Intimate partner violence (IPV) in sub-Saharan Africa affects 36% of the population. Several African countries rank among the highest globally. In this article, we present evidence on the prevalence, determinants, and impact of IPV across several sub-Saharan African countries interpreted against the backdrop of social ecological theory. We also describe prevention or intervention programs tested in different regions of Africa, selecting only those programs which were published in a journal outlet and which met a high criteria of implementation and methodology (n = 7). Based on our review of the empirical literature, some risk factors for violence documented in Western societies are the same in Africa, including poverty, drinking, a past history of child abuse or posttraumatic stress disorder, and highly traditional gender role beliefs. Low education is also associated with IPV for both women and men. In Africa, partner abuse intersects with the HIV pandemic, making violence prevention especially urgent. African programs to prevent IPV are often incorporated with HIV prevention; community building and community engagement are emphasized more in Africa than in North America or Europe, which invoke more individually focused approaches. Some programs we review lowered HIV exposure in women; others contributed to reduced violence perpetration among men. The programs show sufficient promise to recommend replication and dissemination in sub-Saharan Africa.

Woman abuse and other forms of gender-based violence are key obstacles to gender equity across the globe. Researchers have examined the problem of woman abuse from a multitude of perspectives. However, little research has focused specifically on both partners' constructions of their relationships. This article is based upon a study that examined how women and men in intimate heterosexual relationships attribute meaning to the man's perpetration of violence against a woman partner. Narrative interviews were conducted with women and men who constituted 15 heterosexual couples. In this study participants' narratives of self, other, relationship and violence included ambiguous constructions of victims and perpetrators; constructions of violent relationships as cyclical in nature; constructions of woman abuse as a problem of the self; narrations of violence as a mutual endeavour and all-encompassing narratives of power and control. This study provided insight into the subjective, relational and gendered dynamics of abusive relationships, illustrated the significance of the context in shaping the ways in which experiences are narrated, and showed the value of poststructuralist theorizing to feminist psychology.

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Commercial sex is an everyday occurrence across a range of contexts in South Africa. In this paper we turn our attention to the often-marginalised role of the buyers of sex by drawing on narrative interviews with male clients of female sex workers recruited through online advertisements in order to explore the ways in which heterosexual men construct, negotiate and perform their masculinity and sexuality through talking about their experiences of paying for sex. We highlight parallels between men's narratives of paying for sex and dominant discourses of gender and heterosexuality. We show how men draw on heteronormative sexual scripts in constructing and making sense of paid sexual encounters and how men are simultaneously able to construct and enact a particular idealised version of masculinity and male sexuality through their talk on paying for sex. Finally, we discuss how online resources could be used more extensively in future research with the male clients of sex workers.

Psychology as a discipline has historically served the interests of dominant groups in society. By contrast, contemporary trends in psychological work have emerged as a direct result of the impact of violent histories of slavery, genocide and colonisation. Hence, we propose that psychology, particularly in its social forms, as a discipline centred on the relationship between mind and society, is well placed to produce the critical knowledge and tools for imagining and promoting just and equitable social relationships and social structures. Starting with an overview of the historical assumptions of the discipline that served to legitimate systems of slavery, colonisation and apartheid, this article then introduces a framework for centring decolonial, feminist ways of doing psychological work with a focus on the particularities of the African context. We argue that a decolonial feminist approach to psychology curricula and psychological research is necessary for the discipline to remain relevant in contemporary African contexts.