momo
Padawan Learner
loreta said:Momo, it is true that shame can be a wall. But when I was young, the first time I went to Senegal, this shame was an open door for me to inquest about slavery. I read, read read about this subject. The second time I went to Africa I felt shame also, and in that case you are right: it was a bad feeling that I felt during all the trip and made of this travel a fiasco because my shame was interwoven with guilty. The shame I felt in Senegal was just when I went to the isle of Gorée, after that I immerse myself completely between the Senegalese people forgetting that I was a white woman, forgetting my culture and education. So I think that shame can be a door or a wall. Depends on your individual situation.
When I see now the wars in Africa and the future wars that will come I feel shame but also anger, more anger than shame. I think that shame with guilty is not good. Sorry for my English.
Hello loreta,
it is interesting that this shame made you want to know more about slavery.
Since shame is a very individual feeling - part of the "shadow" CG Jung speaks of, if I understand him right - it is a good tool for self-observance, for one of the hardest part of the Work, it seems.
And I always thought of it as something individual, but your post made me think.
When you immersed yourself, it seems that you were free from the concept "black" and it's "opposite" "white". And the people you were with were, too.
That is really cool, and has not happened to me in Nigeria (generally white equals wealth and the duty to give/buy, if you cannot, or don't want to, you are wrong/egocentric/selfish - thankfully this does not apply to my husband's family)
If I read your post right, you did not feel shame at that time of immersion.
Maybe there was no space for the kind of shame that we feel for a conceptualized group we believe to belong to?
In my opinion, this is the state to achieve constantly regarding our interaction with other individuals. (I haven't ...)
The moment you feel attached to one or the other conceptualized group, or see the person you interact with as member of such a group, imo you cannot perceive yourself and the person as is.
This kind of shame, and generally prejudice/preconception is a superb distractor and keeps individuals apart.
I think in this case it's part of what keeps racism active...
I completely agree that the wars in Africa should make one angry. Not just the wars in Africa, the situation of the reality we seem to live in as a whole.
It makes me really happy that this forum exists and to have found it - thx to one of you on FB - because this Work makes so much sense.
Greetings
Momo