I recently listened to Ghanaian author Esther Armah speak on emotional justice at The Institute for Justice and Reconciliation. Ms Armah’s insights on this issue were seismic.

On Friday I read reports on Donald Trump’s Iowa speech. I listened to the various EFF’s 10th Anniversary speeches. It all made me ponder whether we had misunderstood our 30-year journey with liberation.

It is no surprise that the architect of apartheid had a Doctorate in Psychology. For oppression to reach the deepest parts of the human psyche, it must go beyond the physical signs of oppression and enter the human mind and soul.

Once it enters those sacred chambers, it will take many lifetimes to eradicate its effects. The psychology of apartheid oppression has induced the oppressed to become tolerant of its existence, merciful in its overthrow and confused about its replacement.

If you think that the ecosystem of oppression only concerned itself with its own existence, you have successfully been brainwashed by the oppression ecosystem. Oppression’s ideology was intended to confuse you so that post-oppression, you will feel enormous sympathy for the oppressor and bestow an immediate mercy and grace on them that they never bestowed on you.

The point of oppression is to make the oppressor the moral reference point for all of life, especially post-statutory oppression.

When our liberators fail us, we don’t go to better liberators to help us. Instead, we turn to our oppressors to lead us. We ask them to head our governments, our academic institutions, our NGOs and our media because we have moralised oppression as a temporary failure, not a human rights violation.

Because we did not invest time in building a robust freedom architecture which addressed the intellectual, economic and psychological components of liberation, we are unable to free ourselves from the oppressor and he remains our moral reference point.

The oppressor lives in our souls and minds. We will forever be changing street names, but never free our minds from using the oppressor as a moral reference point.

By capturing the language of freedom, the oppressor, without abandoning the ideology of oppression, simply builds the next ecosystem of oppression using the language of freedom.

The oppressor has found new ways to maintain their oppression and at the same time satisfy the most basic needs of the oppressed without ever giving up the ideology of oppression. Therefore anti-racism in this new liberation-sanctioned oppressive ecosystem means the oppressed can’t call out the oppressor for still being in charge, because that would be racist, right? We are now all against racism, right?

The oppressor builds new ecosystems faster than the oppressed can build liberation architectures. Why? Because power and money are aligned to the maintenance of oppressive ecosystems. Even rich oppressed people are aligned to oppressive power and money ecosystems – they enter the ecosystems built by the oppressor. The oppressor welcomes these oppressed as full members: the signs in the room say freedom and inclusion, but the mind of the oppressor says “Got you!”

We cannot just all “get along” and “not see colour” until the oppressed refuse to allow their freedom architecture to be designed by the oppressors. The oppressed will never be free until the day they find liberators who are not indoctrinated, enriched and manipulated by the oppressor’s ecosystem.

Freedom begins to be meaningful when the reference points for our new lives are no longer the ideas, dictates and interpretations of the oppressor. How we interpret what we read or listen to are early indicators of how we will build our freedom ecosystems. Every book, news clip or conversation you consume will either help construct your liberation architecture or reinforce the ecosystem of your oppression.

* Lorenzo A. Davids.

** The views expressed here are not necessarily those of Independent Media.

Cape Argus

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