Dr. Na’im Akbar was born way back in 1944 on the 26th day of April. He was initially known as Luther Benjamin Weems at the time of his birth. Throughout his childhood life, he was brought up in Tallahassee, Florida (Stevens, 2012). This was a remarkably minority environment bearing in mind that most residents in this place were typically Black Americans. His first interaction with the White American race came at a time when he was joining college as a freshman student. He later joined Islamic religion in 1971 and subsequently changed his name to Na’im Akbar. He did his Bachelor of Arts (B.A.) degree at the University of Michigan and after graduating, he enrolled for his Masters degree in the same field. However, he opted for a degree in Psychology at the doctorate level in the same university.
His first place of work was the Morehouse College of Atlanta at the Department of Psychology. He joined this institution after obtaining his terminal degree. He served in this department for a period of five years. Since he was among the minority professionals in the college, he saw the need to empower the minority race in all ways. For instance, the first ever psychology program at the college was made possible by Akbar after he initiated the black psychology courses (Stevens, 2012). This was a major milestone bearing in mind that it was not easy to integrate the ideals of the minority Black race that was considered to be less superior. He did not take long before ascending to the chairmanship of the Department of Psychology at the university. Later on, he assisted in the establishment of the Office of Human Development after he moved to Chicago, IL. This bureau was located at the Nation of Islam Headquarters. It was definite that he had deep-sited interest in Islamic religion.
He afterwards became a member of the faculty at the Norfolk State University. As a faculty member, he also agitated for the introduction of courses in Black psychology that would also serve the interests of the black minority race. He also taught psychology courses on African Americans at the Florida State University from 1979. Nonetheless, he has remained a renowned scholar from the minority Black race and has also contributed massively in the adoption and development of Black psychology courses in various institutions of higher learning (Stevens, 2012).
As a minority male psychologist, Dr. Akbar has written several award winning psychology books in various domains. Some of his literary works include the Chain And Images of Psychological Slavery that was published in 1984, Light from Ancient Africa (published in 1994), Visions for Black Men (published in 1992), The Community of Self (published in 1985), Know Thy Self (published in 1998) as well as Breaking the Chains of Psychological Slavery (published in 1996). His latest publication entitled Akbar Papers In African Psychology was released in 2004.
Chain And Images of Psychological Slavery
The author has compiled two main essays in the book that attempt to address the plight of those who suffer psychological slavery. Excerpts from the two essays appear very thought-provoking and interesting (Akbar, 1984). However, the ideas in the essays have been presented in the simplest way that can be understood by most readers. For example, the character revolves around the encounters of slavery period when African Americans were under the bondage of slave trade. In the first essay, the author is quite categorical that this group of people still suffers psychological slavery as a result of their past life as slaves. In the second essay, Akbar explores why the Black children may find themselves less superior due to the ideology that God is white. Indeed, these are psychological messes that most of those who went through acts of slavery still find it cumbersome to forego. Moreover, the idea of depicting God as a white person has led to long term inferiority complex especially among the Black race.
Light from Ancient Africa
Akbar attempts to bring out the paramount significance of human psychology in this book. It is more of a “Re-Africanization of Psychology Project” since the latter has been given critical contribution (Akbar, 1994). In other words, the author is quite specific that Africa must have invented the much valued human psychology contrary to the popular belief that it emanated from other so-called superior races. He also supports his arguments with sufficient proofs in order to convince the audience. In addition, the kemetic or African origination of human psychology has been elaborated by the author so that the readers can gain a vivid and concise comprehension of the book (Akbar, 1994).
Visions for Black Men
The book offers a cutting edge information on Black men on how they can deal with psychological issues that have been affecting their manhood (Akbar, 1991). The author seemed to have noted that the black men were really suffering from poor manhood development. This kind of suffering ended up into some kind of psychological trauma that could only be solved by a psychological perspective. The author underscores the fact that there are several black males who masquerade as men while they can still be classified as boys because they have not developed fully into men. This affects their personal development goals as well as their general well being in society.
Our daily lives are clearly depicted by the circumstances discussed in this book. For instance, the psychological maturity that is expected among men may sometimes not be there at all although these individuals may appear to be physically grown and mature (Akbar, 1991).
The Community of Self
The content of this book has been split into 9 distinct sections. Each of the sections has been interlinked in order to achieve the common goal of the book. To begin with, Akbar elaborates the concept of technical operations of self. These operations include will, reason conscience, memory, ego and the senses. Hence, harmony can only be attained when the different aspects interact among themselves. Akbar notes that the most important technical aspect is the will and that it should take the center stage among the rest of the elements mentioned.
The author is quite articulate when he notes that a community is analogous to the operations of the self because it is made of different players or stakeholders who must collaborate if a common good is to be attained. On the same breath, there is indisputable need for the individual parts to unite under the direction of the will (Akbar, 1985).
In the following section of the book, the author observes that there is need for accountability for actions committed by an individual. In other words, people should exercise high levels of responsibility based on what they do on a daily basis. Akbar elucidates that the ability to pay attention to the inner voice is of great import in the process of attaining self responsibility. Hence, our actions should be guided by the inner silent voice.
Although the notion of the “inner voice” might appear to be quite mystic, extra terrestrial and beyond simple reach and understanding by most of his readers, it is pertinent to mention that the author has gone a step further in trying to inch closer to the relevance of conscience in our lives. Hence, the inner voice in this context cannot be taken to imply some kind of echo or strange voices that abnormal people often experience (Akbar, 1985). This kind of voice is experienced as a result of complete coordination of the technically operating features mentioned above. When the aforementioned aspects work as a community, it is possible for an individual to discern between right and wrong moves and therefore improve the level of transparency, responsibility and accountability. Hence, the community of self is important in the life of an individual.
Conclusion
To recap it all, it is vital to over-emphasize that even though there are myriads of books written in Psychology that depict white male researchers as the most successful in the field, the truth is that even the minority races such as Blacks have equally succeeded in producing award winning literary works in Psychology that have been used to advance knowledge in this field. As already discussed in this essay, it is evident that Dr. Na’im Akbar is indeed an accomplished scholar worth emulating.
References
Akbar, N. (1984). Chain And Images of Psychological Slavery. Michigan: New Mind Productions.
Akbar, N. (1985). The Community of Self. Michigan: Mind Productions.
Akbar, N. (1991). Visions for Black Men. New York: Mind Productions & Associates.
Akbar, N. (1994). Light from Ancient Africa. New York: Mind Productions & Associates.
Stevens, S. (2012). Preeminent psychologist Na’im Akbar speaks on achieving justice at king celebration. Web.