Villaging & Communifying
I expect decolonizing my mind to take a long time, just like I expect it to take a while for the Black collective to decolonize.
Even if we achieve larger-scale resistance that leads to escape for many of us, we'll still be marooned together, somewhere, and we'll still have a lot of patterns to unpack.
For me, unlearning individualism is my favorite and most exciting task, cuz I believe operating as a loving, powerful, united community will solve MOST, if not all of the issues colonization created for us. I also consider unlearning individualism to be our most difficult task, since it's the backbone of this western society we were dragged into hundreds of years ago. I wanna get back to what we were doing before they touched us, but also I want us to make something new too, with what we know now.
Communalism is what will heal us, change us, allow us to survive, and give us a shot at thriving. Individualism has only made us help capitalists thrive so far.
When I pray or say affirmations about communalism, I use the words "village" and "communify" as verbs to describe what I'm asking for.
I ask my ancestors to "village me' and "communify me." And when I say that, I'm asking them to reach into themselves and teach me what they know about being in community. About true care, and about the reciprocal use of energy for the good of the whole. Integrity and commitment to a group of sacred souls.
Yes, I made up "communify" cuz it fit, but I'm sure others have used it too. I've seen "communize" which is cool too! I also ask the spirits to "re-nature me" but there's no time for all that right now. I'll link that writing in here later if I get to it :)
Anyhow, the goal is to align my actions with the village I envision in the future; truly operating as if we've already escaped and separated from our oppressors, because I'm positive that doing so will help us get there. As a bonus, we can practice for when we are there and maybe prevent some of the growing pains of going from capitalism, scarcity mindset, individualism, and disconnection, to communalism, true care, unity, and connection! The revolution is now, of course.
In practice, the communifying just looks like sharing resources, viewing my loved ones as myself (Ubuntu), and because of that, viewing the problems of my loved ones as my own. Amos Wilson said the purpose of a "culture" is to solve the problems of a group. Our biggest problem is that we're the most oppressed group on Earth, and we need to get out from under that issue. But on a day to day, pretty much all of our individual problems reflect that wider issue, so it's always worth it to pour into finding solutions to "individual" problems, since that will ultimately get us closer to where we need to be, or at least get practice helping each other. Solving our own problems will allow us to rely less and less on the abusive institutions most of us are trapped under.
Living in the western world de-radicalizes and de-communifies us. In western "mental health" spaces, we're taught to blame ourselves or our immediate biological families for our emotional struggles, instead of blaming the true root causes which are pretty much always colonization & capitalism. These "helping" professions also insist that we magically transmute our negative emotions into something devoid of anger or sadness, making sure not to seek justice or retaliate when we're abused by others or by institutions. In these spaces, we're supposed to be able to think our way out of being angry that we're enslaved. And then we're made to feel wrong and broken if we can't. Individualistic society de-villages us by directly or indirectly insisting that we handle our struggles alone.
Humans aren't meant to withstand violence without doing something about it, survive in isolation, nor solve complex problems completely alone. Those are myths. We exist in reality.
deep river cross over|2025