John Henrik Clarke – “The African Mind”
A Pan-Africanist scholar, historian, professor, and pioneer in the creation of Africana studies, John Henrick Clarke, Ph.D., explains the African personality in world history. The following is an excerpt from Clarke’s speech, “The African Mind.”
Amos Wilson – “Falsification of African Consciousness”
Psychologist and author Amos Wilson, Ph.D., offers an analysis of the current state of Black people’s collective consciousness and how it prevents us from developing solutions to our collective problems.
Wilson defines three elements of consciousness:
- Contents – beliefs, opinions, knowledge, perceived knowledge, self-perceptions, worldview, conditioned responses.
- Instrumentalities – how we process the contents in our mind.
- Directional Organization – how we use our consciousness to pursue goals; the values we hold; and the reasons behind our thoughts and actions.
Wilson concludes that white supremacy has altered the consciousness of Black people by giving us fabricated contents: a false history, false knowledge and false fantasies. Therefore, our ability to think and act in our own interests has been impaired because we have become confused about what knowledge is, who it belongs to, and how it should be used.
