By Makutu Manneh
Ms. Allili Afi, a 78-year-old Gambian-Jamaican has launched book on psychology.
The book which is entitled: ‘Using Existential Counselling to Heal’ saw the author focusing on the need for healing in the country. She said information from the Truth, Reconciliation and Reparations Commission (TRRC) reveal that people have been traumatized in the country and many are not treated for their trauma; that the book will focus on creating a system where counsellors will be trained to work with people suffering from such trauma in the country and even outside, for healing.
Allili said in the Gambia, people do not take changes easily; that many become reluctant to give up what they know and what they are used to.
‘‘Even though in most cases what we think we know is not the best, it is a matter of chance and being able to change which is not easy,’’ she said.
She further said that she wrote several Master’s Degree courses for the Universities of West Indies which were transmitted throughout that region, which has benefitted students; that she has always asked herself the reason why she should not expand on these courses in Africa, after spending a number of years outside the continent.
Ms Afi urges the entire Gambia to take the book seriously; that it is a book for both academia and the ordinary people; that she wants Government Departments, private institutions and everyone, to take the book seriously and benefit from the wisdom in it.
“I am in the process of translating the book in Mandinka and Wolof because they are the major spoken languages in the Gambia,” she said.
Ms. Allili Afi holds a Ph.D. in Physics from Roehampton University in London; an M.A. Degree in Psychological Counselling from City University of London and an Advance Diploma in Counselling from Goldsmith College at the University of London. She is also widely known as‘Mama Africa’.
