DECOLONISING OUR LOVE
(A LOVE LETTER FROM THE DIASPORA)
Sal:mender asks: How can the reaffirmation of Black Caribbean modern identities nurture love and self-acceptance?
Sal:mender magazine does not own any rights to any of the footages or audio. All rights go to the respective owners. This video is for entertainment purposes only. Self-Love - Nancy Dupree. The Silent Twins - Kiin - Fenn O’Meally. Moncler x Simone Rocha - Tyler Mitchell. A Word on Words - John Seigenthaler interview (1999) All About Love, bell hooks. No Thank You (Little Simz) - Gabriel Moses . Courage To Love - Cornel West (Democracy Now) . Element (Kendrick Lamar) - Jonas Lindstroem & the little homies . Familiar Strangers - Jeano Edwards. Interview Aimé Césaire (1960), Archives Radio Canada . Interlude: The Glory is in You (A Seat At The Table), Solange. Paulette Nardal, La Négritude. ARTE . Regina, 180 The Strand (Gabriel Moses), 180 Spaces . N95 (Kendrick Lamar), Dave Free & Kendrick Lamar. Cry danced by Judith Jamison - Alvin Ailey (American Dance Theater). Identity & Dislocation: Through the Prism of an Intellectual Life, Stuart Hall (Lecture at The Media Education Foundation) . Caribbean Writers and Their Art: History, the Caribbean and the Imagination (1991) - Kamau Brathwaite, Edward Baugh (University of the West Indies) & University of Miami. Land of Wood & Water (Adidas) - Grace Wales Bonner & Durimel . Love Interlude, The Miseducation of Lauryn Hill. Hello! West Indies (Una Marson) (1943) - BBC & BFI . Ma manman m’a dit - Eugène Mona . Jenes Peyi, Nicolas Babin (Nowness). AKIN - Caroline Japal . Celt Vessel-Bag - Deanna Nelson-Mckie. The Parade To Notting Hill - Nowness.
Most of us are familiar with the following expression: “You can’t love someone until you learn to love yourself”. But how and where, should one begin to love themselves? As universal as the experience of love is, its complexity sometimes prevents us from expressing ourselves properly. Love isn’t innate, if anything, it’s taught. Our environment also determines the way we understand love. In order for us to express a healthy form of love, we need be around it, or witness it. Love is a verb, and it takes practice and actions. Therefore without a solid foundation, the journey to self-love seems even harder.
This self-acceptance journey, requires some deep introspective work. We have to learn to connect with those different parts of our identity, in order to accept, and love who we are. “When we see love as a combination of trust, commitment, care, respect, knowledge, and responsibility, […] we can learn to extend them [qualities] to ourselves.” (bell hooks, all about love p.54).
However, for marginalised communities this journey to self-love takes even more courage. In a video published by Democracy Now, the American philosopher Cornel West, talks about the courage to love: “If you come from a people who have been so hated, love can become subversive and transformative beginning by loving yourself”.
Can culture be a way for us to connect with our authentic selves? Despite cultural identity being only one aspect of our entire selves, it still carries weight in our lives. It creates a sense of community, and belonging. In a world in which we constantly feel alienated, connecting through culture can create a sense of comfort. However, in a post-colonial context, identity seems more complex than ever.