Africa My Motherland XVI

By A. Abeku Haywood-Dadzie

And, as I pointed out, from now on, today, we must change our attitudes and our minds. We must realise that from now on we are no longer a colony but free and independent people. " Osagyefo Kwame Nkrumah.

I don’t know much about psychology or history. I don’t claim to have a doctorate in anthropology or sociology. But there is one thing I know, and that is, there is something inherently wrong with Africa's "Mymotherland". The most dangerous plague my "Mymotherland" faces is not the coronavirus or any other dangerous virus, but the "slave mindset" that was meticulously manicured into our DNA and infects "Mypeople" generation after generation. Like most killer diseases, the "slave mindset" fades but is seldom truly gone; it’s nearly impossible to fully eradicate it in every one of us. Unfortunately, the symptoms of the "slave mindset" are reaching epidemic proportions and are creating an epidemic within a pandemic.

Though the decolonization of Africa took place in the mid-to-late 1950s to 1975, our minds were not decolonized, and because many of us are not even aware of this abnormality, we have become puppets in the hands of the slave master. Mental slavery is about subcontracting the slave masters' duties to some Africans and remotely controlling the colonies. This is far more sinister than physical slavery because the chains of mental slavery are invisible, and they ensure generational induction of the slave mindset. It is therefore not surprising that, although slavery is no longer tolerated, many of us are held captive by limitations placed on us by ourselves and our slave master.

Again, because we are reared for subservience and exploitation, the dissociative amnesia symptom of this plague makes us feel inadequate as a people, so that although we are independent, "our greatest destiny is to be white," as pointed out by Meshell Ndegeocello. We, therefore, dress like the slave master, walk like the slave master, talk like the slave master, and act as if we are the slave master, so we will be accepted as equals by the slave-master. Ironically, in our mind's eye, we still see ourselves as slaves in their sight, and we believe that is their opinion about us.

According to Carter G. Woodson, a famous historian and a black brother, "If you can control a man's thinking, you do not have to worry about his actions." When you determine what a man should think, you do not have to concern yourself with what he will do. If you make a man feel that he is inferior, you do not have to compel him to accept an inferior status, for he will seek it himself. If you make a man think that he is justly an outcast, you do not have to order him out through the back door, he will go without being told; and if there is no back door, his very nature will demand one.

This plague has promoted self instead of unity. We cannot see we are all connected together. We fail to realise what one of us does impacts all of us and therefore helps other groups oppress us. Consequently, they play us against each other and destroy us. To borrow the words of Les Brown, The biggest enemy we must deal with is ourselves. Since if there's no enemy within, then the enemy outside can do us no harm.?

Today we don’t need apologies from the colonial masters, not even the descendants of Leopold II of Belgium to move forward, we don’t need leaders who will pontificate and do nothing, we don’t need leaders who are hypnotized and programed by the slave master, so they fall into coma anytime they are before them.?

What "Africa needs are more men and women who do not have a price at which they can be bought; who do not borrow from integrity to pay for expediency; who have their priorities straight and in proper order; whose handshake is an ironclad contract; who are not afraid of taking risks to advance what is right; and who are honest in small matters as they are in large ones." "Africa needs more men and women whose ambitions are big enough to include others; who know how to win with grace and lose with dignity; who do not believe that shrewdness and cunning and ruthlessness are the three keys to success; who still have friends they made twenty years ago; who put principle and consistency above politics or personal advancement; and who are not afraid to go against the grain of popular opinion"-Unknown Author