Segalo 2017
Segalo 2017
Segalo 2017
17159/2309-8708/2017/n54a3
Tshoboloko
Saekholoji mo Aforika e nnile e bile e tswelela go nna
kgang e e tlhorang boroko sebaka se seleele. Barutegi
ba le bantsi ba bontshitse botlhokwa jwa go lemogwa
ga ditsela tse di mmalwa le go nna mo lefatsheng le
go tlhaloganya mathata a gore batho ba bontsha jang
bokao jwa lebopo la bone. Tsiboso ya go tlhaloganya le go
tlhalosa mogopolo wa go nna botho ka bolefatshe lotlhe
go fokotsa le go tlhakatlhakanya mathata a maitemogelo
a botho ka nako, sebaka le tikologo. Pampiri e e sekaseka
tlhokego ya go tsaya seabe sa dipuo (tsa tlholego) ka
tlhoafalo fa re tlhoka go akanya saekholoji (Aforika) e e
elang tlhoko lemorago mo e diragadiwang gone le go
rutiwa ka tlhoafalo. Go feta foo, re gatelela botlhokwa
jwa go lokolola kharikhulamo ya saekholoji moo se se
Open Rubric
bonwang se le mo molaong go sa akarediweng ga ditsela dingwe tsa go itse go fetogang
go nna kgwetlho.
Problematising Psychology
Re qala ka ho ipotsa dipotso hore na ebe ha re ngola ka bohlokwa ba maleme a Setho
thutong ya botsebi ho tsa kelello, maikutlo, le maphelo a batho, re ka etsa jwalo ka leleme
ya sekgowa na! Lefapha la thuto e phahameng le dibaka tsa thuto di sa ntse di le morao
ho amoheleng bohlokwa ba tsebo e arolelanwang ka maleme a Setho a Afrika Borwa. Ke
ka lebaka leo re ngolang pampiri ena ke leme la sekgowa ho hlahisa tlhokeho ya hore
re emelle morao re ipotse hore na e be ke eng eo re e lahlehelwang ka ho se sebedise
maleme a Setho thutong. Re ngola tjena re batla ho hlahisa tletlebo – re re thuto eo re
e fumaneng e thatafatsa maipolelo ka puo tsa bo rona. Re etsa boipiletso hore jwalo ka
ditsebi mafapheng a thuto re lokela ho etella phetoho pele, hoba phetoho e qala ka rona.
We start with the above assertion as a way to situate ourselves and to explain the
importance of indigenous languages in academic spaces. We deemed it fit to do so in
one of our indigenous languages, Sesotho. Ideally this paper should be written in an
indigenous language however we are cognisant of the limitations we are still contending
with; and these include publication spaces/allowance for non-English texts in many of
our journals (including this one). One of the things we wrestled with was the translation
of the very concept of Psychology. This paper therefore wrestles with the issue of what an
African Psychology should entail in general, and what the role of indigenous languages
is in these debates.
We start this paper by acknowledging that the call for moving away from solely relying
on Eurocentric perspectives when teaching and practising Psychology is not new (see
Nsamenang, 1995; Naidoo, 1996; Ya Azibo, 1996; Akbar; 2004; to name a few). Our aim is
to open up conversations on the importance of indigenous languages and the role they
play in how we come to know and define the world. As we continue journeying towards
Africanising and decolonising psychology, we deem it critical to have indigenous
languages as an integral part of the process.
Psychology in Africa, like other knowledge forms, is often treated as though its origins
are distinctly Western. This has been made believable by the systematic erasure and
inferiorisation of indigenous knowledge systems which began with colonialism. African
knowledges, which sustained societies for centuries before colonialism, were brutally
disrupted by the imposition of European knowledges and cultures and various spheres
were left without a trace of indigenous wisdom. Mignolo (2011) argues that this process
was made possible by the inferiorisation and exclusion of indigenous languages in the
professionalised world. Mignolo (2011) further asserts that the exclusion of indigenous
As alluded to above, if Africans are to respond to the realities of their context, the manner
in which reality is perceived has to change drastically to allow multiple voices. This could
redress the misconception that only the western forms of knowing are valid. Mignolo
(2011) calls this disruption an epistemic disobedience and it relates to Nyamnjoh’s (2013)
notion of epistemological conviviality which he describes as an openness to various
forms of knowledge. Both Epistemic disobedience and epistemological conviviality
advocate for the rejection of the colonial reality imposed by the western world. By
rejecting the western realities, the colonized people would be refusing to subscribe to
the notion that western knowledge systems are universal.
The rejection of western ways of knowing and relating to the world would be
challenging the violence which has characterized relations between the colonizer
and the colonized. This is the violence which Fanon (1986), wa Thiongo’ (1986), and
Biko (2004) have written about extensively. According to these three authors both
the physical and the structural forms of violence have made the domination of the
In a talk he gave at the first international conference of the Forum of African Psychology
(conference held at the University of Limpopo, March 2013) Nwoye described African
psychology as a field of study interested in investigating and understanding what it is
to be African. It is interested in understanding the psychological capital of the African
people. It is a psychology that has a pre (before the colonialists came) and post-colonial
reference to it; it moves beyond understanding a one-person subjectivity to a collective
understanding of people. It is a field of study interested in theory building, research,
critical practice and documentation. It has come into being to move beyond the limitations
that it perceives within mainstream psychology. Furthermore, African psychology values
multiple epistemologies as all instrumental in understanding behaviour and lived
experiences. It is not limited to what is deemed objective, measurable and universal.
The African in African psychology derives from its focus and attention to the African
content. It aims to understand the African people from the past, those in the present
and the acknowledgement of the diverse realities they exist within (Nwoye, 2015). It
acknowledges the multiracial aspect of what or who is deemed African. It comes in as a
form of protest that aims to fulfil African people’s need for wholeness. It is also critical
to note that there are multiple perspectives in how African psychology is defined and
understood (see Makhubela, 2016; Ratele, 2016; Nwoye, 2017). For example, Ratele (2016)
proposes four African psychologies which he asserts are critical as they allow space for
therapists, researchers and teachers to ‘choose’ orientations that speak to their area
of focus (psychology in Africa, cultural African psychology, critical African psychology,
and psychological African studies). This “slicing” up of African Psychology is deemed
problematic by Nwoye (2017: 5) who argues that we need to “develop a postcolonial
academic field of African Psychology” and not focus only on the individual parts of what
forms African psychology. These multiple views force/afford us the opportunity to engage
In wrestling with the issue of indigenous languages, we asked ourselves this question:
Should we develop our indigenous languages for psychology purposes or should we
engage with our indigenous languages and in them find ways in which psychology can
be defined? We sought answers from language scholars such as Ngugi wa Thing’o. In a
talk he gave at the University of the Witwatersrand (2 March 2017) Ngugi wa Thong’o
asserted that there is a need to centre African languages and not allow these languages
to be on the margins or below European languages. There needs to be a shift from
perceiving European languages as keys that are there to unlock possibilities to a better
life as this affirms the fallacy of these languages as superior. wa Thiong’o asked: How
can languages spoken by only ten percent of the world be deemed as superior and as
a normative measure of excellence? This assumes European languages to be superior.
This perception and assumption of superiority is not an accident, but a legitimate aim
of the conquest mission. Language did (does) to the mind what the sword did to the
body, and thus being stripped of one’s language wounds and hampers the ways in which
The effort to make psychology respond to the African condition which is rooted in
colonialism remains complicated. We argue for a need to make indigenous languages
the main driver in such efforts. We believe that by putting indigenous languages at
the centre we would be digging deep to ignored knowledge systems that have always
shaped the well-being of African people. Languages would allow us to recover lost
wisdom and allow us to reclaim our right to self-definition. This would allow Africans
to view the world with a lens that refuses to recognize the inbuilt superiorities of the
colonial world and will cause colonial languages to lose significance. By continuing
to treat colonial languages with superiority we are affirming that the colonial
world should shape who we are and what we consider as valid knowledge and we
are declaring the deliberate mission to inferiorise indigenous life successful. It is
important to remember that indigenous languages in Africa, as wa Thiong’o (1986),
Bamgbose (2011), Ramoupi, (2011), and Biko, (2004) state, were placed in the position
of inferiority deliberately by colonial powers whose aim was to dominate African
people. Our failure, therefore, to not expose those roots would allow the continued
domination of Africans by the colonial world.
The western scientific world’s refusal to treat indigenous knowledges with respect
is well captured by Nsamenang (2007) who exposes the manner in which the West
has dehumanized African people through an imposed education system which has
disregarded Africa’s world view. Nsamenang (2007) argues that many programmes
designed (often by the United Nations) to respond to the African condition often fails
because the West is only attempting to fit Africa into its reality. This is a notion also
highlighted by Shahjahan (2011) who reminds us of the importance of looking into what
others bring with them, what they have to offer and the need to look at how spaces
for acknowledgement can be created. The academia in general and the discipline of
psychology in particular has been guilty of privileging other forms of knowledge over
others. For a long time, African epistemologies were absent (and in many ways continue
to be absent) in the psychology classrooms.
Efforts made by the many African governments to include indigenous knowledges have
been more concerned with appending these knowledges to the existing western-defined
sciences and expecting them to fit into western standards of what science is. A clear
example of this lack of disruption are the attempts by the South African Department of
We need to think about the possibility for pluriversality which allows collective meaning
making and situated knowing, taking into consideration the particularities of each
context. Local histories and various forms of knowledges that reside within communities
will contribute towards our understanding of how people approach their challenges and
seek solutions. Nwoye (2015: 5) assists us by connecting this argument to psychology
when he argues that “the inclusion of African Psychology in our university curriculum
holds enormous potential for enriching and extending the contributions of the discipline
of psychology and a means of breaking away from the spells of colonialism and
white-centredness in the study of psychology in Africa. In this way the introduction of
African Psychology as an academic discipline in African universities is perceived by many
African students and scholars as a process of decolonization as well as reflecting one
Concluding remarks
“African Psychology is both like and unlike the project of human self-reflection;
a preoccupation that is found wherever human beings exist, but something that is
different from the scientific project of a psychology created in the 19th century. Hence,
over and above the idea of African Psychology as entailing the project of human
self-reflection is its further social-cultural mission to promote a systematic
understanding of the human condition and culture in post-apartheid Africa”
(Nwoye, 2015: 12).
We close with the above quote from Nwoye as his sentiment successfully captures the
importance of reimagining psychology as we know and practice it today. It is critical
to think about the role of psychology today and embrace the possibility of allowing
space for multiple and alternative ways of teaching and practising it. Many students
have become vocal about the importance of an education that speaks to their lived
realities; many are challenging and rejecting knowledge that undermines that which
Sigqibe ekubeni sivale ngamazwi ka Nwoye acatshulwe apha ngasentla kuba uwubeka
ngokucacileyo umba wokubaluleka kokuqulunkqa ngokutsha izifundo ze Psychology
ngokokuyazi nokuyi sebenzisa kwethu. Kubalulekile ukucinga ngendima emayidlalwe
yi Psychology kulemihla siphila kuyo kwa kunye nokwamkelwa koluvo loku vumela
iindlela ezahlukileyo zokufundisa nokusetyesiswa kwe Psychology. Abafundi abaninzi
bathetha ngokuphandle ngokubaluleka kwe mfundo ethathela ingqalelo indlela abaphila
ngayo: uninzi lwabo bacela umngeni bekwa khaba ulwazi olujongelaphantsi ulwazi
abaza beluphethe kumagumbi okufundela. Okukunxakama kwabafundi kubonakalisa
ukuba kukho isidingo sokuchitha kuphinde kwakhiwe ngokutsha izixhobo ezinokunceda
ekujongeni ngamehlo amatsha indela iPsychology ebonwangayo. IPsychology yama
Afrika inyanizelisa ukuziphicotha komntu siqusakhe kwakunye nokuziphicotha njenge
lungu lequmrhu lwabanye abantu abanoxanduva lokufundisa uluntu ngokubanzi
ngonxulumelelwano loluntu jikelele. Ngoko ke kubalulekile ukuba sizibhekelise kwindlela
esiqhele ukuzenza ngayo izinto, ukuba ngokwenene sizimisele ukubanomfanekiso we
Psychology esinokuthi yeya Ma-Afrika kwaye ekwa hlonipha, yamkele iinkalo-ngeenkalo
uluntu oluphuma kuzo ngendlela engafuni sithiye kwaye sahlulahlule izinto ukwenzala
ubomi babantu abathile bubelula.
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