Let us return to definitions so that we can deepen our appreciation of African psychology.

This is one definition you have seen already: African psychology is all psychology out of Africa. This is not altogether wrong. However, it leaves out some significant qualifications. All of psychology in Africa is not for Africa (although African psychology cannot be only for Africa). Much of the psychology work published in Africa is dominated by Western psychology and, in supporting the hegemonic psychological explanations, also bolsters the global hegemony of the US and Europe over Africa. Sometimes this support is given knowingly because the author favours the hegemonic explanations of the world derived from Europe and the US. At other times the support is inadvertent because he or she does not know how to do anything else. And at yet other times, there is pressure to publish, and the author is simply playing the game.

Another definition: African psychology is psychology practised by Africans. Although African psychology cannot but somehow reference Africans, this definition is also incomplete. What of African psychology that emerges out of the US – African psychology practised by African Americans? Inadequate for our purpose.