Re-imagining psychology: An Africanist Perspective
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Authors
Segalo, Puleng
Issue Date
2020
Type
Article
Language
en
Keywords
Afrocentricity , African spirituality , Political self , Africanist , Bophelo
Alternative Title
Abstract
African nations suffered enslavement, genocide, oppression, colonialism and
exploitation. The suffering that African people endured as a result of this
affected various aspects of their lives such as their knowledge systems, how
they relate to the environment, their spirituality, their history and their overall
sense of being. This multidimensional violence was entrenched through the
colonial education system, among other things. The university as an institution
functions as a site for such violence. At universities, disciplines such as
psychology have been used to pathologise people and have contributed to
black people being seen as ‘less than’ human. Psychological and intellectual
attacks on black people from disciplines such as psychology have played a
part in constructing a narrative about African thought and intellect through the
use of psychological research that demeaned, undermined and marginalised
African ways of living and thinking. In this paper, we argue that for
psychological healing to take place, we need to draw from African spirituality,
in particular, and African knowledge systems, in general. We draw from a
number of Africanist scholars to situate our work, and focus on works of
scholars who have been contemplating ways in which African knowledge can
assist in dealing with challenges that black people are confronted with at
universities and in their communities.
Description
Citation
Simango, J. & Segalo, P. (2020) Re-imagining psychology: An Africanist perspective. Alternations, 27(1), 67-84. doi.org/10.29086/2519-5476/2020/v27n1a5