Recently I was re-reading the letters of
Willie Lynch as well as the thoughts by Frederick Douglass on how to make a
slave. It has been sort of a binge week for me; writing my book, reading poems
from authors I love and learning about influential people that I had never heard of
such as John Bowley, a slave that was granted his freedom but in secret, bought his wife at an auction and as a result, set her free. My mind has been tinkering of late especially in the area
of the word emancipation and what it looks like in the world today. In the most
basic explanation, emancipation is to free one from slavery. To be emancipated,
one must have been enslaved to something or someone.
Bob Marley sung; 'Emancipate yourself
from mental slavery, none but ourselves can free our minds.' Lyrics drenched in
depth indeed. This has been my state of mind for a couple of years but has been
even more accentuated this week, especially where he says 'Emancipate
yourself.' This may sound ironic when we revisit the fact that emancipation is
the state of someone being set free from enslavement and most times, the person
doing the enslavement is not the slave.
So does this statement make sense? It
absolutely does.
When reading an excerpt from Frederick
Douglass, i saw the state in which the concept of family was thoroughly broken
during the times of slavery. The men would be beaten in front of their wives
and in some cases, their children as well. This was to show the woman that her
source of protection is helpless and cannot protect either her or their
children and the only thing to do was to submit to enslavement. This method of
torture was psychological more than it was physical. In the instinctive pattern
of the woman to nurture and protect her own, she would teach her daughters to
be independent and not depend on a man who may one day be taken away from her
but to instead grow in independence and the boys would be taught not to
question or think outside the box because if they did, they may risk death. So
they were encouraged to be physically strong but
mentally caged. Remember, the woman was not being malicious but was
trying to protect her own in the best way that she could at the time.
Over time, the sediments of
slavery have been less visible but still catastrophic.
Let's take the genre of Hip Hop. For so
many years, there was a sense of emancipation that resonated in this genre with
groups such as NWA, artists such as Common, Talib Kweli, and Lauryn Hill. Their
music burst forth what it felt like to be free or to desire a sense of freedom.
If you look at the very same scene, things are very different today. I can't
help but notice some similarities today with what
Frederick Douglass highlighted on such as Men who flaunt their
physiques in videos as opposed to speaking out content that is
edifying and even Women speaking of how they do not need men. Today
independence is one of the most consistent talks in ladies' circles. I doubt
many men and women actually know the root of what has brought us to where we
are now.
Away from the media, let's look at Kenya.
Tribalism has been rampart in this country since we achieved independence,
which many argue in light of today was not really achieved fully, but our
masters just changed and look like us, talk like us then hide behind the guise
of the words 'us'. Who knew the words of Willie Lynch would make sense in a
country such as ours albeit in a slightly different dimension? We cannot run
from the fact that we have an unfortunate culture of hating each other because
of differences that should actually make us appreciate each other’s diversity.
The most important part of this for me is
this: THIS IS NOT SOMETHING WE DON'T ALREADY KNOW.
So then, since we know this, why is it that nothing is ever
being done? Our education systems are archaic and do not encourage creativity
or thinking outside the box from a young age, our work places are more places
to simply following instructions than an inclusive place to
share strengths and proclivities in order to achieve set goals and
almost every single institution in this country has either striking employees
or unfulfilled ones that would never strike but just work to get money and bury
their hopes, dreams or desires? John 10:10 (MSG) says A thief is only there to
steal and kill and destroy. I came so they can have real and eternal life, more
and a better life than they have ever dreamed of. Other versions say that I
came that they may have life and have it more abundantly, while others even say
life until it overflows. If you look around, few look to be living these lives.
I believe, just like Willie Lynch
had orchestrated, we were thrown in a ring where we each saw the other as
a lion and the tunes of kill or be killed have been playing in our ears
for generations. I hope that one day, we can be able to agree to halt the
charge, boycott the tune and ask each other why we do this to each other. Why
we do this to ourselves. There is a type of freedom that will never be
achieved unless we emancipate ourselves with the key of love, a love that
governs how we relate, how we treat our employees, how we treat those below us
and this in itself will trickle down to how they treat themselves. It's about
time we stop looking at matters from the lens of who is right and who is wrong
and decide to acknowledge that we are enslaving ourselves by how we treat and
perceive each other.
Men, we need to stand up and show
leadership and love to each other and to our women. It is not and will never be
easy but true emancipation starts when we choose today to take responsibility
and where we can, apologize for our mistakes., It does not make us less of a
man to walk up to a brother, colleague, employee and say that you are sorry for
seeing them in a certain way. We will never lose anything by making another
person feel like they are human by allowing their voice to be heard. Many in
this country feel oppressed in one way or the other and
the truth is most oppressors know it is their fault. How I pray
for a day when those in leadership will sincerely work towards genuine
reconciliation with those that they lead and work to have their voices heard
and to heal wounds that are very well hidden but still very much bleeding.
How I pray for a day that we choose to be
the bigger person, to take the low route because we know it will never harm us
to show a sense of freedom to another. John 8:36 says: So if the Son has
liberated you [makes you free men], then you are really
and unquestionably free. This freedom does not begin when we die but here
on earth, to be shared with each other.
Emancipation is for the humble and for
the brave when you realize that it is you, all along, that have enslaved
yourself and as a result, your most automatic and natural pattern is to enslave
others whether you know it or not. One thing is certain though, it is for
freedoms sake that we were ALL made free (Galatians 5:1) To deny that we
are/were enslaved is to deny the need for freedom and emancipation.
The love of God that goes to a thousand
generations should be seen to be more powerful than the makings of a slave that
were planned to continue for 300 years. Choose to receive freedom from whatever
has enslaved you, choose to show freedom to whomever has felt enslaved by you
and let this freedom govern our lives because it starts with us.
