Colonization of the Mind: Global Mental & Health Instability

On December 15th, 2021, I arrived in Accra, Ghana, and stayed for a few months to discover, learn, explore and connect. I have the aim to develop an anthropological field study on the effects of globalization and westernization on Afrakan infrastructure throughout the diaspora. I started this initiative observing different ‘ethnic’ groups, communities, cultures, and languages in the Greater Accra Region. I have been cognizant of the effects of racism, however, to observe the overarching impact in an Afrakan country felt like being a witness to a silent/spiritual war. This silent war has been upheld by sophisticated, yet. barbaric institutions which global citizens find themselves participating in. In 1851, Samuel Cartwright, a proclaimed psychiatrist declared that enslaved Afrakans fleeing captivity were suffering from drapetomania, a mental illness (Cartwright, 1851). However, I am certain we suffer from a mental illness which pertains to the failure of defending our sovereignty, livelihood, and dynasties by any means necessary due to a diminishing love of self and growing fondness of the abuser/oppressor/captor. This mental illness is actually a disease which eats away at the DNA and is labeled Akoayareε which is a combined condition of εhu-yε (state of fear) and akoa-yε (slave state) - some people may have more extreme conditions than others, hence it is a spectrum.

There has been limited effort to observe the mental illnesses existent in 'white' societies or the restoration of the spiritual and physical mind of inhumane acts toward Afrakans. What prompted white communities to dehumanize non-white people, what civility exists in such a barbaric act? The western people strategically studied Afrakan (indigenous, non-western, or non-white) infrastructure and people for centuries before executing colonization and there has been a debilitating impact on global consciousness and intellect. There has been no emergence of enlightenment for justice, truth and equity as it has replaced with capitalism a system of bloodshed. Capitalism main source of wealth is from enslavement, deportations (illegal exportation of people), massacres, forced labor, unjust legal codes, resource extraction, cultural obliteration, etc. for the obtainment of mineral reserves to preserve power.

It has become overwhelmingly clear to me that the global Afrakan community is stuck in a cycle of mental and spiritual bondage as we willingly participate in institutions which oppress our land, our families, our culture, our history, and our identities. There has been an attitude to give up the fight rather than unify because we have been conditioned to believe to distrust each other, it would be too hard to unify, or some of us are just so economically desperate. There was a study conducted that revealed that socioeconomic statuses encompassing educational attainment, financial security, and perceptions of social class influenced behaviors either causing low violence or high violence in a community.

History teaches us clearly that the battle against colonialism does not run straight away along the lines of nationalism. For a very long time the native devotes his energies to ending certain definite abuses: forced labor, corporal punishment, inequality of salaries, limitation of political right...This fight for democracy against the oppression of mankind will slowly leave the confusion of neo-liberal universalism to emerge, laboriously, as a claim to nationhood....the unpreparedness of the educated classes, the lack of practical links between them and the mass of the people, their laziness, and...their cowardice at the decisive moment of the struggle will give rise to tragic mishaps.

The Wretched of the Earth: The Pitfalls of National Consciousness pg. 148. Frantz Fanon

Westernization has disturbed and disconnected the Afrakan mind by dispossessing many cultures across the continent and diaspora of their bases, knowledge of tradition, and dignity in culture. There exists an intruding disease of colonization of the mind that causes Afrakan societies to default to lawlessness, immorality, corruption, unethical tendencies and lack of integrity. In the Greater Accra Region of Ghana, I witnessed a myriad of experiences of the emulation of western culture, the disposal of Afrakan pride, the refusal of Afrakan unity and unprincipled protocols that exists to destroy. Westernization is defined in the American Heritage dictionary as an “assimilation of Western culture; the social process of...converting to the customs and practices of Western civilization” the terms customs and practices generally refer to such matters as industry, technology, law, politics, economics, lifestyle, diet, language, alphabet, religion, or values; and the term ‘Western’ refers to American as well as western European culture. Most indigenous communities around the world have had to assimilate into a system by force and in doing so have become linguistic prisoners speaking the language of their oppressors. So what disparity gaps does that cause in the mind of those whose native tongue is not english but it is all they know?

Westernization has had an accelerating influence worldwide in the last few centuries. Western influences requires interests that usually compromise the interests of global non-western nations. Westernization and colonization uproot lifestyles through various degrees of domination, destruction, adaptation, and modification in indigenous or native cultures. Westernization attempts to remodel native cultures within their own aspirations for their own benefit, ignoring models of culture that have threatened to subjugate developing countries of Africa. There has been a total disregard of indigenous culture, customs, environments, and socio-economic status by westernization and Neo-colonialism.

Westernization has discouraged natural medicine in order to resell pseudo pharmaceuticals for high prices which cause increased medical conditions. Global cultures around the world that passed on knowledge of plant cultivation, nutrients and benefits have increasingly dwindled throughout the years. In Ghana, I observed that urban local crops are utilized as exports as a means to acquire sufficient funds for imported chemical foods. Never mind the health implications on the community and it is often approved by FDA. I have observed that in urban areas in Ghana, the government is not equipped to handle ethnocide and instead stand at the mercy of Neo-colonialism, disregarding the negative implications to the people they have been sworn to protect. Ideologies, economic-political structures, architecture and technology are introduced to civilizations globally for the goal of ethnocide. Cultural colonization is the most pervasive form of subjugation because it permits the people to neglect their identity. Physical colonization is the extension of a nation over a territory over its proper borders which has taken precedence over the Americas and Afraka. According to the Columbia Encyclopedia, “before colonization can be effected, the indigenous population must be subdued and assimilated or converted to the culture of the colonists.” Therefore, a spiritual and psychological problem is prevalent globally as it is accepted to exploit our reflections (each other) for personal gain. The once oppressed people that still find themselves oppressed in new ways consciously and subconsciously choose to emulate the system which has oppressed them as opposed to intentionally rebuilding a communal society. Is that not an obvious sign of mental illness?

The first nation to gain independence, Ghana, is diseased with layers of corruption that it nearly is engrained in the social interactions amongst people. The blame does not fall unto the system alone but the people itself as there is a choice in behavior. The people sustain systems. Although, there is a lack of proper education globally, we have a choice whether to be kind towards each other or to treat each other as enemies. We (the) people permit corrupt systems to function out of fear or false illusion of "peace". I believe this is due to the destruction of the Afrakan ancestral self, losing histories of narratives where our ancestors never acquiesced.

I noticed that when there is a trivial incident that is able to be resolved through civil discourse with a fellow peer or stranger, it is used as an opportunity for people to misplace their rage and anger on someone that looks like themself. Is this anger with the self or deficiencies of self? The culture of colonization was entrenched with respect to deficiencies of self that served the interests of colonial masters and nations. What I have witnessed personally has disheartened and inspired me simultaneously because the struggle for an empowered education will continue until Afrakans unify to drastically create a new reality. The increasing global connectivity, integration, interdependence in the socio-economic-political, technological, cultural, and ecological spheres are becoming western standardized. International shipping, material exports & imports, price standards, and technological knowledge are all influenced by western norms. The global masses must reflect on how this truth may psychologically impair cultural groups that were/are non-western. The origins have its roots with Afrakan people but it has adapted in such an extent that serves the white agenda. ٍ

What is the toll of serving the colonial master in contemporary times?

Do we jeopardize our dignity, our self-respect, our integrity, our sense of self?

If this impacts the global community, how do we hold ourselves accountable to ensure we are not endorsing a system of slavery? Slavery has nothing to do with a race or color...the enslaved are all those that support a system of chattel slavery. If any of us are oppressed, we all are. The United States of America holds about 1/4 of the world's population incarcerated, enslaved, subjugated, oppressed and a majority of population unknowingly and knowingly support the corporations that benefit from prison/slave labor. How deranged the 'human' mind has become? How poorly we treat each other? How little we think of each other?

Westernization, colonization, and imperialism impairs the global community to experience life abundantly as it is a devastation and atrocity on humanity. It has no limitation on race, color, gender, age, religion, etc... it is a sophisticated form of a barbaric and uncivilized way of domination. This domination inhibits nature itself, thus is it the manifestation of evil?

The solutions are clear. We must unify with each other and global Afrakan/indigenous/non-western cultures must value their own knowledge, culture, and identity. If this does not happen then the people are no different from zombies- the living dead controlled by evil. Only together will there be justice, peace and truth.

KnowThySelf or Perish.

Asé.

Stay tuned for upcoming case studies.