Wednesday Wisdom scoop from the late author and thinker, Maya Angelou

This week’s Wednesday Wisdom scoop from the late author and thinker Maya Angelou (1928 – 2014) serves as a reminder of the significance of history when trying to shape a future.

Both on individual and community levels, detaching people from their roots often – if not always – results in identity crises. Furthermore, when people do not know their true history, they become susceptible to manipulation by other people’s narratives of who they are.

For example, Africans who have internalised the idea that they are inferior to Europeans actively go out of their way to be the closest they possibly can to Whiteness. It is why skin bleaching, for instance, is an epidemic in many parts of the continent and beyond. Or the reason some Africans in the diaspora try to distance themselves from the continent based on narratives told to them by the imperialists about Africa.

Arguably, the most important wing of liberation is mental decolonisation, as it is from this that all other actions result. Emancipation from mental slavery cannot be achieved without a strong footing to renew the mind. That strong footing for Africans is African history; understanding where we have been and how we arrived at our current reality to know where we are heading and shape tomorrow’s current.

Source:
https://www.nytimes.com/1972/04/16/archives/-for-years-we-hated-ourselves.html