From the Margins to the Centre Reimagining Our PanAfrican Future
[Music]
i
came oliver a black six foot one
disabled wheelchair using goddess with
rare disease was invited to speak at
tedx accra
because my perspective my wisdom my
experience
was seen as having value i’m here
as an authority feel free to google me
however i and millions of people around
the world who look like me
who look like jamarcaire my co-founder
are yet to have this experience
they are yet to hear their own voices
they are yet to see themselves
represented
anywhere or centered in any conversation
or space
let’s clear one thing up first
disability is
literally environmental or genetic
lottery
it can happen to anyone of any age class
sex
sexuality gender religion or political
affiliation or skin complexion
it’s not an inherent moral flaw it does
not negate one’s humanity
it does not require overcoming or hiding
and it is not there to provide you with
inspiration
on that point disabled people make up at
least 20 percent
of any population yet we are erased from
our environments and history
often without question upwards of five
million folks here in ghana
are disabled poverty and lack of access
to good medical care
are major contributors to the numbers
however
due to taboo and social stigma lack of
up-to-date recording
and reporting the number is likely much
higher
can a world where such a large portion
of the population are maligned in ways
that are often
fatal call itself civilized or
enlightened i ask again can an
africa where the key vulnerable part of
the community
where our disabled parents siblings and
cousins
are dehumanized and face the highest
rates of poverty
abuse and death call itself
civilized enlightened or even african
we all know that who is seen represented
and remembered
is who will be catered for listened to
welcomed
and seen as having value that is one of
the reasons we created the triple
cripples
to redress the imbalance of value within
our society
through the powerful tool of
representation
we want to create an equitable society
for us
and the generations to come it is
erroneous to believe that a space which
centers folks in the margins so black
disabled women fems non-binary folks and
trans
folks will automatically exclude anyone
else
the issues of folks in the margins of
the margins are planetary issues
as we the triple cripples always say
when you centre those within the margins
of the margins
everybody benefits being focused on the
margins is not
being exclusionary it rather helps to
form a framework for creating a society
where holistic inclusion
and non-tokenistic diversity are at the
center
so nobody falls through the gaps
it’s safe to say that i’m the only
active highly visible
fem presenting wheelchair user in accra
i wish i could say that my visibility
will hold
this government and all african
governments to account
i wish that my presence demanded that
when they say come
home or year of return they prove that
they truly mean
all of us i mean it won’t they don’t
even want the ones born here they hardly
want disabled imports right
common retorts to me bringing up the
topic of integrating disability into the
social consciousness
include you’re not in the west this is
africa
how insulting uncles in crimea lumumba
and sankara must turn in their graves
every time
people talk about their ancient beloved
continent
like it has no rich past and no hopeful
future
africans after all are who civilized and
educated the west
or at least tried to sometimes
our perception of the possibility of a
great black future
is tainted by the disregard for a
millennia’s worth of
hoarding of our intellect and our
resources
by the west who have subsequently
presented their gains as their own in
history books in media in film
something else i hear is if you give up
you’ll be just like the useless beggars
on the street
incidentally the disdain for the poorest
people
is one of the detestable leftovers of
colonial capitalist white supremacist
patriarchal conditioning
and often miraculously not the poorest
folks
just so happen to be disabled
coincidence
i think not a review of the research
places disabled ghanaians
firmly at the bottom of the societal
hierarchy with the most
heinous and disturbing outcomes
most of us cannot access education
inaccessible schools classrooms colonial
content
societal stigma and attitudes from both
staff and students
all form barriers for disabled africans
accessing education
most of our experiences of relationships
are just disheartening
from parent child to intimate
relationships our experiences and our
outcomes
are marred by the heavy weight of
societal stigma
and erasure physical psychological
emotional and sexual abuse
rates for disabled people are high
especially for disabled women and
children
erasure of disabled women from the
societal landscape
makes them easy victims and allows
perpetrators free reign
to terrorize in perpetuity with
impunity by the way the erasure of
disabled women from the ghanaian
landscape
is a clear sign of sexism but this is a
tedx talk
not a course so you know if you want to
learn more you know pay me i’m an expert
that’s why i’m here most disabled
ghanaians cannot access
skills training or employment employers
won’t even take
applications from disabled people people
write us off before we even open our
mouths to speak
or sign don’t believe me check out this
interaction between me and
a ghanaian skills training provider you
see even i
a disabled diasporan and desperate to
try and make ends meet here in ghana
so much so that i did what all the taxi
drivers claim the disabled beggars don’t
do
i try to go and learn a skill or trade
as you can see i can’t even access the
training due to the immediate barrier
of not being able to get into the
building second is their lack of
flexibility or innovative approach to
teaching
and third and probably most important
is the price of the training itself
access to healthcare unsurprisingly is
another barrier for us
you see when a system requires that you
utilize money to access medical
attention of any kind
the presumption is that you will have
access to some means of acquiring money
and based on previous examples we should
all now see how that system
actively excludes the most vulnerable
people in this society
but not only that studies show that
attitudes towards disabled folks from
staff is reflective of the general
animosity
and lack of understanding that exists
within the society at large
apparently medical school cannot cure
colonial pseudoscientific bigotry
for most disabled africans it is a
never-ending loop
of poverty and fatality caused by
socio-cultural exclusion
and stigma as well as the societal
structures which remain
non-existent you might have noticed me
include myself in the demographics
well i’d like you to understand clearly
that there is no difference between me
and the disabled people you pretend not
to see
or actively abuse at the traffic lights
our humanity is parallel
and if you want to separate me from them
as that feels more comfortable and
better suits your sensibilities
i invite you to interrogate the
respectability politics
and colonised bigotry you are afflicted
with
i dr kim recommend a consistent
dose of introspection and a lifetime of
decolonization
as a sure remedy to reiterate what i
said in a video i wrote and edited for
erica hart’s black history series
yes i’m a multi-talented bay of goddess
a catch
all black is not the same here certain
passports
currencies and accents hold undeniable
power
but when we throw disability into the
mix the narrative
morphs yes disdain and animosity towards
disabled people is global
colonization was global
but perhaps it feels more pronounced
here because i want to feel at home
somewhere
i too want to experience the pan-african
future that miriam makiba aikwe arma
fella cutie franklin and faustina oliver
dr albertine and goyi and kwame ture
envisioned through their work
an african utopia but
disabled black folks on the continent
and in the diaspora
are often left out of conversations
about pan-africanist futures
and repatriation there are you see
no disabled people in wakanda
religion plays a huge role in attitudes
towards disability
as well as queerness the discourse
surrounding both
is often abysmal dehumanizing and
downright chilling
often linked to evil demonic activity
curses and white influence
erroneously this wreaks havoc in a
society and directly impacts the
psychological
emotional and spiritual and physical
safety of disabled folks
as is evidence from the outcomes we
discussed before you see
colonizer religions teach us not just to
fear the black consciousness
but to fear its variety of iterations
i am but one of its beautiful iterations
you see everything has a root but let me
not shake any more tables
again paid black women for their
expertise on a personal note
i am grossly aware of my positioning not
just from the inaccessibility of the
city and its homes
but from the taxi drivers that don’t
want to carry me in their cars the
shopkeepers that refuse to look me in
the eye the groups of people that pull
out their phones to film me when i’m out
in public the comments of open pity
the fear of touching me the open
assertions that they don’t want to see
me in a wheelchair
the prayers the open rudeness not
afforded to able-bodied diasporans who
often show deference the men that treat
you like a grateful hostage
the unprecedented extortion
i’m completely reliant on the good will
the pity and or moral obligation
of strangers who may or may not see me
as
woman as human as whole
this is not what i signed up for i
signed up for anonymity
i signed up for ease for welcome for
home
but this isn’t about me it’s about
everyone who looks like me who exists
across the spectrum of disability
in my skin those who are hidden
and erased from existence it has to be
bigger than just
one individual but if we are going to
use me as a template for the macro
i am a disabled black woman you have no
idea what it is like to live in this
patriarchal
ableist racist world without a single
place to call home even within your own
family
community or nation surrounded by
non-disabled people and structures that
actively exclude you
and even with the best of intentions
make it woefully known
that you are unwelcome that your life is
not equal
that your entire being is a flaw that
you are
easily disposable don’t tell me to smile
give me something to smile about don’t
tell me to be strong
be my supporter don’t tell me to try
harder create avenues for me to flourish
don’t tell me how sad you are for me
make the environment one that caters for
whatever needs that i might have
so that i have an equitable experience
alongside you
this can be an africa that leads the
world in understanding the depth and
breadth of humanity
leading with structural and cultural
compassion
building on the premise of ensuring that
its most vulnerable constituents
experience safety equity and that they
thrive
i don’t want an ideological home i want
a physical community societal structure
and culture in which i can feel like an
equal player in the game of life
and you know what we should all be
creating it especially white people and
everyone else who has benefited off of
black nations
our land sea multiple types of human
resource and labor
we created the triple cripples to make
room in our collective consciousness
for a future that included all of us
with those in the margins of the margins
at the center
being visible being represented is only
part
of that journey this africa is within
our grasp
we are not truly free until all of us
are free until we embed that into our
thinking
we will keep having this same
conversation for the next hundred years
and instead of kwame nkrumah
i kim oliver will be rolling around in
my grave wondering why my children are
wasting time and not sitting at the
table that i laid before them
you