by Na'im Akbar

"The long history and evaluation of African people on a European norm has resulted in volumes of conclusions that argue in support of African inferiority and deviance. The hypothesis of African Psychology is that behavior shares similarity among all human beings and all people are impacted by environmental influences. However, this perspective also maintains that the cultural context of one's origin across generations creates worldviews that persist beyond the experiences of any single individual. The African's view of the person as part of a collectivity and as essentially a spiritual entity creates a unique ethos that forms the context for understanding and evaluating African behavior. These papers represent the contributions of one of those pioneering "African Psychologists" whose work has spawned a full generation of theoreticians, researchers and practitioners who continue to expand and crystallize these important seminal concepts"--