As a black boy growing up in the UK, largely in a community that knew each other and watched out for each other. There were many questions and social responses which related to my presence in a world of ‘cans’ and ‘cannots’ that led to the recent book, ‘The Hidden Tree’. Observations that at the time made little sense to a young mind. A mind which was trying to navigate the complexities of a world that only seemed to reveal what was necessary and not necessarily what was true. What do I mean? Well, the gradual absence of young black men from the community was not an obvious or sudden occurrence and it was easy to assume that they had moved out of town to pursue their lifelong ambitions elsewhere. The truth being that there was a disproportionate representation of these men in the local psychiatric hospital. A place that (as a teenager) seemed a million miles away; a place that I had no reference for.
The Discovery
Many years later I was required to carry out design modifications to this place of incarceration to fulfil an architectural contract. Happy to have acquired such an opportunity I worked diligently at surveying the building. To my utmost surprise and dismay, its occupants included some of those that I knew or were acquainted with due to family connections and community. How did this happen? What was I looking at? Why?.. These questions were engulfed in an air of silence while the emotions of the discovery remained imprinted in my mind and heart.
[Image by Mohamed Hassan from Pixabay]
It was in this atmosphere of destructive mind sciences and the obvious struggles of working families that the poor hermeneutics of preachers was able to continue reinforcing the long standing misnomer that a curse, assigned to a select few based on skin colour, was a God concept. After all, who wouldn’t have believe it, when the experience of the families around seemed to confirm its tenets.
The veil of mystery and ambiguity in the presence of this physical reality were too much to let slide. There was clearly something missing in the narrative of the world I and others were living in. Yet, all along the path and into college, employment and church the deafening question of why, remained unanswered. Conjoined with the voices of indoctrination that whispered, “maintain the status quo”, “accept your role as subservient” , “this is the norm for you and your kind.”
However, an unquenchable desire to be free of such burdensome ideas could not be abated by these notions of falsehood. To the contrary, it is the application of Gods word to my burning heart which revealed how practical He is, and how there is an urgent, fundamental necessity to expose the hidden works of darkness for the generations coming up behind us. How is this magnanimous task to be realised when everything we see appears to be stacked against us? There can only be one answer.