Africanizing South African Psychology

"South Africa and its psychology are anomalies." South Africa (SA), located on the southern tip of the African continent, is simultaneously--perhaps erroneously--regarded as the gateway to Sub-Saharan Africa and yet quite unlike most African countries, where indigenous traditions are quite apparent. The colonial nexus is noticeable everywhere in SA and permeates sociocultural expression. One of only three countries in the world to call itself by a geographic name, SA represents an amalgam of its various cultures, with Western traditions prevalent in all spheres of society and even in the remotest rural village. This is particularly true of psychology in SA, which has been affected by European--and more recently by American--traditions. The centuries (since 1652) of Dutch and English hegemony and dominance in all spheres of the polity have deracinated SA from its essential African historicity and, in many respects, have rendered it a pathetic European clone. Here, Cooper discusses the SA's identity crisis.