greetings becoming guarded, and friendships breaking down along perceived political lines, including accounts of a ruling party member whose pub was targeted. This erosion of trust cannot be addressed through individual counselling alone. Local leaders, community development officers, religious leaders, and civil society organisations should facilitate non-partisan community dialogues, drawing from familiar practices such as \u003cem\u003ebaraza la wananchi\u003c/em\u003e. These forums can create safe spaces for communities to collectively reflect on fear, mistrust, and the process of rebuilding relationships.\u003c/p\u003e \u003cp\u003eThe theme of emotional silence and suppression highlights the need for smaller, facilitated dialogue platforms beyond formal forums. Participants noted that people avoided discussing events because speaking about them revived fear, leading to whispering even in homes. While silence protected individuals, it also prevented communal healing. Community-based organisations can establish small, voluntary discussion groups within women\u0026rsquo;s groups, youth groups, and faith-based gatherings, where trained facilitators guide conversations in a psychologically safe manner. Such spaces can help transform silence into collective reflection.\u003c/p\u003e \u003cp\u003eThe theme of anticipatory fear and hypervigilance suggests the importance of community-level psychosocial awareness. Participants described ongoing bodily alertness, sleep disturbance, and exaggerated responses to sound long after unrest had subsided. Public health messaging through radio, community meetings, and outreach programs can educate residents about common stress reactions and coping strategies. Integrating basic mental health screening into primary healthcare services in affected areas can also help identify individuals needing professional support.\u003c/p\u003e \u003cp\u003eThe theme of political identity as a source of suspicion indicates the need for civic education initiatives that promote tolerance and peaceful political coexistence. Participants described how clothing colours, speech, and perceived political alignment influenced their treatment, prompting them to carefully manage their identity in public. Civil society and local leaders can promote non-partisan civic education through community gatherings and religious institutions to reinforce neighbourly relations despite political differences.\u003c/p\u003e \u003cp\u003eFinally, the theme of trauma embedded in everyday spaces calls for place-based healing. Participants associated certain streets, homes, and public areas with memories of unrest and avoided them. Community-led activities, such as cleanup events, public art, or shared gatherings in these spaces, can help reassign positive meanings and support psychological restoration.\u003c/p\u003e \u003cp\u003eTogether, these interventions demonstrate that repairing collective trauma requires rebuilding trust, restoring communication, supporting children\u0026rsquo;s resilience, and reclaiming everyday spaces. Grounding responses in participants\u0026rsquo; lived experiences ensures that policy moves from generic support to contextually relevant strategies for social healing.\u003c/p\u003e \u003c/div\u003e \u003cdiv id=\"Sec20\" class=\"Section2\"\u003e \u003ch2\u003eLimitations and directions for future research\u003c/h2\u003e \u003cp\u003eWhile this study provides in-depth insight into how collective trauma was experienced in the aftermath of the 2025 post-election violence, its findings should be interpreted in light of several important limitations. First, the data were drawn exclusively from participants in three urban centres, Dar es Salaam, Arusha, and Mwanza, where unrest, curfews, and security presence were most visible. Experiences in rural areas or smaller communities, where social dynamics, exposure levels, and communication patterns may differ, were not captured in this study. As such, the findings may not fully represent how collective trauma unfolded outside urban settings.\u003c/p\u003e \u003cp\u003eSecond, the study employed a qualitative design to capture participants\u0026rsquo; experiences within weeks of the unrest. While this approach allowed for rich descriptions of immediate psychosocial effects, it does not show how these experiences may evolve, diminish, or intensify over time. A longitudinal design would be necessary to understand the trajectory of collective trauma and whether patterns of fear, silence, mistrust, and spatial memory persist, transform, or resolve.\u003c/p\u003e \u003cp\u003eThird, although the study proposes contextually grounded policy and intervention implications based on participants\u0026rsquo; narratives, it did not empirically test the effectiveness of these interventions. Future research should therefore evaluate how community dialogues, school-based psychosocial programs, civic education, and place-based healing initiatives function in practice and whether they meaningfully contribute to restoring social trust and psychological well-being.\u003c/p\u003e \u003cp\u003eFinally, comparative research across different forms of electoral unrest and political contexts would help clarify which contextual factors, such as state suppression, media blackouts, or intensity of violence, most strongly contribute to the social embedding of trauma. Such work would strengthen understanding of how collective trauma emerges across varying sociopolitical environments.\u003c/p\u003e \u003c/div\u003e"},{"header":"Conclusion","content":"\u003cp\u003eThis study set out to understand how the 2025 post-election violence in Tanzania was experienced not only as a series of distressing events but as a social condition that reshaped everyday life within affected communities. The findings suggest that trauma extended beyond direct exposure to violence and became embedded in patterns of anticipation, communication, identity, child development, and spatial experience. Participants\u0026rsquo; narratives revealed how fear was shared, silence became communal, trust was strained, and ordinary places acquired new psychological meanings. These patterns provide empirical grounding for understanding how the aftermath of political violence may evolve into forms of collective trauma consistent with foundational theoretical perspectives (Erikson, \u003cspan citationid=\"CR21\" class=\"CitationRef\"\u003e1976\u003c/span\u003e; Alexander et al., \u003cspan citationid=\"CR3\" class=\"CitationRef\"\u003e2004\u003c/span\u003e).\u003c/p\u003e \u003cp\u003eThe study offers insight from three urban communities into how collective trauma can emerge in contexts characterised by episodic but intense electoral unrest rather than protracted war or genocide. Much existing theorisation has been grounded in large-scale conflicts; however, the present findings suggest that similar social processes, anticipatory fear, erosion of trust, silence as social protection, intergenerational transmission of anxiety, and spatial anchoring of memory\u0026mdash;may arise even when violence is temporally limited but socially pervasive. By identifying the mechanisms through which individual fear appeared to consolidate into shared social patterns, the study contributes to ongoing discussions about how collective trauma is formed, maintained, and lived in everyday contexts.\u003c/p\u003e \u003cp\u003eEqually significant is the study\u0026rsquo;s practical relevance. By grounding analysis in participants\u0026rsquo; lived experiences from Dar es Salaam, Arusha, and Mwanza, the research provides context-specific insight into how communities navigated the emotional aftermath of political unrest. These insights have implications for psychosocial intervention, community reconciliation, school-based support, and place-based healing initiatives. Addressing collective trauma in this context may require more than individual clinical care; it may involve rebuilding trust, restoring communication, supporting children\u0026rsquo;s emotional resilience, and reclaiming everyday spaces as sites of safety.\u003c/p\u003e \u003cp\u003eBeyond Tanzania, the study suggests that the psychosocial impact of electoral tensions and civic restrictions should not be overlooked, even when events do not meet conventional definitions of armed conflict. Political violence, even when brief, can leave lasting imprints on the social and psychological fabric of communities. Recognising these patterns may assist policymakers and practitioners in designing responses that attend to both individual suffering and the repair of communal bonds.\u003c/p\u003e \u003cp\u003eIn illuminating how collective trauma was lived, narrated, and socially embedded, this study provides empirical grounding for a more nuanced understanding of the psychological consequences of political violence and highlights the value of attending to community voices in shaping theory, policy, and practice.\u003c/p\u003e "},{"header":"Declarations","content":"\u003cp\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eFunding Statement:\u0026nbsp;\u003c/strong\u003e\u003c/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eThe authors received no financial support for the research, authorship, and/or publication of this article.\u003c/p\u003e\u003cdiv id=\"Sec22\" class=\"Section2\"\u003e \u003ch2\u003eFinancial Support\u003c/h2\u003e \u003cp\u003eThis research received no specific grant from any funding agency, commercial sector, or not-for-profit sector.\u003c/p\u003e \u003c/div\u003e\u003cp\u003e \u003ch2\u003eAuthor Contribution\u003c/h2\u003e\u003cp\u003eEmanuel Ismael Maphie is the sole author of this manuscript and was responsible for all aspects of the study. He conceptualised the study, developed the theoretical framework, and designed the research methodology. He conducted participant recruitment, data collection, transcription, translation, and thematic analysis. He interpreted the findings in relation to collective trauma theory and the Tanzanian sociocultural context. He drafted, revised, and finalised the manuscript, including the literature review, discussion, and policy implications. He also managed ethical approvals and reflexivity processes and ensured the trustworthiness and integrity of the research throughout the study.\u003c/p\u003e"},{"header":"References","content":"\u003cp\u003eAlexander, J. C., Eyerman, R., Giesen, B., Smelser, N. J., \u0026amp; Sztompka, P. (2004). Cultural trauma \u003c/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eand collective identity. University of California Press.\u003c/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eAmerican Psychiatric Association. (2013). 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Qualitative \u003c/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eResearch, 4(2), 161\u0026ndash;178. https://doi.org/10.1177/1468794104044430\u003c/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eThe Guardian. (2025, October 31). About 700 killed in Tanzania election protests, opposition says. \u003c/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eThe Guardian. https://www.theguardian.com/world/2025/oct/31/tanzania-election-protests-opposition\u003c/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eUnited Republic of Tanzania. (2024). National plan of action to end violence against women and \u003c/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003echildren (NPA-VAWC II 2024/25\u0026ndash;2028/29). Ministry of Health, Community Development, Gender, Elderly and Children.\u003c/p\u003e"}],"fulltextSource":"","fullText":"","funders":[],"hasAdminPriorityOnWorkflow":false,"hasManuscriptDocX":true,"hasOptedInToPreprint":true,"hasPassedJournalQc":"","hasAnyPriority":false,"hideJournal":true,"highlight":"","institution":"","isAcceptedByJournal":false,"isAuthorSuppliedPdf":false,"isDeskRejected":"","isHiddenFromSearch":false,"isInQc":false,"isInWorkflow":false,"isPdf":false,"isPdfUpToDate":true,"isWithdrawnOrRetracted":false,"journal":{"display":true,"email":"[email protected]","identity":"researchsquare","isNatureJournal":false,"hasQc":true,"allowDirectSubmit":true,"externalIdentity":"","sideBox":"","snPcode":"","submissionUrl":"/submission","title":"Research Square","twitterHandle":"researchsquare","acdcEnabled":true,"dfaEnabled":false,"editorialSystem":"","reportingPortfolio":"","inReviewEnabled":false,"inReviewRevisionsEnabled":true},"keywords":"collective trauma, political violence, lived experience, elections, Tanzania, qualitative research","lastPublishedDoi":"10.21203/rs.3.rs-8741086/v1","lastPublishedDoiUrl":"https://doi.org/10.21203/rs.3.rs-8741086/v1","license":{"name":"CC BY 4.0","url":"https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/"},"manuscriptAbstract":"\u003cp\u003eResearch on political violence often centres on clinical diagnoses such as PTSD, overlooking how communities collectively experience and internalise trauma. Following the 2025 post-election violence in Tanzania, many communities reported persistent fear, mistrust, silence, and emotional disruption long after unrest subsided. This qualitative phenomenological study explored the lived experiences of both direct survivors and neighbouring residents exposed to prolonged uncertainty. Semi-structured interviews with 36 participants from Dar es Salaam, Arusha, and Mwanza were analysed using Braun and Clarke\u0026rsquo;s thematic analysis.\u003c/p\u003e \u003cp\u003eSix interconnected themes emerged: anticipation of violence, breakdown of trust, emotional silence, children absorbing fear, political identity as suspicion, and trauma embedded in everyday spaces. These patterns reveal how trauma extended beyond individuals into the collective social fabric. The findings show how political violence can evolve into collective trauma that reshapes social relations, perceptions of safety, and community identity, with implications for psychosocial intervention and reconciliation.\u003c/p\u003e","manuscriptTitle":"Trauma in the Tissues of Social Life: Community Experiences after the 2025 Post-Election Violence in Tanzania","msid":"","msnumber":"","nonDraftVersions":[{"code":1,"date":"2026-02-17 12:22:28","doi":"10.21203/rs.3.rs-8741086/v1","editorialEvents":[{"type":"communityComments","content":0}],"status":"published","journal":{"display":true,"email":"[email protected]","identity":"researchsquare","isNatureJournal":false,"hasQc":true,"allowDirectSubmit":true,"externalIdentity":"","sideBox":"","snPcode":"","submissionUrl":"/submission","title":"Research Square","twitterHandle":"researchsquare","acdcEnabled":true,"dfaEnabled":false,"editorialSystem":"","reportingPortfolio":"","inReviewEnabled":false,"inReviewRevisionsEnabled":true}}],"origin":"","ownerIdentity":"83ee464a-1d5c-478c-aa41-06969964c410","owner":[],"postedDate":"February 17th, 2026","published":true,"recentEditorialEvents":[],"rejectedJournal":[],"revision":"","amendment":"","status":"posted","subjectAreas":[],"tags":[],"updatedAt":"2026-03-22T15:54:16+00:00","versionOfRecord":[],"versionCreatedAt":"2026-02-17 12:22:28","video":"","vorDoi":"","vorDoiUrl":"","workflowStages":[]},"version":"v1","identity":"rs-8741086","journalConfig":"researchsquare"},"__N_SSP":true},"page":"/article/[identity]/[[...version]]","query":{"redirect":"/article/rs-8741086","identity":"rs-8741086","version":["v1"]},"buildId":"XKTyCvWXoU3ODBz1xrDgd","isFallback":false,"isExperimentalCompile":false,"dynamicIds":[84888],"gssp":true,"scriptLoader":[]}