“Love your neighbour as yourself”. So says the cardinal doctrine of the world’s major religions. This of course also means love yourself as you would your neighbour.
It is my contention that this was/is based on the assumption that as a normal human being one would naturally love himself. The African however is an exception. In whatever way possible, he has tried to be anything but African. The bleaching and straightening of hair I need not belabour you with. From food, shelter, clothing and language to sports and entertainment, the African has discarded his for the “civilized” Western ones. Even the form of marriage must be the Western one, I mean “wedding” or it is no marriage!
You know what? When I hear people proudly profess how hospitable we are, I just smile. Is not said that charity begins at home? Are we hospitable to ourselves? I do not think so. For if that were true, where from these PhDs (Pull him Down) degrees that a vast majority of us possess.
That this is a deviation from the norm means something must be wrong. Specifically, the African has been indoctrinated with stories that make him despise himself. The African from cradle to grave is not only told stories like Satan is “black” and God is “white”, but he is also sent to the Caucasian’s place of worship to receive the “holy spirit” and made to shun the African’s place of worship to keep away from the “evil spirit”. With such stories, is not practically impossible for the African to love himself. After all, whoever loves Satan or anything in his image?
The absence of the African’s love for himself has resulted in the consequent degradation of himself all in attempt to be like the Caucasian who he perceives to be God-like. Malcolm X’s experience in his autobiography is typical of most Africans. He notes, “This was my first really big step toward self-degradation when I endured all that pain, literally burning my flesh to have it look like a white man’s hair.” But if the African is to progress, he must first love himself simply because without love for himself he can never do anything worthwhile for himself.
Love for ourselves means having a strong affection or tender feelings for ourselves. Love for ourselves stems from the fact that we like other races have some good qualities that need to be held in high esteem. If nothing at all, we were created in the image of God and this makes us unique.
Let no one deceive you! The African has everything deserving love. As forcefully expressed by Samuel Ringgold Ward, “… I have often been called a nigger, and some have tried to make me believe it; and the only consolation that has been offered me for being called a nigger was that when I die and go to heaven, I shall be white. But if I cannot go to heaven as black as God made me, let me go down to hell and dwell with the Devil forever.”
It is high time we realise that love of God is love of mankind and the love of mankind starts with one’s self. Anyone who claims to love God but does not love his neighbour is a liar. But anyone who claims to love his neighbour but does not love himself is the biggest liar who ever walked the face of the earth.
san-kofa
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