I believe we are a people who want to be colonized. Here we are, after the diaspora. We dusted off the grime of colonial rule and set up our tents in a new land in an effort to escape the consequences of our colonized past. We, who know full well the shame and the rigors of living under a foreign power, have once again become the colonized.

We are now in another cultural milieu, open to another colonizing force.The question I now ask myself is whether we of the diaspora know WHAT, not WHO, holds us in its grasp, and the extent to which our minds have become colonized by the norms – the belief systems – of the society in which we choose to live.

The colonized mind is forced by societal norms into believing that certain behaviors are the only ones most suitable for those who allow themselves to be subjugated and to be led like sheep. The forces that rule are so strong that moving outside of the box is difficult and not for the faint-hearted. I think of it as the tyranny of the majority. We become partial to the rule of profligates who confront us with their greed and who force us to think we must choose. Their authority comes out of a system that they themselves have created.

Take for example – how do we form our opinions and perceptions? What drives the choices we make in our intellectual pursuits, education, finances, politics, our means of communication, our dress, our entertainment, the foods we eat, our conversations, the practice of our religious beliefs, our social habits?

The forces that shape our lives and legitimize cultural norms and behaviors are outside of our control. The media and social media platforms enforce coercion which erodes freedom of choice and which leaves us clinging to prescribed forms of behavior accepted as part of the ethic.

Buy this. Live here. Dress like them. Allow them to tell you how to entertain yourself. Accept social behaviors that fall outside of what you believe to be good, and true to yourself. Should I accept those social norms that are overturned to accommodate more liberal views? Should I allow myself to accept them without reflection, without question, without criticism?

Do it like this and become one of the sheep or fall out of favor and be a laughing stock and a social pariah.

I can speak out. I can choose. If I don’t, then the colonized mind will have come full circle and I cringe.