The "House-Negro"

 

During slavery era in America, there were two kinds of slaves on the plantations...

The "house-negro" was a kind of slave who lived in the house with his slave master and 'loved the slave master more than the slave master loved himself'. 

He wore good cloths given him, out of the master's old belongings. He ate better because he ate leftovers from his master's plates. He lived near the master, in the attic or back of the house but lived near his master.

When the master got sick, he says ' what's up boss, we sick?' When the master's house caught fire, he would fight harder to quench the fire, more than his master would.

When one of the slaves came to him and say 'let's run away. Separate.' He would say, 'man you are crazy. Where are we gonna get good cloths like this? Where are we gonna live in a house like this?' This slave was institutionalized.

On the same plantation, there was the "field-negro". He worked on the plantation to produce crops for the master. He worked from 'can see to can't see.' He dressed in rags, ate whatever the master throws his way and slept in the shacks away from the house... watched. 

When the master got sick, he prayed that the master would die. When the master's house caught fire, he prayed for a wind to fan the fire and burn the house down... 'and he hated the master. He was intelligent.'

When Malcom X, shortly before his death in the 1960s spoke of this, he narrated the true situation of the American ex-slaves then.

When industrial revolution in europe, capitalist agendas and the fear of slaves all out revolt on the plantations to murder all whites, like it had happened in Haiti...forced white America to abolished trans-atlantic slave trade, they sought ways of making the Africans like the "house-negro". 

He was more submissive, docile and did his master's biddings. Europe also sought ways to make the Africans "forgive and forget the ills of the past as well as forget their true History and embrace the enslaver's 'his story' instead." 

Today the African would rather assemble to chase shadows than really get down to building, like her ancestors built the Benin Empire, Songhai, Great Zimbabwe, Ashante kingdom, Zanzibar and so on, which was before the first exploitative contact with western Europe in the 15th century CE.