What Is Decolonial Psychology?

When we want to understand why we behave the way we do, the most logical starting points often seem to be our childhood experiences, biological explanations, or a psychological label that finally gives us language for what we're going through. And okay, there is real solace in that, in knowing that our struggles can be named and explained. But what we rarely question is common sense itself. Why do childhood, biology and diagnosis feel like the obvious and most "wise" places to look? In the same way, when we feel sick, we go to the doctor, and when we feel upset, we may try to quiet our anger or swallow our rage. Why do these responses feel so normal, so universal? What has shaped the norms around how we respond, and how we relate to ourselves, the people around us and the world? How did we come to understand health and wellbeing the way we do? How do we feel connection is supposed to look like? How are we supposed to organise ourselves, and relate to reality itself?

Why do certain responses feel automatic, almost instinctive, as we interpret and respond to our surroundings and our inner worlds?

As someone who loves meta-thinking and sociological imagination, I've always found myself drawn to systems thinking. I enjoy exploring how we relate to the systems and traditions that shape our ways of knowing, being and living, and I think it's important that we do. It was this very curiosity, interwoven with a slightly rebellious spirit, that slowly led me towards decolonial psychology.

So, what is decolonial psychology?

It helps to start with two words that are often used interchangeably.

• Decolonisation can be understood as the removal of colonial power: the formal end of one group's control over another's land, governance and decision-making.

• Decoloniality looks at what lingers long after: how colonialism has shaped a people's consciousness, their sense of being, and what it means to be human (Ranawana, 2023).

Decolonial psychology can cut across both spaces, and can be better understood through what is called the decolonial turn (Bhatia et al., 2026). But it's important to note that for as long as colonisation has existed, there have always been people resisting it: people who held on to and stayed deeply rooted in their own traditions, refusing the lie at the heart of colonisation, that whiteness saves, that whiteness is superior, that whiteness is the most valid way of knowing. So there isn't really a creator of decolonial psychology. I think it's important to know that, and to honour the people who have long resisted, reclaimed and held on to their roots.

Within psychology, this turn questions how the field rests on European traditions, and how it has long been positioned as a universal and neutral body of knowledge. Decolonial psychology is less a single theory and more a movement and an orientation, one that practitioners, activists and individuals connect with in their own ways (you don't have to be within the field). It has relationships with critical psychology, depth psychology, feminist theory and more, but goes further in tracing the deeper logic that remains inextricably tied to the legacy of colonialism.

If you'd like to connect more with this orientation, a good starting point is the work of three thinkers who also shaped what is now called liberation psychology:

• Frantz Fanon, who questioned the very foundations of psychology and what it means for Black and colonised bodies and minds. (Black Face White Masks, and The Wretched of The Earth)

• Paulo Freire, whose work on consciousness, oppression and education has shaped so much of my own thinking. (The Pedagogy of The Oppressed, and The Pedagogy of Hope)

• Ignacio Martín-Baró, who called for a psychology rooted in the realities of oppressed communities. (Writings for a Liberation Psychology)

  
  

Each of them has helped us understand what oppression does to the body, the mind and the collective: not just personally and individually, but collectively and politically, and how we might imagine a way forward. Decolonial psychology can mean different things to different people. Most importantly, it continuously invites us to pay attention to the power dynamics between the West and the majority world.

What it asks of psychology.

First, it names the imbalance. The decolonial turn in psychology recognises that "Euro-American psychological science remains the dominant framework for developing core theories of self, identity, cognition, and emotions," theories based primarily on people living in the United States and Europe (Bhatia et al., 2026, p. 1). The same book notes that it "may be fair to conclude that 11% of the world's population is now being represented in psychology's most prominent journals, but that 89% of the world remains neglected in this database" (Bhatia et al., 2026, p. 2).

That says a lot, and it matters so much in the therapy room. Working predominantly with African clients, I often hear that people don't feel fully represented in traditional therapy or psychological frameworks. So we MUST ask: who gets to produce knowledge about the mind and the human experience? And who gets to build the frameworks we use to understand it?

Second, it re-centres. Naming the imbalance gives rise to re-centring work. There is an element of re-indigenisation in decolonial psychology, which means reclaiming Indigenous ways of knowing and the narratives of people in the global majority, those whom Fanon described as positioned below the line of being human.

Things to Keep in Mind When Thinking About Decolonial Psychology

There are a few misconceptions about decolonisation, and it's worth exploring how to engage with this topic with more depth and care. I really appreciate the work of Dr. Tani Emmanuel Lukong, who has done extensive work in African psychology. He argues that wholesale refusals of Western psychology are themselves ahistorical, because Western knowledge is "neither monolithic nor the sole property or prerogative of the West", and Africa has significantly contributed to its conception (Lukong, 2020). I think this is so important, because if we are truly to continue the work of decolonising psychology, we have to go a step further and restore Africa's place as an originator of knowledge. Lukong brings to our attention that the Greek philosophers known as the bedrock of psychology, Socrates, Plato, Pythagoras and Aristotle, are said to have studied within the Egyptian Mystery System, which traces psychology back more than 5,000 years.

This goes hand in hand with Marcus D. Watson's Half-Connecting Theory, which reminds us that however much we try to separate knowledge systems, human knowledge shares common origins. We grew and developed alongside one another (Watson, 2022).

This is where a common misconception comes in: that decolonial psychology is about rejecting or undoing European knowledge. It isn't that clear-cut. Decolonising, even in how we teach and explore the topic itself, can include holding multiplicities and moving away from binary thinking. Scholars like Dr. Lukong and Dr. Seth Oppong, who have done important work on Indigenous and African psychology, encourage us towards pluriversality, and I'm fully in agreement with them: a world where many ways of knowing can exist side by side (Oppong, 2024).

Why this matters to me

As a Kenyan, it's hard to ignore the legacies of colonialism in our daily interactions and in the way we have socially organised ourselves. Freire's reflections on class, culture and post-colonial societies resonate deeply with what I see here, and working through them is not easy.

I'm fortunate that my mother's side of the family were among the last to convert to Christianity. They held on to their Kalenjin traditions, and I grew up familiar with pride in our spirituality, our ways of knowing, and our approaches to wellbeing and medicine. But many people in Kenya don't share that experience. For many, especially among older generations, these practices have been demonised. I've witnessed this myself when trying to connect with elders: the shame held in their bodies as they deny, or avoid entirely, conversations about what life was like before colonisation. It's heartbreaking to see how colonisation has manifested within the Kenyan ecosystem, and how present it still is.

Some argue that decolonisation still keeps colonisation at the centre, because we are always working against it. I understand that, and for me within the Kenyan context it is a "yes, and" type of situation. In my work as a psychologist, it still plays an important role. I see liberation psychology as the orientation that keeps people's historical and social realities in mind, and what being intertwined with so many oppressive systems does to our lived experience. Decolonial psychology is still very much at the forefront for me, especially when working within an African context. Sometimes the work leans towards undoing, towards understanding what happened. And on the African continent, this is not that long ago. It is still very much ongoing. But I am curious to revisiting this reflection in a couple of years.

Understanding Decoloniality through Sankofa and Embodied Love

When I think of decolonial psychology, I think of Sankofa, an Akan Proverb that shares "it is not shameful to go back for what you forgot". For me, decolonial psychology offers exactly that. Not to keep colonisation at the centre, but to allow time to connect with that collective experience, that collective trauma, and to ask how it has actually affected us as peoples. What has it done to our bodies and minds, to our ways of connecting and of seeing ourselves, and to how we imagine a future?

And circling back to where we began: how have we been taught to look at things? What are the frameworks silently running the show, shaping how we understand connection, emotions, and ideas like emotional regulation? (I'll be exploring that last one more in future posts.)

For me, decolonisation is, above all, a practice of love, one that can be carried into both the theory and the practice of psychology.

References

Bhatia, S., Fernández, J. S., & Sonn, C. C. (Eds.). (2026). Decolonial psychology: Academic and activist perspectives. Routledge.

Lukong, T. E. (2020). African psychology or psychology in Africa: Conceptualising education and African cultural imperialism, implications for emerging African psychologists. Asian Journal of Education and Social Studies, 10(2), 1–22. https://doi.org/10.9734/ajess/2020/v10i230262

Oppong, S. (2024). Indigenous psychology in Africa. Cambridge University Press.

Ranawana, A. (2023). Decolonisation and decoloniality: A position paper for research and evidence cultures in Christian Aid. Christian Aid. https://www.christianaid.org.uk/sites/default/files/2023-06/decolonisation-and-decoloniality.pdf

Watson, M. D. (2022). Half-connecting theory: Developing African psychology theory in a "radical beginnings" direction. Journal of Black Psychology. https://doi.org/10.1177/00957984221080964