Last Updated on August 5, 2015
This powerful video is an excerpt of a class led by Dr. Marimba Ani, author of YURUGU – An African centered critique of European Cultural thought and behavior. What she brings to light, in a rich and realistic way, is the issue of how indigenous cultures (in this case the African people) have allowed themselves to be indoctrinated by the European culture and mindset. Even though her words are aimed at Africans, in reality we (and and I) are all indigenous to this Earth, and we have all been equally indoctrinated. So, with that in mind, her message is as relevant as a to white man or woman in Sweden as it is to a black person is Africa, or anywhere else for that matter.
[youtube id=”tf5q8LUMxdY” align=”center” mode=”normal” autoplay=”no” maxwidth=”1200″ parameters=”?modestbranding=1 controls=2 showinfo=0″]
From my perspective, we are all indigenous to this Earth, and we all have a particular Mother-tongue by birthright. Yet most of us lost it, and even if we know it a little, we’re far from being fluent and conversant in this language. Our common Mother-tongue is the language of the Heart. If we are ever going to all understand each other—all our fellow humans on this planet, and all our fellow animals, plants, rivers, mountains, bacteria, rocks, fungi, lakes, etc.—we have no choice but to relearn and remember our true Mother-tongue… our Heart language and our Heart wisdom.
You can buy Dr. Ani’s books online. Although they were published in 1994 and may be out of print:
She also wrote Let the Circle Be Unbroken: The Implications of African Spirituality in the Diaspora
Thank you so much for this. I so appreciate your efforts to open people up to new information. A critical piece of my personal awakening journey was going through undoing racism trainings (provided by The People’s Institute for Survival and Beyond). It introduced me to the concept that you hold beliefs that you are unconscious of, which are shaped by a history which is hidden from you, that impact your views and actions now. I have come to understand this exists on various levels in our lives, but race is, let’s say, the gilded cage that keeps “white” people protecting the matrix of power-because they get the best scraps and fight off all attacks on the system. As you say, our ancestors who came to America had to abandon their mother culture to be legally defined as white (a fluid and legal construct that changed over America’s history to meet the political and economic needs for control of the moment) and reap benefits such as land grants, education, housing, jobs, and most importantly, protection from brutal violence. “Whiteness” as such, was really a manufactured and shallow culture of corporate products- McDonalds, Rockefeller, and Hollywood. I am always disappointed by the complete avoidance within the “awakening community” of examining race as a major tool of control. It seems we must examine our own cultural history more critically before we jump on the bandwagon of other people’s cultures because we seek deeper meaning. My concern is, because of our unconscious cultural mindset of dominance and superiority, and our deep training to be repelled on a physical level to any discussion of race (studies have shown this), if we avoid understanding this aspect of ourselves and our culture, we will transfer our old white supremacist mindset for a spiritual supremacist mindset- because we are culturally conditioned to see ourselves as “the best” in whatever context, not the biggest pawns on the planet. Many people of color have been “awakened” or were smart enough to never be lulled to sleep. Our meaning will come when we can courageously admit we have been pawns and reject our gilded cage in order to stand united with people of color and indigenous people all over the world who have been brutalized for generations along with our planet, while we watched TV and consumed their blood labor. Peace to you and keep bringing the wisdom!