Dubois Double Consciousness

The people of Africa are enriched with a very diverse and spiritual culture. Of course this only holds relevance to people of African descent who realize this. In other words this means little to someone of African descent who remains ignorant to these facts. In present day society this could have disastrous effects on the mental health of a person of African descent, starting with the unconscious mind. The African Unconscious is described as the collective unconscious of the past lives of Africans, in which all races are said to originate from(Byrum,1999). The african unconscious essentially encompasses a spiritual connection in which information is processed outside of conscious awareness. Some of the principles encompassed are personalism, …show more content…
This was in reference to the psychological challenge of reconsidering an African heritage with a European upbringing in slavery and education. This double consciousness arrived after the slave plantations forbid the use of African language, names and culture as well as religion. This resulted in the cultural distortion in which the first generation slaves full of history desired to go back home to Africa and the modern free slaves with a distorted idea of their identity. There is a psychological struggle that comes from looking at one’s self and one’s history through the eyes of your oppressor. A split consciousness that comes from having to identify with two identities and never realizing either, this harms the mind as dual existence is damaging to that person's sense of morality. Without knowing your history you are stuck between your limited African heritage and a European culture that will never accept you. This division leads to low-self esteem among those who have no history to fall back to. Any good psychotherapist knows that before a person can be restored to mental health, it is necessary for one to feel good about oneself, a great deal rests upon loving one’s physical self (Burrow,1999 p.246). This self-love however is exactly what was taken away from African-Americans during double consciousness. Which is why Malcolm X wanted more than anything for black people to love, respect and appreciate themselves, he noted that saying “by making our people in the western hemisphere hate Africa we ended up hating ourselves”(Burrow,1999). This western consciousness among African-Americans made them hate their African identity, characteristics, features, nose, skin and even texture of hair. Not knowing one’s history and self worth can lead to self hatred and “womanist