If society does not appreciate my value, how can I? Black History Month is a time for earnest reflection, and for joyous celebration of our ancestors. It was these people who actively defied a violent and cruel system that denied them humanity. In the face of the inhumanity, they resisted – they stayed human. During this month, we honour the brave souls who, because of the powerful love they nurtured for themselves and their community, risked everything.
Black people have been – and are – actively either pushed into, marginalised, excluded or forcefully removed from various spaces: professional, familial, academic, creative, and spiritual. Often this leads – or forces – us to navigate a world that wasn’t built for us. As a community, we have so much to share with the world, intellectually and culturally. Actively unlearning the conditioning of our minds that we are “less than” is an overwhelming practice and it is inherently revolutionary. It is revolutionary because as Black people, our bodies have been and are still sites of the political and the violent – controlled by the oppressor – however, our personhood is something that is owned entirely by us.
Let us take up space, let us embody Black Joy.
“Black Joy demonstrates that internal responses are fully within a person’s control.”- Elaine Nichols
Western European colonialism serves as the foundation to contextualise how the Black body is treated by society. It shapes how we appear as the “other” in white environments, an experience that undoubtedly connects all Black people on this earth. However, as a community, we have to acknowledge that racism will not disappear overnight. We have to find strategies to stay resilient today. Black Joy is, and has been, a successful instrument that allows individuals to change the influence of negative narratives and events in their favour when they live in a world that devalues them because they are black or brown, as well as ignoring their contributions to wider society. Black Joy is knowing your worth.
Fighting the status quo is not an easy feat. To dedicate oneself to standing or dying for what is right, you have to have a strong sense of resilience. A fight was indeed justified by the terrible circumstances to which African Americans were exposed. But that intensity, that desire—that’s something more. It’s affection. It is, precisely, self-love.
“Caring for myself is not self-indulgence, it is self-preservation, and that is an act of political warfare.” – Audre Lorde
How I, as a Black woman, have kept myself sane in this world that I fear does not care for me, is to love. There is something remarkable, rebellious and revolutionary about a black woman having the audacity to love all things in this world. Including herself. From the moment the Black community began looking inward – into our complicated body and soul – we began to understand that we are a creation of love. I am an embodiment of my Black mother’s love and her Black mother’s love and the love of her mother’s before hers. I know that this body I have can hold onto that, not just wait to receive it from society.
Happy Black History Month!
Words by future alumna Zahra Gueye, third year student at the University of St Andrews studying International Relations and Management and the Vice President of the African Caribbean Society.
Image by Amrita Rahman
Find out more about the information in this article and the Black History Month at:
‘February is Black History Month’ Black History Month.gov Hosted by The Library of Congress, accessed February 2024, https://www.blackhistorymonth.gov/
‘Black Joy: Resistance, Resilience and Reclamation’ Elaine Nichols, National Museum of African American History and Culture, accessed February 2024, https://nmaahc.si.edu/explore/stories/black-joy-resistance-resilience-and-reclamation
Lorde, A. (1988). A Burst of Light: Essays. Ithaca New York: Firebrand Books.