Schizophrenia is a particular disorder of the mind. The Mis-Educated Than His Ancestors, the METHA, all around the world, and in Africa, has been seen, at least by my own observation, to suffer from episodes of this kind of relapsing psychosis. Which means that the Metha endures lucid, vivid hallucinations.
You are probably wondering if I am a kind of psychologist certified to diagnose such disorders.
Well, hear me out. Typically the Metha hears voices in his heard and often he sees people—important people he interacts with, because the Metha thinks himself a very important kind of person. The Metha goes to bed telling himself that he is important. He dreams about being important. He wakes from his dreams and repeats to himself that he is vital for the proper functioning of any modern society. He tells himself that modern societies are better, greater and more powerful. And so the Metha straddles around as a powerful person with very important things to do.
All the Metha’s delusions and disorganized thinking emanate from his Colonial Missionary European Education. His mind, foundationally African, now operates with a software that is neither European, American nor African. His mind is a carefully curated psychotic program set to elevate the Metha’s confidence over his imagined minions.
The Metha belongs, in his mind, to a special breed of modern Africa. He sees himself as highly educated, yet he is mis-educated. He sees himself as highly intelligent, yet he is an idiot. He sees himself as highly capable of leadership, yet coward. He sees himself as religious, yet pagan. He sees himself as a man above every man, yet he lacks the summary respect of the world. He sees himself as a custodian of African culture, yet he is by all practical intent, a mimic of gutter-street-European-American culture.
The Metha is gutter. However, his psychosis does not stop him from developing delusions of grandeur about himself and about his own ability. His schizophrenia is possessive. The Metha’s social withdrawal is evident. He shuns the village. He shuns every ritual that deifies the culture of his own Ancestors. He shuns the traditional marriage ceremony; he shuns the outdooring of babies; she shuns the rite de passage rituals; he shuns the funerals; and he shuns pouring libation to his Ancestors. Yet, he hopes that when he dies the village buries him.
You may ask, what to do with the Metha? Is it possible to save him? No insulin shock therapy or anti-psychotic medication can help the Metha recover the Mind of His Ancestors (MOHA). He never had it. And so there’s nothing there to recover. One can only regain possession of a mind lost or stolen. In the case of the Metha, where there’s been no such mindedness as the MOHA, the Metha would suffer flat affects—emotional blunting and intellectual numbing, or even brain damage—if anyone tries to recover his mind.
I have tried, and I have failed to recover the mind of one Metha, once or twice. Never again! Unless, by reading this essay, the Metha settles with himself and admits his schizophrenia. Perhaps, just then the Metha may begin to ignore his hallucinations and delusions. He may begin to ignore all the important phantom personalities he daily communes with and begin to concentrate like a child on first steps and first principles—like humility.
