The borders we live by don’t exist
They are constructs and it's important to remember & treat them as such
Hey,
I hope you’re okay. January is almost over. Went by faster this year in my mind.
Sending lots of positive energy to you. I wish for you the awareness to understand yourself and your connection to the universe more deeply. And to live a truly expressive life.
Yesterday, I was watching the nostalgic ‘Afrobeats’ documentary on Netflix (highly recommend everyone should watch it) which detailed the history of the sound we know as Afrobeats today.
During one of the episodes, the question was asked about if Afrobeats originated from Ghana or Nigeria.
It made me think about the phenomenon where humans often forget that the way things are today isn’t the way they’ve always been. And that the state of things today was influenced by humans like ourselves and not some divine power.
I did some research with ChatGPT and as I had assumed, prior to the ‘strict’ borders that exist today, borders weren’t always so stiff. Our ancestors moved around neighbouring states and kingdoms relatively easily.
Yes, each kingdom had their own ways of doing things but you weren’t blacklisted because you come from a particular ‘country’.
For all we know, the influences in the music we have today influenced each other. People from a tribe in modern-day Nigeria likely travelled across the West-African coast centuries ago and took things with them. Same for the Ghanaians and our other brothers and sisters across the continent.
So when we have all these arguments about where things originated from because we have a strong loyalty to our ‘national’ identity, remember that the identity you hold so dear is a construct. It was not even decided by our own people but by colonialists for their own gain. And we’ve yet to come to our senses and decide if we want them or not.
This is not to say that you can decide that you identify as a Ghanian or a Gambian :) if you’re not from those countries. However, my point is for us to not fall into the trap of ‘absolute truths’. Where you assume that things you know today are the only truths that exist. In the sense of physical borders, it is a recent and fabricated truth.
I find that this same analogy applies to mental/non-tangible borders. I was having a conversation with a friend the other day that Christians for instance forget that the Israelites lived for many many years without the 10 commandments. Yes, people still misbehaved but you can’t tell me that ALL people behaved badly. If not, God wouldn't have had any prophets to choose. So there were people who were moral and ‘did right’ in the eyes of God before the commandments came. The same thing applies to all organized religions.
Righteous and moral humans lived on this earth before the ‘rules’ we know of today were created/passed along. Have the rules perhaps made more people ‘moral’? That’s a different conversation because I often find that most people in organized religion make a ‘show’ of the rules and act differently when away from the gaze of their congregation.
The point is that the things we assume are absolute truths today are often not absolute truths and that is okay. We can hold on to them but we shouldn’t die on a hill for them because they are not the only truths that exist.
This is why I think that ‘belief’ is the most dangerous thing to have ever been created by humans.
‘You should get married before you are 30 years old’
‘You should build a family’
‘You should be successful and make lots of money. Buy good cars and a good home’
‘You shouldn’t grow dreads. It’s unprofessional (lmaoo)’
‘You should do xyz. Act xyz’
(You should definitely grow dreads if you have more hair than my brother :)
All these and the borders that exist in society today are ‘constructs’. They are all man-made. That is why when you move from one country to another, they ALWAYS change.
So think twice before you define your life based on borders society has taught you are absolute truths. Review everything by yourself based on where you are in your life and determine which you decide to keep and which to discard.
Many of the physical and mental borders we live by don’t exist. In fact, many of them will change (& have changed) in our lifetime.
So don’t take them too seriously. And don’t take yourself too seriously. You were put on this earth to ‘truly live’. Ask yourself if you’re doing that daily.
This letter was written while listening to a Bob Marley playlist that starts with the ‘Positive Vibration’ jam.
Love always,
Francis.