In his lecture at the 27th Annual South African Psychology Congress, hosted by the Psychological Society of South Africa (PsySSA), Francis B. Nyamnjoh emphasizes the urgent need for convivial scholarship in the field of healing. He argues that despite the independence of most African countries since the 1960s, colonial education, culture, and attitudes still persist, overshadowing indigenous healing traditions that have remained resilient yet largely unrecognized in the 21st century. Nyamnjoh advocates for a framework of decolonized healing practices that promote conversations and collaborations across various disciplines and organizations. He stresses the importance of integrating marginalized epistemologies rooted in popular universes and ideas of reality into the academic discourse. Central to his argument is the recognition and accommodation of incompleteness in individuals, disciplines, organizations, and knowledge-making traditions, challenging the illusion of completeness often perpetuated by zero-sum games of violence and violation. Instead, he calls for embracing compositeness and conviviality in healing practices while rejecting the outsourcing of debt and indebtedness to victims.
