On Friday, 18 January 2019
award-winning author; one of the Millennium’s leading spiritual teachers; and
graduate of the University of West Indies, EUCLID, the London School of
Journalism, and the International School of Applied Psychoanalysis Glenville
C. Ashby Ph.D. placed his feet on ancestral soil – Benin – in Africa
for the first time. Dr. Ashby, who has
spent four decades on a spiritual journey which has found him crisscrossing the
globe, was so drawn to Benin that he visited it on two subsequent occasions -- in April 2019 and then again in November 2019.
What
Dr. Ashby experienced and learned in Benin moved him to pen a cathartic, instructive and groundbreaking
historical literary work – “Conflict Of Identity: From The Slave Trade To
Present Day – One Man’s Healing In Benin, Africa” (www.amazon. com; www.barnesandnoble.com; www.booklocker.com) He solemnly reminds us that no soul is
impervious to history and that history, no matter how distorted or painful, is
not something we can run away from, hide, or ignore. Dr. Ashby points out that for souls of
African descent in the Diaspora and on the Continent, history is both brutal
and fractured and goes on to explain how that brutal and fractured history
manifests itself in our individual and collective thinking, decision making,
and in what he describes as our “maladaptive behavior”.
Through “Conflict Of Identity :
From The Slave Trade To Present Day – One Man’s Healing In Benin, Africa,” Dr. Ashby explores, among other things, the
psychodynamics of slavery, the “Plantation Syndrome”, the aftermath of slavery,
reparations, and the foundation of
African Psychology, a “Collective Unconscious” which all cultures possess. He explains how the world serves as a mirror
for children of African descent and instructively reminds us that children of
African descent react consciously and unconsciously to the responses they
receive to the color of their skin.
While “Conflict Of Identity : From The Slave Trade To Present Day –
One Man’s Healing In Benin, Africa,” serves as a mirror through which souls
of African descent in the Diaspora and on the Continent can inescapably see that
they are operating from a position of psychological, spiritual, and emotional
“brokenness” that spans four centuries, it provides a blueprint for healing,
catharsis, and closing the 401 year chasm created by the TransAtlantic Slave
Trade and Colonialism. How do souls of
African descent in the Diaspora and on the Continent heal from
transgenerational psychological, spiritual, and emotional trauma; build a
“Bridge of Conciliation and Repatriation”; transform violent and marginalized
communities into an economically vibrant and peaceful oasis; and reclaim shared
familial and cultural identities? Dr.
Ashby implores us to “Re-Think”, “Re-Learn”, “Re-Speak”, and “Re-Do” as he
presents a “Code For Daily Living”, symbols, and proverbs that are tools to
utilize in “re-thinking”, “re-learning”, “re-speaking”, and “re-doing” and
psychoanalytical tools that include “Womb Therapy” to stem our “psychological hemorrhaging”.
The
murders of Ahmaud Arbery, Breonna Taylor, and George Perry Floyd, Jr. have
meteorically moved Africans in the Diaspora to the proverbial fork in the
road. Murmurings of “What are our
next steps?” emanate from communities of African descent in the aftermath
of several months of mass demonstrations in the streets of cities in the United
States and in nations around the globe sparked by the death of George Floyd,
Jr. while in police custody on 25 May 2020 in Minneapolis, Minnesota. Dr. Ashby, through “Conflict Of Identity
: From The Slave Trade To Present Day – One Man’s Healing In Benin, Africa,”
masterfully crafts a series of critical “next steps” for communities of African
descent in the Diaspora and on the Continent and provides a blueprint that
souls of African descent can utilize to navigate the proverbial “fork in the
road” which lies ahead.
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