The Niggerization of the African (repost)

Americans who are of Polish descent will proudly refer to themselves as Polish American, or simply Polish.  They will share with you the most common foods and customs of their culture.  Americans who are of Italian descent will refer to themselves as Italian American, or Italian.  They too will share the foods and customs of their native land.  However, when it comes to Americans of African descent, they know very little about their native land and they refer to themselves as anything but African.  Some call themselves Black or African American.  The ill informed refer to themselves as Niggers or any variation thereof.  Ironically, if you try calling them an African you may have a fight on your hands.  Like their white counterparts, are African Americans a proud people or are they just proudly defeated? 

[From this point forward, the terms African and African American will be used interchangeably.] 

The African mind has been bleached of all recollection of its origin, and has nestled in a comfortable nook of nigger.  The African has been niggerized!  No other American sub-culture is more distant from its origins than the African is.  This is partly due to a self-loathing that is evident but unspoken. The aim of this article is to clarify why the self-loathing exists, how it was implemented, and how the African can correct the damage.

Self-Loathing

The most prominent and singular historical reference point African Americans have is chattel slavery.  However, it is important to clarify African culture prior to chattel slavery.  Africans are the originators of science, medicine, surgery, calendars, metric systems, architecture, spirituality, astrology, astronomy and the list goes on.  However, after the Greco-Roman invasion, these “firsts” were magically reassigned to Greek and Roman “inventors”.  Africa was raped of its knowledge, and those same rapists would later return to the continent of Africa to enslave the people.    

How would the Europeans justify the murder and enslavement of such great minds?  The collective solution:  reassign the discovery of ancient knowledge to Europeans and depict the African as barbaric and sub-human.  This psychological strategy has carried forward to modern times and the evidence of its success permeates throughout the African Diaspora.  The Romans went to Africa’s center of Knowledge [Egypt, known then as Kemet], and chopped off the heads or the Negroid noses of great statues and monuments (i.e. the Sphinx).  They took it upon themselves to rewrite history, created the term “race”, and casted themselves as the “superior” race.      

The American educational system still uses the false history of the Greeks and Romans to educate the youth.   American history books attributes all of the great accomplishments of humankind to European culture, and as the African American student sits in class s/he begins to learn how to love and respect what is white and how to hate and disown what is not white.  Because of a misrepresented history, the African American child cannot see his or her past, present or future purpose in life.  This strategic learning process creates a deep self-loathing in the African child and the seeds of the Nigger Plan are planted. 

The Implementation of the Nigger Plan

Many misuse the term "nigger", so it is rather important to properly define the term.  Merriam Webster defines a nigger as a member of a socially disadvantaged class of persons; a word expressive of racial hatred and bigotry.  As stated before, Europeans created a strategy to depict the African as sub-human, unintelligent and they did so by creating false literature, committing acts of oppression, (slave labor), and inflicting mental and physical abuse.  Africans brought to the United States were forced to speak English.  If they refused, they were beat, their tongues were cut off and/or they were killed.  The African was not allowed to practice the religion of their native land, and they were told that their beliefs were of the devil's work.  If they were caught praying to their God[s] they were punished or killed.  Any sign of African culture was brutally discouraged and eventually the African would be a cultureless drone only fit for manual labor.  Slavery was indeed a dark time, but eventually the African spirit revolted and through a collective effort, slaves were set free in 1864.  However, the Nigger Plan was so ingrained in the African mind that some of the released slaves asked to stay with their slave masters.  Their minds had not been cultivated, there was no self-confidence and they had no life skills.  The Nigger Plan was successful and modern African Americans are still living out the Nigger Plan.  Their minds are not being cultivated, they are still being fed a false history, they have no self-confidence, they lack self-love, and they have no life skills.  A few are fortunate enough to come across literature that provides them with the full truth, and they gather enough motivation to break the cycle…but most don’t. 

Correcting the Damage

If you have made it to this section of the article you are well on your way to correcting the damage.  The first step in the process of embracing the totality of your African self is learning as much as you can about the culture that you have been trained to ignore.  Immerse yourself in the reading list attached to this article, and start your reading with an open mind.  Allow yourself to doubt everything that you have learned, and allow yourself to re-learn every aspect of history and culture.  Once you have become knowledgeable, allow yourself to feel the anger, sadness and pain of your ancestors.  However, don’t stay there!  Forgive your transgressors/oppressors.  Recognize that the people who set the Nigger Plan in place are deceased, and they are simply the planters of the seed.  With new knowledge, you are the owner of your own plan and you will determine your own identity and purpose.  It will be up to you to perpetuate a foul plan or chart a course for a new and just plan.    

Learn how to see your fellow Africans as people, intellects, and contributors to society.  There will be times when this is hard to believe based on the current collective mindset, but your faith will help to change the current imbalance.  Divorce yourself from words and thoughts that bring you and others down.  Embrace your many cultures, and respect the culture of others.

In writing this, I offer you encouragement, light, and understanding.  Use the following mantra to help you focus and refocus:  A great spirit learns from the past, does not live in the past, embraces what they have in the present, does not stand still in the present, believes in the future, and envisions a self that is more powerful in the future.

Hotep!        

Reading List:

African/Black Psychology in the American Context:  An African-Centered Approach by Kobi Kambon

Let the Circle Be Unbroken by Marimba Ani

As A Man Thinketh by James Allen

Badilisho
http://ibwriting.blogspot.com