Ghana hosts first Pan-African Psychology Union workshop

The  first Pan-African Psychology Union (PAPU) workshop has ended in Accra, with participants contending that psychology has a low priority status in society and, therefore, there is the need to increase the visibility of the discipline in Africa.

Hosted by the Ghana Psychological Association, the University of Ghana (UG) and the International Union of Psychological Science (IUPsyS), the workshop attracted representatives of psychology associations in Cameroun, Ghana, Egypt, Liberia, Nigeria and South Africa.

The IUPsyS was represented by its President, Saths Cooper, and the Secretary-General, Ann Watts.

Notwithstanding the heterogeneous nature of Africa, the participants, after extensively discussing the status of psychology in Cameroun, Nigeria, Egypt and Ghana, agreed that the discipline had colonial orientations which continued to marginalise, dislocate and silence African knowledge and knowledge systems.

'Psychology in Africa operates within the context of its colonialist history, marginalisation within the global knowledge economy, poverty, environmental degradation, violence and conflict, illiteracy, disease and leadership crises. These multiple and interacting factors oblige a psychology - Africentric in nature - that is sufficiently responsive and relevant to this dominant profile,' the workshop concluded.

The participants noted that the unequal development, application and organisation of the psychological sciences across the North and West African region due to the influence of  the socio-political milieu, availability of and access to resources, historical influences and power differentials continued to hinder the advancement of psychology in Africa.

They, therefore, stressed the need to demonstrate the relevance of the discipline on the continent by  generating and disseminating African-centred psychological knowledge to be backed by research to inform and strengthen a contextualised approach to teaching and practice.

They further proposed that members of PAPU networked and also engaged with other geo-political entities, such as the African Union.

Speakers at the workshop, including the Pro Vice-Chancellor of the UG,  Dr Charles Mate-Kole; the President of the Ghana Psychological Association and  Professor Samuel Agyei-Mensah, the Dean of the Faculty of Social Sciences, collectively urged for the mobilisation and centralisation of African capacities, voices, knowledge and wisdom to inform human development, not just on the continent but also globally.

By Rosemary Ardayfio