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My key takeaways from Dr. Kwasi Konadu’s lecture yesterday:
1. African people exist as phobogenic objects, that is as objects of white loathing, fear, and aggression.
2. African people exist in an indeterminant state between negrophilia and negrophobia in the white collective consciousness. The love of Black performance represents negrophilia. The generalized disdain for Black people is negrophobia.
3. African people can never achieve freedom on terms emanating from the white psyche, thus rendering the politics of reform as largely futile.
4. In order to be truly free, African people must define and actualize freedom on the basis of our own cultural paradigm.
5. Three tools which can be used to advance the healing of African people:
-Water as a means to clean the body. He highlighted the value of a three day water fast as a means of resetting the immune system.
-Rituals to cleanse one’s space and to cultivate one’s connection to one’s ancestors
-Learning an African language as a way of reorienting one’s consciousness and fully reclaiming one’s humanity. He said, “If you want to be conceptually and psychologically free learn an African language.”
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That’s deep, and thanks for the notes. Hopefully, this was captured on video.
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I think that it was recorded, but I’m not sure.
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Bro Kwasi also did the keynote speech at the Sankofa conference. He stated most of this there too. However, part of what he shared that stood out the most to me was his analysis on why the Maroons lost their freedom, and his conclusion was it was their FIXITY on a set location. I found that to be very interesting as I never heard anyone say this before and it makes a lot of sense.
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I would have loved to have been there. I’ll have to plan for next year.
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Can you explain further what he meant by their fixity on a set location?
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Sure thing. He meant a fixed physical location instead of being mobile. He gave the example of Palmares, one of the biggest quilombos in Brazil and the Afrikan world, was in a static fixed location so the enemy knew where to go to get them. If they were mobile and agile, it wouldn’t have been as easy.
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That’s interesting. I need to read more on the maroons besides the common narratives out there everybody knows
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One of the books I use in the class I teach is Maroon Societies as it’s a good compilation of the various countries in the Afrikan Diaspora
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Only thing i feel is real talk “4. In order to be truly free, African people must define and actualize freedom on the basis of our own cultural paradigm.” But can or do we want to pay the cost? I feel we would like to read and talk about it because that’s how we have been trained to act.
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