The Parentification, the Crop Over, and the Centuries-Long Making of Mind Control - Barbados

[00:00:01]Hi, this is Sherry Veronica for a people who were chattled. [music] You would think that you would move to design a bright [music] future and that would require actively reclaiming your humanity [music] from the oppressive systems. You would think that You would think that preserving ancestral memory [music] wearing clothing that expresses autonomy developing a language of liberation and [music] innovating in areas of life that would be [music] your goal. You would think.

[00:00:51]You would think that you would want to build a flourishing society [music] that ensured that the horrors of the past would never repeat again. You [music] would think that, right?

[00:01:08]The foundation of a liberated future [music] would lie in you remembering the past without being [music] defined by it.

[00:01:20]History must be preserved and studied as both a testament to [music] your endurance and a manual for spotting the early [music] signs of tyranny. You have to recognize when it's turning [music] back and coming back to get you in a chocolate ice format. You are still enslaved, [music] but you think you are free. They don't show you the [music] chains on your minds with religion and your government and your [music] mores and things that they have instilled within you, even their language. You don't see it as [music] being slavery, but you are still enslaved, and you have [music] to educate your people for the early signs because >> [music] >> it's going to repeat. It will repeat.

[00:02:19]So, to prevent history from [music] repeating itself, you have to build a robust institution, and it has to be centered on education. And when [music] I say a robust institution, and I use that singularly, it means that you're going to have to pull each and every [music] one who is a member of that community together to ensure that knowledge of past is never lost to time. It should never be lost to time. And you must remain vigilant [music] in teaching younger generation the cost of subjugation.

[00:03:10]And you have to create armors, the bright and the not-so-bright.

[00:03:17]But you have to have them together, and it has to be taught [music] that the brighter students are the brothers of the not-so-brighter [music] peers because they're they're about the same age, and you have to teach them [music] to teach each other, to pull each other up so that everyone is part of that robust institution, [music] and you have to fight against future exploitation. It has to happen as a cohesion. You You have to look at yourselves as people working in one accord. Okay, you you're going to have to accept [music] that. You're going to have to become one.

[00:04:11]In designing your future, [music] the way people dress, the way you dress, it should celebrate self-possession and [music] creativity.

[00:04:27]You cannot dress in a way that [music] you are pulled back into your past, because that is what they displayed [music] when they had their theatrics, where they showed how strong you are, [music] how man-made the guy was, and how broad the hips were, and how, you know, together, how many slaves that particular united would produce.

[00:04:55]>> [music] >> You have to move away from that.

[00:04:59]Coming from where >> [music] >> you came from, you your dress, the way you show cultural pride, your refusal to embrace that time that is long past, but it's still it's still there. It is You're still addicted.

[00:05:22]You still like it in so many ways, and for a future to mean anything, [music] to for you to have integrity within your dressing. I already talked about the educational part of it, but [music] your dress and your intention, and your the flair, you have to reclaim bodily [music] autonomy that was once denied, turning everyday garments [music] into statements of sovereignty.

[00:05:57]You're going to have to work to really become free.

[00:06:04]You're going to have to write your own history. And usually enslaved people develop dual vocabularies because you're trying to you're trying to hide where you're passing [music] information, so you you bastardize the language.

[00:06:23]But you're going to have to learn a language from Africa, Swahili. You You're going to have to learn the Igbo language. You're going to have to have a second language of your motherland.

[00:06:40]You [music] have been sucking the milk of your ancestors' colonial [music] masters for too long.

[00:06:51]They They're still your masters. But what they did to [music] your ancestors, and you are still kicking that milk from that time. You have really not prepared yourselves to go [music] back to your mother's milk.

[00:07:10]You You You have not.

[00:07:12]You have not at any culture that is worth Looking at that, they have their own language. You speak the language [music] of your colonial masters.

[00:07:27]Why not, if you're talking [music] about teaching a second language, and you're saying Spanish and French, [music] why not say Swahili? Why not say the Igbo language?

[00:07:39]There are over 500 [music] languages in Nigeria. Nigeria is not the best example in terms of living, maybe certain parts, >> [music] >> but that's where your mother's milk. That's where That's where you should look to.

[00:08:00]Africa. [music] Teach an African language. Stop with the French and the Spanish. Why not teach your people, especially >> [music] >> thinking about where you came from?

[00:08:15]Where you came from?

[00:08:18]Rather than accepting the vocabulary of your former former oppressors, you know, and the philosophies of your former oppressors, why not look [music] to your motherland and learn a language from your motherland? Why What is the problem with that?

[00:08:40]You're going to have to write your own histories because what they wrote about you is not the truth. [music] It's not the truth.

[00:08:51]You're going to have to write your own histories coming from where you came from. [music] You cannot continue to trust like this, walk up like this, drive [ __ ] like this, talk like you do, act like you do, go and work in a hotel like you do, go and work [music] cooking someone's food like you do, cleaning toilets like you do, coming from where you came [music] from.

[00:09:23]Your future demands innovation across all disciplines.

[00:09:29]All disciplines.

[00:09:33]True freedom is not just survival.

[00:09:36]It's the ability to trade, to create, to build.

[00:09:42]>> [music] >> And you have to invest, not in your >> [music] >> colonial masters' education, but in your you have to write your own education for your youth.

[00:09:57]And science has to be a huge part of that. Our technology, community development. I mean, you have always to go, but you have to start somewhere. And from what I see [music] coming out of Barbados, especially around this time when you talk about Crop Over, and even to call that a festival Crop Over, it shows you are not ready.

[00:10:27]You have not grown.

[00:10:29]You are [music] still in the lap of your colonial masters. You're still [music] under the foot of your colonial masters. There is something that they did, the masters did, that it has Whatever they did, it was the perfection of whatever they wanted [music] to do.

[00:10:57]Because there you are, in Barbados, walking and talking [music] pure stupidity, speaking English, broken English.

[00:11:09][music] And sometimes [clears throat] you do speak good English, depending on who you are and when you want to do it, [music] but never are you being taught to learn a [music] language of your motherland.

[00:11:25]Never do I hear that. I I don't I do not hear that. Okay, I you Spanish, [music] I you French. If you want to speak a second language, why not something from your motherland? You are not ready.

[00:11:38]You are not ready. There's something wrong. Look at these photos. [music] Even the kids you have in mind it, you're making sure you are making sure that the perfection, >> [music] >> that the colonial masters envisioned and did, continues [music] into your future. You are making sure that you remain poor and they [clears throat] remain rich and they rule over you. You have to write your own history.

[00:12:07]You have to dress [music] differently.

[00:12:09]You have to learn to speak a language from your motherland. You have always to go.

[00:12:15]You have always to go.

[00:12:17]The way you have formatted your lives, what is happening now in Barbados with your youth, with your young males, that's destiny. You have created that destiny.

[00:12:33]>> [music] >> You have not created anything that was worth reclaiming in terms of your humanity from [music] the oppressive systems. You have not done that.

[00:12:46]You have not done You have gone right along for the ride. Whatever ride that [music] they are taking you on, you have You have gone right along for that ride and you are destined to fail. They are coming back to get you.

[00:13:03]You're going to be re-enslaved. [music] You are going to be re-enslaved.

[00:13:10]Okay?

[00:13:11]You have to dress differently, speak differently, write your own history, [music] teach from your own books.

[00:13:18]You have always to go and you need to start and start now.

[00:13:24]This is Sherry Veronica.

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