To date, the vast literature on theories of psychology, and psychology as a practice, still remains a reflection of Western experiences and conceptions of reality. This is so despite "psychology" and "psychotherapy" being studied and implemented by Africans, dealing with Africa's existential issues, in Africa. In this context, a distorted impression that positions psychology and psychotherapy as irreplaceable and irrefutable Western discoveries is created. This perception creates a tendency in which psychotherapists adopt and use universalised, foreign and imposed theories to explain and deal with African cultural experiences. In recent years, African scholars' quest to advance "African-brewed" conceptions, definitions and practices of "psychology" and "psychotherapy" is gaining momentum. Psychologists dealing with African clients are increasingly confronted with the difficulty, and in some instances the impossibility, of communicating with, and treating local clients using Western conceptions and theories. Adopting the dominant Western epistemological and scientific paradigms constitutes epistemological oppression and alienation. Instead, African conceptions, definitions and practices of "psychology" and "psychotherapy" based on African cultural experiences, epistemology and ontology are argued for. The thesis defended in this study is that the dominant Western paradigm of scientific knowledge in general and, psychology in particular, is anchored in a defective claim to neutrality, objectivity and universality. To demonstrate this, indigenous ways of knowing and doing in the African experience are counterpoised against the Western understanding and construction of scientific knowledge in the fields of psychology and psychotherapy. The conclusion arising from our demonstration is the imperative to rethink psychology and psychotherapy in order to (i) affirm the validity of indigenous African ways of knowing and doing; (ii) show that the exclusion of the indigenous African ways of knowing and doing from the Western paradigm illustrates the tenuous and questionable character of its epistemological and methodological claims to neutrality, objectivity and universality. Indeed the Western claim to scientific knowledge, as described, speaks to its universality at the expense of the ineradicable as well as irreducible v ontological pluriversality of the human experience. This study's aim is to advance the argument for the sensitivity to pluriversality of be-ing and the imperative for wholistic thinking. / Psychology / D. Phil. (Psychology)

This dissertation is a philosophical examination of the concept of reincarnation from an African point of view. It does so, largely, from the cultural perspective of the Akan people of Ghana. In this work, reincarnation is distinguished from such related concepts as metempsychosis and transmigration with which it is conflated by many authors on the subject. In terms of definition, therefore, the belief that a deceased person can be reborn is advanced in this dissertation as referring to only reincarnation, but not to either metempsychosis or transmigration. Many scholars would agree that reincarnation is a pristine concept, yet it is so present in the beliefs and worldviews of several cultures today (including those of Africa). A good appreciation of the concept, it can be seen, will not be possible without some reference to the past. That is why some attempt is first made at the early stages of the dissertation to show how reincarnation was understood in the religious philosophies of ancient Egyptians, Greeks, Indians, Chinese and the Incas. Secondly, some link is then established between the past and present, especially between ancient Egyptian philosophy and those of contemporary sub-Saharan Africa. In modern African thought, the doctrine of reincarnation has not been thoroughly researched into. Even so, some of the few who have written on the subject have denied its existence in African thought. The dissertation rejects this denial, and seeks to show nonetheless that reincarnation is generally an irrational concept. In spite of its irrationality, it is acknowledged that the concept, as especially presented in African thought, raises our understanding of the constitution of a person as understood in the African culture. It is also observed that the philosophical problem of personal identity is central to the discussion of reincarnation because that which constitutes a person is presumed to be known whenever a claim of return of a survived person is made. For this reason, the dissertation also pays significant attention to the concept of personal identity in connection, especially, with the African philosophical belief in the return of persons. / Philosophy and Systematic Theology / D. Litt. et Phil. (Philosophy)

In this study a contextual training model for developing leaders in ministry to children is investigated. The training model offers a dynamic training process for the development of effective leadership for the African Church and other Christian organizations in the field of children's ministries. The aim of these children's ministries would be to see holistically developed God fearing children in Africa. This study provided an opportunity to ask deeper questions about one's assumptions on prevailing concepts about children, children ministries, leadership training, African philosophy and what is meant by contextual training models. The complexity of Africa, its people and the challenges for the future are evident from this study. It can be concluded that it is possible and necessary to train effective Christian leadership for children's ministries. To develop effective leadership in the field of children's ministries could prove to be one of the long term answers to the pressing needs of Africa and its people. The model serves the statement "equipped to impact the continent" / Practical Theology / M.Th. (Practical Theology)

The intent of this thesis is to understand how we as educators and learners in our Western system of education can bridge and heal the fundamental principles of a constructed divide embedded in our consciousness that continues to be reproduced in our Western academy. The primary goal is to make visible this divide that is based on the intellectualization of Western education in the absence of spiritual aspirations, thus revealing the potential of spiritual transformation within the academy and our everyday lives. In my literature-based thesis research I explored, analyzed and discussed two bodies of literature: the historical intellectualization of Western education on the one hand, and, on the other, Eastern Philosophy with the emphasis on Higher Self Yoga, African Philosophy and North American Aboriginal Spirituality. I investigated these bodies of literature employing a research paradigm that has its foundation in a spiritual ontology and epistemology. I analyzed my findings using such methodologies as appreciative inquiry, content analysis and textual analysis, including anti-colonial and indigenous knowledges theoretical frameworks. I found that the synthesis and integration of the inner life wisdom revealed in the three philosophies is an integral component fundamental toward a whole life vision of education, an educative vision that has the potential to serve as a catalyst to open the gates for life-enhancing change in the academy and our everyday lives. Change implies becoming aware of our true origin, who we truly are, and what our intrinsic purpose is. Change implies becoming aware of humanity’s accelerated transition toward a higher level of spiritual planetary consciousness, a spiritual evolution as an inner quest of unity with nature, the larger human community, the universe, and the divine Source itself. Change implies whole life educational processes, inclusive of the unfoldment of inner life wisdom, the authority of the human spirit, and the sense of divinity, as useful bridging work in healing the divide in our aware consciousness and our educational institutions. Whole life change needs to be the responsibility of academic education, as well our self-responsibility of realizing ourselves as citizen of the world living within one-world consciousness. All is one.

The intent of this thesis is to understand how we as educators and learners in our Western system of education can bridge and heal the fundamental principles of a constructed divide embedded in our consciousness that continues to be reproduced in our Western academy. The primary goal is to make visible this divide that is based on the intellectualization of Western education in the absence of spiritual aspirations, thus revealing the potential of spiritual transformation within the academy and our everyday lives. In my literature-based thesis research I explored, analyzed and discussed two bodies of literature: the historical intellectualization of Western education on the one hand, and, on the other, Eastern Philosophy with the emphasis on Higher Self Yoga, African Philosophy and North American Aboriginal Spirituality. I investigated these bodies of literature employing a research paradigm that has its foundation in a spiritual ontology and epistemology. I analyzed my findings using such methodologies as appreciative inquiry, content analysis and textual analysis, including anti-colonial and indigenous knowledges theoretical frameworks. I found that the synthesis and integration of the inner life wisdom revealed in the three philosophies is an integral component fundamental toward a whole life vision of education, an educative vision that has the potential to serve as a catalyst to open the gates for life-enhancing change in the academy and our everyday lives. Change implies becoming aware of our true origin, who we truly are, and what our intrinsic purpose is. Change implies becoming aware of humanity’s accelerated transition toward a higher level of spiritual planetary consciousness, a spiritual evolution as an inner quest of unity with nature, the larger human community, the universe, and the divine Source itself. Change implies whole life educational processes, inclusive of the unfoldment of inner life wisdom, the authority of the human spirit, and the sense of divinity, as useful bridging work in healing the divide in our aware consciousness and our educational institutions. Whole life change needs to be the responsibility of academic education, as well our self-responsibility of realizing ourselves as citizen of the world living within one-world consciousness. All is one.

In this study a contextual training model for developing leaders in ministry to children is investigated. The training model offers a dynamic training process for the development of effective leadership for the African Church and other Christian organizations in the field of children's ministries. The aim of these children's ministries would be to see holistically developed God fearing children in Africa. This study provided an opportunity to ask deeper questions about one's assumptions on prevailing concepts about children, children ministries, leadership training, African philosophy and what is meant by contextual training models. The complexity of Africa, its people and the challenges for the future are evident from this study. It can be concluded that it is possible and necessary to train effective Christian leadership for children's ministries. To develop effective leadership in the field of children's ministries could prove to be one of the long term answers to the pressing needs of Africa and its people. The model serves the statement "equipped to impact the continent" / Philosophy, Practical and Systematic Theology / M.Th. (Practical Theology)

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