MENTACIDE
This lecture is a discussion and expansion of Nana Bobby E. Wright’s concept of mentacide. Wright defined it as meaning to kill the mental process, to kill one’s normal thought processes, essentially, to kill one’s own mind. In that there is still a thought process at work, mentacide also means that an artificial, alien way of thinking is in operation. He also understood that mentacide is only possible when the oppressor controls the resources and agenda of those institutions that are fundamentally essential to the survival of the very group they work to destroy. COMMON SENSE In his discussion of common sense, Baruti deals with the trusting attitude many Afrikans express toward european people. We are forced to reconsider the assertion that all of life is good and of what must be done to bring about a humane reality. This idea of evil acts, and not evil persons or an evil people, taken out of cultural context and not considered relative to its origins in society where Europeans were as of yet unknown, is questioned as to its fit in the thought of Afrikans now working to return order to this planet by following in the footsteps of our Ancestors.
