Afrocentrism: A Spiritually Informed Framework for Engaging African Couples Experiencing Marital Distress

Abstract

Rising divorce rates among African couples—with the attendant personal and social costs—underscore the need for innovative, culturally relevant approaches to foster healthy marriages. To address this concern, this conceptual study familiarizes practitioners with an Afrocentric framework to guide work with couples experiencing marital distress. Key values that distinguish an Afrocentric from a Eurocentric perspective are described, and the implications for work with clients are discussed and subsequently illustrated in a case study. Afrocentrism commonly affirms grounding marriages in spirituality, community, tradition, and complementary gender roles. Enhancing the social validity of interventions by aligning them with these Afrocentric values—from a clinical posture of cultural humility—can help resolve conflict and build successful marriages for many African couples, across the African diaspora.