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It is the story...that
saves our progeny from blundering like blind beggars
into the spikes of the cactus fence.
The story is our escort; without it, we are blind.
Does the blind man own his escort? No, neither do we the
story;
rather it is the story that owns us and directs us."
--Chinua Achebe, Anthills of the Savannah (1987)
The celebration of Black History Month is a call for
reflection on the role of people of color in the development
of the US and a call for the telling of the story of those
people.
Chinua Achebe, writing on the beauty of telling our stories,
admonished us that we have a responsibility to remind
ourselves constantly where we come from. We do not own the
story, but it is our guide.
If we forget our history, we die. However, we should not
dwell in the past, but it should be part of the learning
curve, recalling the words of Ronald Wright that “Each
time history repeats itself, the price goes up.”
We should be guided by the lessons. They are a constant
reminder of our role and place in the scheme of things.
Leslie Marmon Silko, in the epigraph to Ceremony
(1977) wrote: "I will tell you something about
stories...They aren't just entertainment...They are all we
have...to fight off illness and death. You don't have
anything if you don't have the stories."
What is our story? How should we tell our stories? Where
should we begin? Our stories will help us appreciate the
phenomenon called black lives matters. This has been quite a
controversy, casting fear on some, and excitement and
liberation for others.
How can a movement drive such contrasting emotions? Should
we be afraid or should we celebrate? Only time will tell,
but we should tell our story.
The story of America is a tale of survival. It is the
fascinating story of a people who rose above the
vicissitudes of life to achieve the dream of a prosperous
society. They had to travel across oceans to a land they did
not know and to an uncertain future.
There were two classes of people who made this journey. One
group came voluntarily, the other made the voyage against
their will.
The first group came voluntarily for various reasons ranging
from curiosity, to desperation, to a sense of survival to
avoid prosecution in their former country or simply to find
a new life.
There were also the reluctant voyagers who were uprooted
from their ancestral homes against their will, often
violently, to travel to the new land to bring a profit for
the slave merchants, plantation owners or anybody who could
afford them.
It is a sad tale for the reluctant travelers. Only the brave
would survive, but the nightmare of the sea trip was
unending as their lives were not rosy in the new land. They
had to endure various humiliations and hardships.
These are the people of color. The voluntary voyagers were
people of the dominant culture: they were sometimes ruthless
visionaries, conscious of their desires and brutally
aggressive in acquiring them, subduing any obstacle on the
way.
Native Americans, Mexicans and others have devastating
stories about how their land was taken from them. The
nation’s power and economy stem from such acquisitions,
leaving the victims disenfranchised.
This is the story of America – two sets of people coming
into the same space with different motives, advantages and
power structure. The means of this engagement had a profound
effect on the parties; it is a contributing factor to the
life situations of the parties.
How do people of color tell their stories to empower them
and future generations to be great?
Chinua Achebe provides a clue, he wrote: “It is the story...that
saves our progeny from blundering like blind beggars into
the spikes of the cactus fence.”
The story should counter the discourses of the dominant
culture. It should provide a critical and interpretive
framework of the situation of the people from philosophical,
sociological and historic perspectives. The structural and
systemic impediments to the lives of people of color is not
based on the lack of effort by the people but by the lack of
collective political will to change the situation. Thereby
placing the people at a disadvantage from the beginning.
There is no need to be afraid of the black lives matters
movement for those participants are harmless, just playing
the role of advocating for the plight of the black folks.
There are not as ruthless as the earlier settlers.
In the words of
Frantz Fanon,
“Each generation must, out of relative obscurity, discover
its mission, fulfill it, or betray it.”
The
mission of BLM is the transformation of society. The role is
to bring the plight of people of color to the surface for it
to be resolved and transformed. It should be positive for
the society. It is not and should not be conceived as
confrontation by people of color against the dominant
culture. NO!
It should
be seen as an act of love, as Paulo Freire would conceive
it. It is the oppressed helping the oppressor to be free of
the shackles that constrain the oppressor.
Stories give freedom that empowers the oppressed to be human
again. The oppressed can liberate the oppressor by restoring
their humanity by standing against oppression.
This was captured by Freire: "The central problem is this:
How can the oppressed, as divided, unauthentic beings,
participate in developing the pedagogy of their liberation?
Only as they discover themselves to be ‘hosts’ of the
oppressor can they contribute to the midwifery of their
liberating pedagogy. As long as they live in the duality in
which to be is to be like, and to be like is to be like the
oppressor, this contribution is impossible. The pedagogy of
the oppressed is an instrument for their critical discovery
that both they and their oppressors are manifestations of
dehumanization."
Such change is accomplished by acknowledging the situation
and working for transformation for the oppressed and the
oppressor. It is a work of love driven by freedom which is
actually the beginning of change. The oppressed in
solidarity need to realize the workings of the oppressor and
not internalize their behavior. The oppressed should not
accept their fate as the act of God. The oppressor wants the
oppressed to accept the status quo.
Story telling as education acts as both a leverage and a
tool for change. The oppressed need to come to that
realization in order to break away from their present
situation.
It is not something to be imposed from afar but a product of
reflection. Liberation implemented by conscious beings is an
act of love; it is the action to transform the world. The
hope is that BLM should lead this process. Their work is an
act of love!!
Colins Imoh is a doctoral scholar at the Department of
Educational Foundations & Leadership at the University of
Toledo. He can be reached on
imohcolins@gmail.com. His area of interest is
multicultural movement, diversity and peace. He believes
that if people work together in solidarity, there will be a
more peaceful world.
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