Apartheid and the era of slavery came and is now gone but are black people really free? What has accomplishing freedom done for our mentality? Are black people still suffering from inferior complex? We need to realise that servitude is not just about being in chains and calling the white man “baas” while being treated less than his dogs. True servitude is in the mind, the way you think, the way you view yourself and those who were your former oppressor.
Freedom has seen many black people thrive in this country. Multi-racial schools are a norm in society and we have come to co-exist with each other peacefully. This is nice and all but are black people really free mentally. This question I pose after observing how many black people still believe the DA could bring back apartheid if they came in power. People strongly believe the past can come back to haunt us if power is given back to the white man. We rather endure the constant abuse from the ruling party than to imagine a white man take over the hot seat. We’re trapped! We have moved to dodging rubber bullets and tear gas physically to doing it mentality.
We suffer from inferior complex even in the work place. A black person is more comfortable with a white manager than a black one, they assume the white man knows best. With all races, size and form attending various universities across the country, it’s only a trapped mind that makes us assume the white man knows better. This behaviour can be observed amongst teens as well where when a black teen associates himself with a white teen and forgets his roots and starts speaking in a pretentious nasal accent which is interpreted to make you seem smarter than the normal speaking black man. A black teen would rather redesign his culture, religion and behaviour to mimic that of a white teen than to expect the white teen to do the same. This kind of mentality is the reason why I believe white people found it so easy to land on our continent and do as they please to the locals.
Many black people live to please the white man at his black brothers expense. It’s a mental warfare and we seem to be lacking adequate ammunition to do proper combat. We don’t like reading, we don’t follow too much of the news, we hardly get out of our comfort zones and we downright ignorant. For the black man to transcend mentally in order to stop being modern day slaves, it will require great effort. We are at a very exciting time for our race and continent but to really grab the opportunities infront of us we need to awaken from our slumber and realise though we are not in chains we’re still slaves to our minds.
Quoting from the late iconic Steve Biko "The most potent weapon of the oppressor is the mind of the oppressed" and highlighting an idea/concept of another icon, Ngugi Wathiongo, he steps harder on the need for a black man to emancipate his own self by first unchaining his mentality and certain perceptions in his book 'Decolonising the mind". It is still very sad seeing the modern era melanin man still falling victim of racial stereotypes and personality insufficiency. The lack breeds from the failure of institutionalising the black childs mind from his circle of primary socialization (i.e Home) and allowing information to circulate and manifest within the child so that they may exercise better risk-option choice making, and now secondary socialization exploits and exposes that void, hence society still breeds these types of minds you describe.
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