You could say, though, that the history of the discipline of psychology is not one of manuscripts, but of university departments, with their lecturers and students. In this light, where the history of psychology is viewed as entailing the establishment of a separate university department, African psychology begins at Stellenbosch University in 1917 with the setting up of the first independent psychology department on the continent.

Having graduated with a PhD with the title ‘Zur Erkenntnistheorie Hegels in der Phänomenologie des Geistes’ from the University of Berlin in the same year, Reymond (sic) William Wilcocks was appointed as the first head of this department.

Could Wilcocks be regarded as the real father of African psychology?

It depends on, among other things, whether someone like Wilcocks considered what he did to be African psychology. And then there is also the question of how he was considered by those who worked with him, those whom he taught, and those who read about him today. No answer is likely to go unchallenged. Again I contend that Wilcocks did indeed do African psychology, because of the mere fact that he lived in and was doing psychology in Africa. As to what kind of African psychology he did, that is a more interesting question.

Regardless, in Wilcocks's studies on Hegel in Berlin we find yet another sign of the reach of the psychology practised by those who live in Africa. It is a psychology that was influenced by German philosophy, and the influence of European epistemologies, values and interests on it persists today. What lies in the future of psychology should be the mutually beneficial influence of African-centred knowledges on European universities and other knowledge institutions.