We need to define history more accurately, and the history of African people, the Bantu, the Zulu, the Yarubas, to give a tiny example, is long, unique and needs to be written and studied. History is not the story of the impact of the western world on the African world; that is a small part of our history.
History is not objective. The meaning of history keeps on revealing itself through time. Like a text of infinite interpretability, history yields new meanings in relation to the eyes that behold it and the pressures of the times. History may be memory, history may be vengeance, history may be redemption - but whatever history is, it is too soon to extrapolate the meaning of our recent histories. Those who write about history in haste and fall into quick judgements find that the long unfolding of events change the meaning of the facts upon which they base their judgements. Time is a great ironist. The historian who makes a quick judgement against the United States of America right in the middle of her apocalyptic Civil War, would be made fooling by the unfolding destiny of that nation.
History may be fact, history may be a dream, history may be revelation. It is not how things are that count, it's what you do with them, what vision you have and with what strength you march towards that vision. We need a new consciousness. History is always responsive to a new consciousness.
Ben Okri speech extract from UCT’s 13th annual Steve Biko lecture
Simply put, my understanding of African consciousness is that it holds me responsible for how I show up and tell my story in the world. It makes me responsible for my own narrative, liberation and freedom. Though freedom is a fruit we can all savour, it remains a gift that comes from within. No external entity can ever gift freedom as it begins in the psyche and is lived through the spiritual, and physical world.
I believe we are being called to write a different story – one where we are not only conscious of our history, but also conscious of our minds, bodies and spirituality. A story that centres our essence where no one group can dictate nor decide the fate of others. This is the story of a new Africa, not the one living under the plague of inferiority and subjected to distorted narratives of the so-called conqueror who is equally damaged by their colonial past of inhumane acts and lessons of superiority. So too the elites cannot be entrusted to lead the charge, but all should be responsible for their own freedom and liberation, a liberation that begins in the knowledge and love of self and is expressed without the need to dehumanise the other.
Reverend Kabelo Motlhakane - African Consciousness – A 21st Century Reflection on Identity, Being and Belonging
We need a new consciousness - A call to being. We need a rebirth of our sensory perception; mental imagery; inner speech; conceptual thought; remembering; emotional feeling; volition; and self-awareness on Africa, its history and contemporary present being. This is a process of restoring self to true humanity. Ubuntu Bethu …
