Abstract
This article analyses the teaching of psychology in African universities. This is in the context where a few Zimbabwean scholars have interrogated the teaching of psychology in African universities. The paper argues that psychology is divorced from national discourses in Africa and is seen as a step-child from western psychology. The methodology used in this paper involves the review of secondary data which involve assessing government reports, academic manuscripts and research reports published in English from 1995 to 2017. The authors argue that scholars, and psychology graduates, shunned national discourses in much the same as the government and the populace shunned the profession. Yet there are opportunities for an endogenous approach to the teaching and practice of psychology in Zimbabwe. Psychology should take its place in the national development discourse as there is vast potential in family life, education, law, social services, health, private organisations, government and management. Psychology in Zimbabwe should also study how Africans think, and behave, and how those thought processes and behaviours can be managed. The article recommends that key stakeholders, including the Government of Zimbabwe, industry, key scholars and civic society, should come together in owning, and using, the vast opportunities in psychology as a field.
Keywords: Psychology; Africa; western psychology; teaching; Zimbabwe