Revolution

Everyone in this room has their own superpowers. One of mine is music.

Your captors will have you believe that you don't have any power at all.

You're rebellious and smart, swift and enduring, and you know a better world is possible. In fact it's so clear that you can actually see it, but many of the folks around you can't seem to fathom it.

Mass slaughters, millions of African sons and daughters thrown overboard, thumb screws, forced migrations, beat down and bludgeoned for this country's foundations. All in the name of salvation.

White men have always been depicted as the saviours while everyone else is either the villain or the helpless people who need saving.

In naming Harriet Tubman, a black woman, as a superhero, that is in itself a revolutionary gesture; because it's a paradigm shift away from the ubiquitous, white saviour narrative that dominates many aspects of our history and culture.

In order to free yourself, you must first know that you are enslaved. That takes critical thinking, questioning; it's no wonder reading a book as a black person could get you lynched during this period.

In order to get free you need to think free. You need to be able to see into the future and create that reality which is just a pipe-dream to other people around you.

We've got some work to do; waking people up, conscientising so that folks can first be aware of oppression, and then we can collectively rise up against it.