Many many years ago, when I was 12 or 13yrs, I read the book “Roots”. A large book by all standards, that told the story of the African Slave – Kunta Kinte and his capture and journey from The Gambia to slavery in America. In one of the chapters, something that struck me was his tale about the Eboes from West Africa who upon arrival on the shores of America, held hands and walked into the open sea 🌊- preferring to die as free men than be slaves.
Today, there is lots of mental slavery going on in the minds of the black man. From people who protest events happening in far way America, to people who bleach their skin, to black men who call themselves “people of color” – signifying that we are the abnormal ones. Some years back, when killings happened in France, these people put “Pray for France” all over social media but failed to acknowledge the massive death counts Boko Haram made the next days that followed.
Maybe it’s my obsession with History or Maybe I come from a long lost time. Of strong proud African men and women with strong beliefs. Of the times the Richest man in the World was Mansa Musa to the times when Africa colonized the world.
The breed of Africans contemporary African writers like Chinua Achebe, Wole Soyinka, Ngungi Wa Thiongo, Walter Rodney eulogized in their books. Africa must rise out of mental slavery. America is not the World. We must get out of the mental rut created for us by the White man.
Maybe I come from a line of Eboe men who refused to be conquered by the White man and even today, refuses to bow to a fellow man on account of financial power or military strength.