268 Shose Kessi
I draw on these orientations, to reflect on the future of psychology, and
specifically the possibilities for a decolonial psychology.
PSYCHOLOGY AND RESISTANCE
Critical perspectives in psychology emerging from the Global South
have questioned the relevance of psychology (Macleod 2004), an
interrogation of the value of western psychology in producing knowledge
that serves the interests and wellbeing of colonial peoples. Race, class, and
gender identities have been a primary focus of research by scholars in the
Global South and the diaspora in challenging the assumption of
behaviourism in psychological research. Others have critiqued the politics
of location, representation, and practice in doing psychological research
highlighting the need for psychology (and academia in general) to promote
social action and a social justice agenda if it is to be of any relevance to
solving human problems in the modern world system.
Identity and Resistance
Black studies, and black and African feminisms have delved into the
role of identity in understanding power and decolonial possibilities. The
focus on black identity in psychological research (Buhlan 1985; Fanon
1986; Manganyi 1973;) has provided us with tools to shift from a victim-
blaming and stereotypical discourse about the black condition towards an
understanding of how the material, symbolic, and psychological power of
coloniality shapes black identities in ways that both resist and reproduce
coloniality. This body of work provides deep analyses of how the multiple
and intersecting identities and subjectivities are intrinsically tied to
colonial relations of power in both thought and lived experience. Literary,
narrative and archival forms of research amongst others have sought to
understand how identities are historically produced and shaped as a result
of colonial relations of power.