Towards A Decolonial Community Psychology: Derivatives, Disruptions and Disobediences

Abstract

This edited collection was inspired by the presentations given at the sixth International Conference on Community Psychology (ICCP) held in Durban, South Africa in 2016. The conference was co-hosted by two of the editors of this collection, Shahnaaz Suffla and Mohamed Seedat. The 2016 conference was the first ICCP to be hosted on African soil and as such carries a special significance for us. Indeed, radical forms of community psychology in South Africa have historically been at the forefront of critical engagements with mainstream psychology, raising questions about the discipline’s relevance to understand and address the challenges of a (post) apartheid/colonial context, but also questioning the role of psychology as a discipline in legitimising forms of inferiorisation and control. The year 2016 was also significant as it marked the second year of widespread protests on university campuses in South Africa under the banner of #FeesMustFall calling for a free and decolonised education. These protests led to a renewed interest in decolonial theorising on the continent and the diaspora, and renewed synergies with decolonial movements in the rest of the world. In this new wave of decolonial thinking, psychologists have once again drawn on community psychology praxes to expand on their theorising of power, identity and knowledge, and contribute to enactments of resistance, transformation and social change.