Colonial Mentality and Inferiority Complex - Restoring our dignity and self confidence in the face of the ugly twins impeding our progress.

Òtúúrúpọ̀n Méjì says… 

Ọlọ́gbọ́n ayé kan ò ta kókó omi m’étí aṣọ;
Mọ̀ràn-mọ̀ràn kan ò mo yẹ̀ẹ̀pẹ̀ ilẹ̀
Arìnnàká kò dé ibi ònà gbé pẹ̀kun
A díá fún Alábahun
Ti n lọ re ko gbogbo ọgbọ́n araye..

Translation...
No wise man saves water in the hem of his tunic;
No wise man knows the quantity of sand on earth;
No traveller knows the edge of the earth
Thus declared the Oracle to Alábahun (Tortoise)
When he was On his way to hoard human wisdom.

Ogbè-Ìrẹ́tẹ̀ says…
Ká gbọ́n, ká kọ́,
Mbẹ nu Ifá, ati mèdè òpè lóṣòro;
Ká dá, ká tẹ̀
Mbẹ nu Ifa, ati mèdè òpè lóṣòro;
Ká rú, ká tù
Mbẹ nu Ifa, ati mèdè òpè lóṣòro...

Translation...
To learn, to teach
All can be sought in Ifá, comprehension is however difficult for the dullard;
To cast, to write
All can be sought in Ifá, comprehension is however difficult for the dullard;
To apply, to decipher
All can be sought in Ifá, comprehension is however difficult for the dullard...

Colonial Mentality is the perspective that colonised people feel themselves to be inferior to their colonisers.

Inferiority Complex is the lack of self worth and unreasonable feeling of inadequacy caused by supposed or real Inferiority in a particular sphere.

Self confidence is one of the major keys for self actualisation both for individuals and for societies.
Colonial Mentality and Inferiority Complex are the bane of our underdevelopment. We have lost confidence in our ability to do things or to reason independently of our fellow human beings in Europe, America and Asia. Some of us are no longer comfortable in their skins. Our culture and traditions are now looked down with utter contempt and disdain. We choose to throw the baby out with the bath water instead of fixing the archaic parts of our oral traditions and customs and bring them into the 21st century. We choose to adopt foreign practices that are alien to us. Of course we should adopt foreign things that we lack and are not detrimental to our heritage.
No wonder other people looked down on us and disrespect us since we have already disrespected ourselves.

Our ancestors were confident in themselves even when they met Europeans for the first time - meaning that these traits were acquired recently. The following excerpts demonstrate the aplomb and boldness of our ancestors:

In 1850, the German born David Hinderer was the first Christian missionary to visit Ilé-Ifẹ̀ - the cradle of Yoruba civilisation. He preached the Christian gospel to a large crowd at the imperial Ọọni palace. After he had finished preaching, he was told by Ifẹ̀ chiefs that:

“all religions originated from Ifẹ̀, and that what he had preached was no more than one of the versions that had evolved later in a distant part of the world”(2)

David Hinderer himself penned the following down:
“...from there (Ifẹ̀) the sun and moon rises where they are buried in the ground, and all people of this country and even white men spring from the town”(1)

Rev. Samuel Johnson, one of the first Anglican clerics and the author of the first Yoruba history book was told the following by the chiefs of Ìbàdàn in 1882:
“Ifẹ̀ was the place where all nations of the earth have sprung from.”(2)

In 1886, British agents visiting the Yoruba interior were told by the Alaafin of Ọ̀yọ́ that “the Ifẹ̀s...were the fathers of all and all people came from Ifẹ̀.”; by the chiefs of Ife, at Ìsọ̀yà where they and their people were camped, outside the ruins of their city, that the Ife people were “the fathers of all tribes”, and that if they continued longer in a camp and unable to resettle their ancient city of Ilé-Ifẹ̀, “the whole world would spoil, as they were the priests of the deities who ruled the world”; and by the Seriki of the Ìjẹ̀bú, Chief Ogunṣigun, that “Even the English king can be shown the spot at Ile-Ife from where his ancestors went out”.(2)

In 1886, the British explorer - Henry Higgins who headed a mission into the Yoruba hinterland wrote the following about Ile-Ife:

“There are all manner of legends as to the wonders to be seen at Ilé-Ifẹ̀.... The Ifẹ̀s call themselves the conservators of the world and the oldest of mankind and boast that all crowned personages in the world, including the white man’s sovereign, went out originally from Ile-Ife, and it was curious the deference with which other tribes treat them although they are at war with them... and as everyone was supposed to be a descendant of the Ifes, they looked upon all strangers who visited their town in the light of pilgrims who came, as they put it, “to make their house good”, that is to pay reverence to departed ancestors.”(3)

It is only when our confidence and dignity are restored that we can start to make progress and take our rightful place in the assembly of developed nations.

References:
1. David Hinderer: “Diaries,” Ibadan, Christian Mission Society (CMS), quoted in I.A. Akinjogbin, ed., The Cradle of a Race: Ile-Ife from the Beginning to 1980, Port Harcourt, Sunray Publications, 1992, xi.

2. Stephen Adebanji Akintoye: A History of the Yoruba People, 2010

3. “Report of the Special Commissioners to the Lagos Interior, 1886,” Enclosures in Higgins to Colonial Secretary, Jan. 1887, Parliamentary Papers 1887, C.4957.