The Mastermind and The Slavemind

From chattel slavery and colonization to economic dependency, African communities have endured a long history of challenges to survival by European communities. While millions of lives were lost during the African holocaust, Africans have managed to survive in great numbers into the new millennium. The year 2019 marks the 400th anniversary since the first African was brought to what would be known as the U. S. As people of African descent reflect on this anniversary, it is notable that while physically present many Blacks continue to face significant challenges to their aspirations and self-identity. "Most psychiatrists and psychologists would agree that the Negro American suffers from a marred self-image, of varying degree, which critically affects his entire psychological being," stated Alvin F. Poussaint, a noted African-American psychologist and author of Why Blacks Kill Blacks. "It is also a well-documented fact that this negative self-concept leads to self-destructive attitudes and behavior that hinder the Negro's struggle toward full equality in American life." To understand the dilemma of the African-American self concept we must go back to the bastardized birth of "the Negro" through the subjugation of the African during the holocaust of African enslavement by Europeans. The purpose of reviewing this history and to speak in honest terms regarding the facts of this history is not to demonize the European, for he may have very well done an excellent job of doing that himself. This is not protest writing, but a concise work whose purpose is to create a brief historical picture for the African American to understand where slavery-based behavior, or the slave mind, originated. Once we understand its source, we can begin to consciously reverse its effects by developing a knowledge of self.