Do You Agree That All Africans Have an Inferiority Complex?

In this brief talk, Onyeka Nubia speaks about an inferiority complex in the African mind that he believes every African has to address.

“Do we believe that we are inferior? Have we taken on an identity? Most people of African descent say no I don’t believe that I’m inferior. I’m alright. It’s all those other black people that are the problem. I haven’t got a problem. I don’t believe that. It’s them, they’ve got all that negativity inside. 

I say every single one of us has it. 

Every single one of us has it. I have it and I know you have it. Every one of us has it. That negativity that we have, to a certain extent, there’s a kind of inevitability to the negativity.

I had a friend of mine, it’s an interesting case because it helps to perhaps understand some things. This sister, she’s the kind of sister that people would have said oh you’re a strong black woman.

She used to work in the city. She had natural hair, she had a big afro like this. She  used to go into work in the city wearing the kente cloth and the dashiki and she was learning Swahili. She used to go on regular trips to the continent of Africa. 

She used to spend her money supporting an African village and tell everybody about it. You know, by the way, I’m supporting an African village. She used to read her ISIS papers and quote continuously from it. She was a vegan, vegetarian. She did all of the things that, in inverted commas, you’re supposed to do but the hate was still there.

So one time she was coming back from work and a young man of African descent decided that he was going to rob her and grabbed her bag, she was carrying a little small bag, and tried to rob her. Grabbed it like this. Now bearing in mind that this sister used to do Yoga 4 or 5 times a week, self defence in various forms, kickboxing and what have you. When he grabbed the bag, she said what are you doing? 

She took the bag off him and punched him to the ground. 

And then when he was on the ground, she proceeded, she was wearing high heels, to step on his head and kick him and step on him. The police came and stopped. Got out of their car, proceeded to walk to wards her and stopped. Let her finish, the policeman said.

She was in the moment…the moment. I’m in the moment…..She was in the moment. And as she was in the moment and as she was beating him, she was spewing out, I have to swear now, you black bastard. You black bastard. As she was becoming more and more excited about what she was doing. She looked at the policeman who had stopped and she heard the one of them that said, 

‘let her finish, she’s doing a good job.’ 

And then suddenly she had that epiphany…that spiritual moment. Oh my god! What am I doing? What have I become?

As the youth, he wasn’t more than 15 or 16, was in a dishevelled, bloody heap. And then, to cap it all, when he had been taken away, the police came and shook her hand. Good job they said, good job. Of course she contacted me distraught. Oh Onyeka, I don’t know what came over me. 

As I was beating him, I actually enjoyed it. And I actually said black bastard and I enjoyed it. So what I’m saying is, this isn’t just particular to her. This thing that we have inside, is deep. Very, very, very deep. And for us to assume that we don’t have it is very much naivety. It’s impossible. 

We’ve grown up with Coronation Street. 

We’ve grown up with every single reference in the language in which we speak that refers to the colour of which we say we’re a part of as negative. Oh it’s a black day. Oh it’s a black lie. Oh it’s black night, must be dangerous. Oh that’s very black, must be bad. And everything that’s white, as good. 

Oh, this is a white lie, oh it’s not so bad then it’s a white lie. Oh, I’m in white now, I must be innocent and perfect and beautiful because I’m dressed in white. And a bride gets dressed in white to show that they are a virgin. To show that they haven’t been touched. So they put on the white. This is in our subconscious. When we see someone…we see something that we don’t like, oh that’s dark. That’s dark man. It means it’s bad. It means it’s bad. 

So these things that are in our subconscious. 

There in our subconscious I think more deeply that it resides in Europeans because as a melanated people and because of the melanin that we carry. If you’re a Dr Sebi fan you’ll say it’s carbon, whatever it is, be it carbon or melanin. As a melanated or carbonated people, we keep things deep inside for very long periods of time and we hold it inside; be it good or bad. 

And once hate of self has become part and parcel of your DNA, it’s very very hard as an African to remove it. Because it’s part and parcel of your DNA. So once we have absorbed it and we’ve been absorbing it since we were born, even perhaps before then because of the blood and the genetics of our parents, we’re carrying that with us, we’re carrying that with us. SO in order to get it out of us is going to require a lot of work.”

What are your thoughts on this concept? Do you agree that all Africans have an inferiority complex?