COVID-19: Harbinger of a New Psychology of Religion for Postcolonial Societies

Religious practice, like every other human affair, was altered at the onset of the pandemic. The paper argues that the “home church” as a Christian expression of religiosity during Covid-19, for instance, was a signal to something new at least in the theoretical realms of religion. More strongly, it was a vindication of postcolonial native societies (of Africa) whose indigenous spiritualities were thwarted and/or abolished during the colonial era. The pandemic is theorized as a wake-up call for agency in these societies. The theorization relies upon Piaget’s psychological “techniques” of accommodation and assimilation, opening various channels to answering the questions: what was assimilated during colonialism that should have been accommodated and vice versa? And how has the pandemic uncovered that error of inversion?