WAR OF CULTURAL RELEVANCE

The ABPsi, and indeed the discipline of African psychology, has always believed that psychology had to be relevant to a broad array of persons of African descent. Said another way, psychology had to be relevant to the people. African psychology had to be relevant in improv- ing the lives of people it devised theories to describe, and treatment modalities to administer. In addition, it had to be able to shape a future that not only trans- formed lives, but also instilled hope and possibility for a brighter future. Indeed, if Fanon was right that each generation has an opportunity to fulfill its legacy or betray it, the ABPsi over the past forty-plus years has reached out and seized that opportunity to fulfill their legacy.

In summary, African-centered psychology, and the psychology of Blackness, is an attempt to build conceptual models that organize, explain, and facilitate understanding of the psychosocial behavior of African Americans. Without question, these models are based in the primary dimensions of an African-American/African worldview. Having now been exposed to the basic tenets of African psychology, one should be able to see specific areas of em- phasis, which although rooted in an African-centered worldview, provide con- gruence and continuity with the principles on which the discipline was founded in 1968. The discipline of African-centered psychology continues to define the construct in meaningful ways, render African psychological principles relevant to the contemporary needs of the African-American community, achieve better integration of the concept of spirituality, and help to define and in some cases redefine the task of therapists and healers. In addition, the discipline continues to promote the need for social advocacy and to plan interventions in the larger social arenas where public policy impacts on the mental health of people in the African-American community.

For those interested in the organization, we can report that the ABPsi has grown from a handful of concerned professionals into an independent, au- tonomous organization of more than 1000 members, who see their collective mission and destiny as the liberation of the African Mind, empowerment of the African Character, and illumination of the African Spirit. ABPsi has been guided for the last forty years by a member-elected board of directors, regional repre- sentatives, and national staff. The chronology of ABPsi presidents are as fol- lows, with those who have transitioned to be with the Ancestors denoted with an asterisk*: