Perspectives on Intercultural Psychotherapy

An Igbo Group Analyst's Search for Social and Cultural Identity

Okeke Azu-Okeke

• Publisher: Routledge
• Year: 2018
• ISBN:
  9781317574781
• Edition: 1
• Topic: Psychology
• Subtopic: Psychotherapy
• Index: Psychology

In Perspectives on Intercultural Psychotherapy, Okeke Azu-Okeke explores cultural identity by drawing on his own experience as the first and only Black trainee in an Institute for Group Analysis in London and the impact this has had on his work as a lecturer and supervisor, as well as research from his group analysis sessions over many years to contribute a deeper awareness of the serious aspects of colonialism.

Drawing from the perspective of an Igbo man of the older generation who grew up in two conflicting cultures, the traditional Igbo culture of Nigeria and that of the British colonialists, Okeke provides a thorough study of how cultural identity can influence research and practice in whatever form it takes: the academic, the theoretical, the economic and the psychological. The book discusses how ignoring deeply held social and spiritual values can alienate many trainees and potential clients from participating in the professions of psychotherapy and counselling. It also reflects on the author's research into traditional Igbo methods of healing and compares these with Western models, especially of group analysis, and discusses how mutual learning can be achieved.

This book will be of great interest to counsellors and psychotherapists; arts therapists; sociologists and anthropologists; policy makers engaged in health and social care policies; practitioners of alternative medicine; social workers and mental health workers at all levels.

Chapter 1
Introduction

My search for an identity

Introduction

This book will draw on my personal experience as an Igbo man of the older generation, growing up in two conflicting cultures: the traditional Igbo culture of Nigeria and that of the British colonialists. Though my story is the starting point, the journey is not only personal as I will make references to West African writers’ views of colonialism and share the findings from interviews conducted with colleagues and friends of a similar age as well as those from other generations of Igbos. The book aims to contribute to a deeper awareness of the serious and particularly damaging aspects of colonialism, in whatever form it takes: the academic, the theoretical, the economic, and the psychological – which in ignoring deeply held social and spiritual values can alienate many trainees and potential clients from participating in the professions of psychotherapy and counselling. I will discuss my experience as the first and only Black Nigerian trainee in an Institute for Group Analysis in London and the impact this had on my future work as a lecturer and supervisor. Drawing on the learning from this time, I joined others, particularly staff and trainees of the Group and Intercultural Therapy programmes at Goldsmiths, University of London, in an effort to create a truly multicultural student community in which issues of ‘difference’ could be openly shared and in which a model of training could be co-created. The book will reflect on my research into traditional Igbo methods of healing and compare these with Western models, especially of group analysis, to see whether there is mutual learning to be achieved. It is informed by a qualitative, heuristic study using autoethnography, ethnography and narrative approaches, which I discuss further in Chapter Five. It is also informed by my experience as a mental health professional in radical NHS centres, such as the Henderson Hospital Surrey, the Aro hospital in Western Centre in Western Nigeria, and as a group analytic psychotherapist, teacher and supervisor. The book includes references to interviews with my peers in the older generation of Igbos in Nigeria and in London; on discussions with the younger generation, and on the writings of West African authors on the impact of colonialism. It also refers to official texts and analyses, and to documents of colonial times which demonstrate how the policies of colonialism affected every aspect of life – family life, religious practices, economics, administration – driven by a wish to destroy these and replace them with a set of values that were alien to the colonised people.

The search for identity and meaning in the face of deep cultural conflicts will be significant in a time of mass migration either for economic, social or political reasons. Although the book focuses on British Colonialism in Nigeria, the effects of colonialism in other settings are very much present today in other societies and therefore can be generalised to other populations.

There is still relatively little literature that explores intercultural aspects of psychotherapy in terms of training and treatment or that asks questions about the still very few Black psychotherapists, while there is an over-representation of Black clients in mental health. Despite the work of Littlewood and Lipsedge (1982) and a few authors who have raised concerns about racism within psychotherapy and counselling (e.g., Farhad Dalal, Isha McKenzie-Mavinga) and in psychiatry (Suman Fernando), there are still no texts that incorporate actual experience of colonialism, racism and the impact of this on the life and work of a group.

In this chapter, I will discuss the following issues to which I will return throughout the book:

1. British Colonialism in our West African societies that the colonialists’ named ‘Nigeria’.
2. The exilic social condition of life lived by the author under colonialism.
3. The threat to the attainment of my social identity by the process of performing a customary and traditional rite of passage.
4. The aim of the book in the light of the above factors.

British colonialism in our West African societies

I will begin with a brief description of what came to be called the country of ‘Nigeria’ as this is the context for the book. ‘Nigeria’ is made up of many different societies with independent cultures and histories – the principal ones being the Hausas, the Igbos, and the Yorubas. It is the largest ‘country’ in Africa with a population of about 20,469,047 according to one 2016 censor. (Understandably, different censors give different figures of the population.) Between 45% to 50% of the population are Christians, most of whom live in the southern region. The earliest known documentation of Nigeria is that it was the site of a group of organised states called Hausa. The earliest Nigerians were skilled artisans known as the Noks. By the second millennium they had disappeared and since then, successions of groups of people have inhabited and established kingdoms in these geographical areas. By the 1300s the empire of Kanem-Bornu was flourishing as a centre of Islamic culture rivalling Mali in the West. By the late 16th century, the Kanem-Bornu broke up and the Hausa states regained their independence. In the 19th century, the Fulani then took dominance in the lands of the Hausas. The southern part of the country was divided into the Yoruba states in the South West while the Edos ruled in Binin in the south central parts and the Igbos had control of the East and in the North of the Niger delta.

European explorers such as Mungo Park, Richard Lemon Lander and John Lander first explored the interior in 1830–31. Realising the potential of the territories, the Portuguese, the British and others established slave trading stations in the Niger delta. The British sent consuls to the riverine territories Calabar and Lagos where trading posts were established and the colonialists took full possession of Lagos.

The British colonialists then established protectorates after the conclusions of several treaties with the native chiefs. In 1893, the name Niger Coast Protectorates was established.

In 1900 after expansion in the south west, which brought about the addition of the kingdom of Benin, the name was changed to the protectorate of Southern Nigeria. In the same year, the British proclaimed the protectorate of Northern Nigeria as well. They did not have full control over either of the two protectorates at the time of their establishments.

France, Britain and Germany had spheres of influence in Nigeria of which Britain had the control. British troops were engaged in any such conflicts as arose with the native people who were still involved in the slave trade after it was prohibited by the British in 1807.

In 1914, North and South Nigeria merged into what was then called the colony and protectorate of Nigeria with Sir Frederick Lugard as the governor. However, for administrative purposes, the country was divided into the Colony of Lagos, Northern province and Southern province. Lugard allowed the native chiefs and councils to rule over Nigeria under the watchful eyes of the British government.

In reality, then, what is called the country of ‘Nigeria’ consists of various autonomous societies of culturally and historically independent nations whose integrity and social status remained indelible in their psyche. Their status as part of a united country called ‘Nigeria’ is elusive and in reality it is only a fantasy and an illusion.

This then is the background to my Igbo society and the other societies that jointly came to be called ‘Nigeria’. It is important that I emphasise this context, as my experiences of life within it (during the occupation and after the British colonisers left) have raised more questions in my mind about myself, my identity, than I have answers. Hence I undertake to go on this journey of exploration in anticipation of finding some answers to those questions.

For much of my adult life and particularly since undertaking training in Group Analytic Psychotherapy at the Institute of Group Analysis, London between 1988 and 1993, I have been preoccupied with the question: what happens to the identity of the person who is raised in one culture but who then comes to feel and find himself an ‘exile’ in his own land because of the impact of colonialism on his life?

Furthermore what is the impact of colonialism on the people of the colonised land who are faced with the denigration of dearly held traditions and overt racism?

I am aware that many authors have addressed colonialism from different perspectives, and I will refer to them later. My priority in this book will be, however, to make an original contribution to knowledge in the field of psychotherapy and in particular, group analysis. This claim is based on the following:

1. To my knowledge after investigation, I have not found any account in the literature of group analysis that is written from the perspective of a group analyst who is himself a product of a colonised society.
2. Though some authors (notably the late Professor Ian Craib at the University of Essex) combined sociological-political insights with group analysis, and Raman Kapur and Jim Campbell (2004) addressed the ‘Troubles’ in Northern Ireland from a psychoanalytic-political perspective, they did not address colonialism.
   Other authors such as Frantz Fanon (2001) have addressed racism within psychoanalytic theory but have not in my view done so from a similar position as my own. D’Ardenne and Mahtani (2008) first addressed ‘transcultural counselling’ in 1989 and their book has been revised and reprinted 12 times, indicating the need for therapists to ‘recognise the importance of life experiences for their work, and to think about ways of using their own skills and resources more flexibly in response to different cultural needs’. Farhad Dalal (2002), a Group Analyst, produced a new theory of racism based on group analytic theory; Frank Lowe (2014) edited Thinking Space: Promoting thinking about Race, Culture and Diversity in Psychotherapy and Beyond; Roy Moodley and Martha Ocampo (2014) wrote Critical Psychiatry and Mental Health, exploring the work of Suman Fernando in Clinical Practice; and Roy Moodley, Uwe Gielen and Rosa Wu (2013) wrote Handbook of Counselling and Psychotherapy in an International Context in which there are two chapters concerning counselling and psychotherapy in West Africa and Nigeria relevant to this book. (Lonzozou Kpanake and Omar Ndoye, ‘Counselling and Psychotherapy in Francophone West Africa: Creating a future vision’; and Olaniyi Bojuwoye and Andrew A. Mogaji, ‘Counselling and Psychotherapy in Nigeria: Horizons for the future’). The Journals Therapy Today and New Associations have featured interviews with prominent practitioners of psychotherapy and counselling (e.g., Isha McKenzie-Mavinga, ‘Racism in Counselling and Psychotherapy’, Therapy Today, Vol 25, 3, 2014; and ‘Silenced: The Black student experience’, Therapy Today, Vol. 24, 10, 2013, an interview in which Eugene Ellis, an integrative art psychotherapist and founder of the Black and Asian Therapists’ Network discussed group processes can often be very difficult for some Black students in a predominately White trainee group). We see that the issues that I shall raise in my book are far from being resolved and indeed the issue of racism in psychotherapy and counselling is alive and well.
3. The first and only Master’s level programme in the UK to address Intercultural Therapy, with emphasis on the very racially and culturally mixed trainees’ personal experiences, including racism, started at University College, London, followed by a practical and theoretical training at Goldsmiths in 1994, building on the Postgraduate Diploma in Group Psychotherapy (1988–2010) that had the stated aim of achieving a ‘truly multicultural community of trainees’. By 2010, both these programmes had closed (ostensibly for financial reasons), leaving a very big gap in training, and the status quo of psychotherapy trainees and practitioners being predominately white continues. This fact is acknowledged in recent issues of The Psychotherapist (United Kingdom Council for Psychotherapy) (2015), and the Psychoanalytic Psychotherapy Newsletter (2012). My research will of necessity examine my own contributions; clearly through having completed all my higher education and professional training in the United Kingdom I have had to work hard to integrate or perhaps more accurately ‘live with’ two very different socio-cultural perspectives. My own story has to be the starting point, but the journey is not only a personal one, as I shall demonstrate through references to African writers and through interviews with colleagues and friends who are of a similar age and those from other generations. [(See vignettes 1.1, 3.1, 4.1, 7.1)].
4. Thus the combination of the above will, I hope, contribute to a deeper awareness of the serious and particularly damaging aspects of colonialism, in whatever form – that is the academic, theoretical and economic – on the people we see. The lack of such appreciation within my own profession of psychotherapy is particularly surprising, given we are in the United Kingdom, a multicultural society.
5. I shall use the findings of my research to discuss traditional Igbo methods of healing and compare with Western models, especially of group analysis, to see whether there is mutual learning to be achieved.
6. I shall use ‘we’ and ‘us’ throughout to identify myself with my origin as an Igbo man and the community in which I grew up.

The exilic social conditions of living that our colonised societies endured under colonialism

At the time that I was born, according to our traditional system of determining periods and times of important events such as birth and death, the colonial powers were already occupying our societies. This means that as my eyes opened to see the world that I was living in, it was a world that was struggling to deal with some difficult social conditions, the cause of which eluded me during the early parts of my life. But the aura of the alien culture brought about by strange people in the vicinities of my immediate society was inescapable. Even before I saw the first white person in my life, I heard different stories about this breed of human beings.

So as I was growing up, it was in an atmosphere filled with whispers of how we used to be, how we now were and speculations about what we might become. The seed of uncertainty had been sown in my mind. This is how it came to be that right from the beginning of my life the circumstances of my life were already compromised by the presence of the alien culture of the British colonialists; this presence especially clearly militated against our native traditional cultures.

I will now discuss the factor of the exilic social conditions of living that members of our societies, including the author, endured under colonialism.

The Rabbi of Belz, Shalom ben Elazar Rokeach of the 19th century, addressing the situation of Jews, wrote that there are three types of exiles. The first is when Jews are in exile among other nations. The second is when Jews are in exile among other Jews. And the third is when a Jew is exiled within himself. This, he considers to be the hardest of all to endure.

To these, however, I would add the exile that a people suffer within their own native lands. That is, being in social and emotional conditions of living that were comparable to those of people who were forced to leave their homeland to move to a new and strange one because they are denied the freedom that they need to practise their cultural traditions and customs. We were thereby denied our right to celebrate and enjoy our ways of life. We were also denied freedom of worship according to our religious traditions and thereby barred from developing and maintaining our own desires for our present life and for posterity as a people in our own right.

By the use of political, economic and military forces, the colonialists coerced, and subjected us, the Igbo people, and all other members of our societies to the social conditions of people living as if in exile away from our own native land. I would argue that this is the most dehumanising and degrading form of social relationship that I can imagine. It was degrading to us as we, the affected people, found it difficult to live our lives in the ways that we felt we should – that is, the ways that ou...

Table of contents

• Cover
• Half Title
• Series Page
• Title
• Copyright
• Dedication
• Contents
• List of figures
• List of vignettes
• Foreword
• Acknowledgements
• 1 Introduction: my search for an identity
• 2 The troubled birth of Nigeria: being an exile in my own land
• 3 Culture, identity and language: exploring my identity as a group analyst and Igbo man
• 4 The connections between language as one of our important cultural attributes and the development of identity
• 5 Talking to my peers: the importance of shared experiences
• 6 Analysis of and reflections on the group discussions
• 7 Two cultures, one identity: reflections on my attempts to bring together experiences from two conflicting cultures during my attempt to become an intercultural group psychotherapist
• 8 Bringing it all together: looking back, moving forward
• Index