REBUILDING THE FRACTURED AFRICAN IDENTITY - IT SEEMS AS THOUGH “WHITE IS LIGHT”

REBUILDING THE FRACTURED AFRICAN IDENTITY

IT SEEMS AS THOUGH “WHITE IS LIGHT”

One of the major scientific discoveries of the 17^th century by Isaac Newton was about the spectral nature of light. It revealed one of the less obvious nature of white light. Before then, white light has been considered the purest and most elemental form of light. But by passing white light through a prism, Newton discovered that white light was neither pure nor elemental. The prism separated the white light into a set of composite colors called the spectrum; which is composed of red, orange, yellow, blue, green, indigo and violet (the colors of the rainbow).  So scientifically, you can see “white is not necessarily light”.

Throughout black sub-Sahara Africa there is an Elated, exalted and sovereign image of the white man deep down in the heart of the black-man. Till today when we meet an amazing technological innovation or scientific breakthrough, you bear words like “Oyibo bu Agbara” (in South-Eastern part of Nigeria) meaning the white man is a god.  Exclamations like “Ndiocha di egwu or “Oyibo too much” which means the white man is wonderful.  Almost every tribe has an exclamatory cliché that exalts his scientific, technological and economic supremacy.

The presence of a white man in a black institution in Africa still sends forces of superiority that subtly and consistently tugs on us. The absence of a white expatriate in a major construction contract or technological exercise in Africa sends shock waves of substandardness around. As much as we don’t like it, that’s just the cultural thinking.

Ben Carson, the African-American world-class Neurosurgeon, the first doctor to successfully separate brain conjoined twins and head of pediatrics Neurosurgery department in John Hopkins hospital (a purely white majority institution), said in his book “gifted hands” that he got the most problems from black patients. The white patients just assumed that he must be extremely smart to be black and be the head. But the black patients saw him as a mediocre that was made the head in order to give them a false sense of equal social integration.

Well I don’t totally blame us. After centuries of slavery, colonization and oppression, the psychological pains, torment and inferiority complexes is still lingering around in our minds. Slavery was abolished a long time ago and blacks were just advised to forget the past and move on. It’s not an easy thing to do. But the question is, who is says or is saying that “white is light”?

Well the truth is that the white man said it first. He said it first by both positive and negative means. Positively, at a particular point in history, he brought so much value to the world that he took over. Negatively, he enslaved, oppressed and colonized others. But then, even though he said it first, it is the black man that is sustaining that statement. I mean look around you, we live in a white dominated Africa.

1.    Our God is white (not the religion necessarily but the racial description of the divine personalities).

2.    Majority of our cultural marriages has an almost mandated white wedding ceremony attached to it (have you heard white people doing an African marriage ceremony).

3.    Along with our native names, it’s almost like its compulsory to have an English  name attached to it (nothing wrong with that, but why so prevalent? do you see Europeans answering African names?)

4.    It’s now a modern cultural norm to have your children be able to speak only the official English or French language. Parents actually brag on the fact that their kids speak only English. (nothing wrong with striving to learn English or other foreign languages. But why does it sound more intelligent and sophiscated to us more than our own?)

5.    Our modern measure of intelligence for children and social intellectual status is determined by the child’s ability to use English language more than their local languages. No matter how intelligent you might be, nobody gives you chance if your intonation is considered local. (the Asians learn science and technology in their local languages and still do well. Why should we write off a child because their command for English language is poor and even go further to write a law that makes is impossible for them to proceed to higher institutions except they pass English even when they are good in other sciences)

6.    You are considered beautiful if you are more light skinned. So much so that we had to construct a black and proud cliché to pacify our identity inadequacy. (have you ever heard white and proud? Have you ever seen white women buying and using curly hair from black women? Nothing wrong with long hairs, but why is it considered a standard here?)

7.    We live in an averagely hot equatorial climate but have to wear coats (suits) around as a standard for decent and cooperate dressing (a coat worn by people living in humid subtropical zones like Europe).

8.    And many other cultural inconsistencies.

For over 200 years, we have not been able to really pick up pace equally with other races economically and technologically. And of course it’s not possible. It’s like a bird trying to swim in water. The best that can happen to the bird is not drowning immediately. But she will never meet up to the swimming pace of the fish and will eventually drown. Except we discover and embrace our African identity, we are not going anywhere!!

You’ve heard numerous motivational stories of how a baby cub was abandoned and picked up by a farmer. The farmer put him side by side with his sheep’s and it grew into a lion but behaving like a sheep all its life because he lacked the knowledge of its identity. The first rule of existence is that you can never express you full potentials if you don’t discover, embrace and express who you are. Because when we do, we discover that black is the purest form of light. Hypothetically abstracting from science, Dark matter is the main constituent of the universe; Almost 70% (where do you go in the world and not find black indigents). Dark energy is responsible for the expansion of the universe. (black people are the man power that built the western civilization). The black body is the hypothetical perfect absorber that can absorb any light frequency without being changed. The black body is also a perfect radiator (sadly, this is the part we don't know and never explore). We have been everything to everybody but for ourselves”. 

Your identity is everything. Imagine there is no part of your intellect that reminded that you are a human and therefore at the top of the food chain, you will be living and behaving like an animal or even worse. If we don’t discover and embrace the black originality pattern to this human race, we will forever remain subjugated.

Join me in this REBUILDING THE FRACTURED BLACK IDENTITY SERIES as we try to discover new great African realities.