Psychology in Ghana Revisited

Abstract

The African has remained at the periphery of the study of human behavior. Theories propounded by Western psychologists and anthropologists have been applied to us with little attempts to understand the value of the African, whether in the African diaspora or in the African mainland. Foreign ideologies imply that the African is at the beck and call of Western psychological practices. As Africans (by that I mean continentals as well as diasporans), we have been thwarted by efforts to move forward. Part of this failure lies with psychology academics in the continent of Africa. Psychology has been taught certainly in Ghana, for example (it may not be the only place), as if one is sitting in a psychology classroom in New York, London, or Ottawa. Serious attempts have not been made to shift the discourse in our direction.

About 3 years ago, I arrived at the shores of my birthplace and upbringing, Ghana, after having lived almost four decades in Europe and North America. I was asked to teach a course on Psychology of Personality. I started with the usual personality theorists (i.e., Freud, Jung, Adler, etc). In my fourth lecture, I decided to cover the topic, African-Centered Psychology, emphasizing the Akan concept of “okra” and “sunsum” (Akbar, 1996; Azibo, 1996; Gyekye, 1996; Sarfo, 2010). The enthusiasm with which the students received the previous topics suddenly dissipated; I was confronted with the harsh reality that these students were neither ready nor prepared to hear a lecture on “anything African.” Yet none of them questioned me on Freud’s id, ego, and superego or Jungian archetypes.