Bridging the Gap of the Afri-Eurocentric Worldview Divide in a Postcolonial South Africa.

Sharon Johnson,Izanette Van Schalkwyk

doi:10.3390/ijerph19031165

Abstract

Background: This paper is an attempt to bridge the gap between Africentric and Eurocentric worldviews through the lens of positive psychology’s second wave of attaining pathways to well-being. Methods: The overcoming of existential suffering with indigenous understandings has been addressed through photo-elicitation in retrospective timelines with students Lihile+, Tanaka+, and Diana+, +Pseudonyms to protect identity Thematic analysis with semi-structured virtual interviews has also been utilized to gain insights into Africentric and Eurocentric worldviews. All students come from different contexts of cultural complexity. Lihile was raised by her maternal Xhosa family, with a traditional Sotho father. Tanaka is Shona, born and schooled in Zimbabwe, studying in South Africa. Diana was born in England and is now living in rural KwaZulu-Natal. Findings: Students’ worldviews were shaped by their primary caregivers’ multicultural influences, as well as their exposure to educational and religious contact zones. Despite having to survive the traumatic legacy of social injustices, the students managed to pursue positive goals and transcend challenges and achieve well-being. Conclusions: This study attempted to transcend the divide of Afri–Eurocentric worldviews towards a shared responsibility to develop an improved social science in Africa. Positive psychology offered a space to accommodate well-being as a healing process, not only for the oppressed but also the oppressors of past social injustices.

Highlights

This study aimed to gain insights into bridging the gap between Africentric and Eurocentric worldviews through positive psychology’s second wave of well-being, arising from the meanings of existential suffering and indigenous understandings [1]
Diana’s Eurocentric worldview was challenged in apartheid South Africa (SA) and this made her adaptation to multiple cultures difficult (Figures 8–11)
Such statements support the findings of this explorative study that the multilayered perspectives of well-being within a multicultural African context embrace both Africentric and Eurocentric worldviews, with enriching experience from the multiple influences

Summary

Introduction

This study aimed to gain insights into bridging the gap between Africentric and Eurocentric worldviews through positive psychology’s second wave of well-being, arising from the meanings of existential suffering and indigenous understandings [1]. Much research shows the colonial origins of African scholarship and its primarily western Eurocentric epistemology [3]. The hegemony of a Eurocentric psychology in Africa has been challenged [4]. The present junction between Africentric and Eurocentric worldviews needs critical exploration and expression [2]. African scholars raise the question: “How can we put the ‘African’ back into African studies?” [5]: This point of departure entails more than the respectful cultural adapting of research conducted in, for example, South Africa (SA) and the African context [4]

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Methods

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Discussion

Conclusion