Decolonization studies and mental health of graduate students at Makerere University

Abstract

Students pursuing studies in decolonization are exposed to educational material that can have a significant psychological impact on their learning and well-being. While such an education might offer tools for enhancing critical and historical consciousness in view of advancing knowledge and informing social transformations, it can also challenge familiar models of identity, with this potentially leading to psychological destabilization that is relevant to mental health. The aim of this study was to explore the relationship between decolonization studies and mental health of graduate students at Makerere University, specifically those enrolled in the Makerere Institute of Social Research (MISR) MPhil/PhD program in social studies. A qualitative study was conducted with 12 participants reflecting gender balance, different years in the program and national representation. The questions were administered by the researcher and data analyzed, critically and reflexively, through thematic analysis. The findings revealed that there is an important connection between education centered on decolonization studies and mental health. Such an education opens up colonial wounds and destabilizes familiar identities, as well as received cognitive and emotional patterns, with significant consequences for mental well-being. MISR students would benefit from the provision of psychological counselling and interventions tailored to their own context and type of education. MISR, Makerere University and National Higher Education Institutions that are sensible to the promotion of decolonization studies would benefit from further research on the connection between such education and psychology, as well as from policies that take into account the psychological dimension in their principles, guidelines and strategic planning.