Nagas in the 21st century continue to conduct their affairs based on old politics driven by fear, exclusion and negative reactivity to ‘the other.’ As long as the old politics and practices prevail, Nagas, as a people, will find it difficult to transcend the divisions that separate us. New inclusive and participatory political processes based on mutual respect, responsibility and accountability, truth, inclusion and a shared vision for a common Naga future are necessary for us to live in harmony.
Historically, controlling human beings by suppressing the human body has been most successful through colonizing the mind and spirit. This invisible and highly effective form of mental colonizing is intended to cloud and internalize the human spirit with fear and sense of helplessness, worthlessness that conditions human behavior to accept the unjust status quo as normal, not abnormal. It is under these circumstances that the persons existing under oppressive and suppressive conditions are effectively blocked from seeing themselves as makers of their own culture and history. Perhaps Bantu Steve Biko articulated this insight in the way which can be best understood, that ‘the most potent weapon in the hands of the oppressor is the mind of the oppressed.’ Liberating the human mind and spirit is absolutely essential in our pursuit for happiness.
There is no doubt that policies of suppression are most effective at a psychological level. Regardless of the economic or political impacts, ultimately, these policies generate confusion and introduce doubt while weakening the resolve to address them. These policies are intentionally designed to assert and maintain control and influence over the human mind which also informs human behavior and activities. The role of psychological warfare is designed for these purposes, and, in many aspects they are the determining factor. Breaking down communication and trustworthy relationships enables effectively implementing psychological warfare through rumors, fear, scare tactics and confusion, all of which generate divisions. These types of policies have been most affective in situations of protracted armed conflict through propaganda and miss-information campaigns.
Any transformative initiative involves an intentional approach for decolonizing the mind, which needs to be restorative in nature in order to lift human beings from their hegemonic conditions. Without such a liberative process, the oppressed may continue on the path laid by the oppressor, confined within the value system which has been artificially and externally imposed. Continuing in this way increases the likelihood for feeding into a cycle in which victims would then become oppressors. Such a tragic event negates the principles of freedom.
Transformation requires renewing and infusing vibrancy to a people’s culture – a culture which is the carrier of a society’s values; values that form the basis of a people’s self-definition. Culture implies the dynamic process of cultivating new life. Hence, there is a critical need to identify and reconstitute the cultural base and values which was fragmented by suppression. It means identifying what is, and what is not, and acting upon it. Ngugi Wa Thiong'o describes it beautifully while responding to western accusations of the prevalent culture of corruption in Africa.
Thiong'o says, “They wash their hands of what is happening, as if they have never had anything to do with the corruption, with massacres, with backwardness. My concern is with these colonial distortions. There are elements which are indigenous, but they are also external. You can't understand one without the other. The tendency is to leave out one of the elements in the equation. But an equation without all its elements is no longer an equation.” Thiong'o further emphasizes the need to challenge and transform the system because of the terrible moral decay. He adds, “An individual can go, but the system continues.”
We need a new song that will bring change. But, before we can sing a new song, we need to decolonize our minds. If not, we will only be singing the songs written and taught to us by others. Yes, while writing the new song, we may incorporate ideas, thoughts and practices introduced by others, yet we can make the song ours, one that corresponds to the values and realities of our lives and aspirations.
