The Psychology and Content of Dreaming in Africa

As understood in mainstream Western psychology, people dream for themselves and are essentially self-contained in their overall mechanism of dreaming. This article argues that although this Eurocentric perspective on dreaming is largely universal and not to be ignored, it needs to be recognized alongside other dream perspectives. The article examines the concept of dreaming from an African perspective. Its aim is to demonstrate that dreaming from an African psychological perspective goes beyond the Eurocentric paradigm suggesting that in the African-centered paradigm, the individual can dream for others. In the African perspective, there, at times, occurs the phenomenon of triangulation in dreaming where dreams originate from another source to give messages to the individual for the benefit of others. The article presents three anecdotes and some resulting implications that highlight descriptive elements of African dream theory. A number of questions for further reflections and research emanating from the discussion are highlighted.

What is African Psychology the psychology of?

Throughout the past half-century, the formal study of psychology in African universities has been colonized by mainstream Western psychology. This situation was inimical to any early efforts to entrench African Psychology as an academic discipline in African universities. However, this negative state of affairs did not last indefinitely. But with the recent emergence of African Psychology it soon became necessary to trace the history of its emergence and evolution, formulate its definitive core of reference, engage the question about its relationship to Euro-American psychology, foreground its claims to Africanity, determine the topics it embraces as an academic subject field, and discuss the epistemological and ontological foundations on which it is grounded. This article is an attempt to contribute to this need.