Glenville Ashby's Conflict of Identity: From the Slave Trade to Present Day – One Man's Healing in Benin, Africa, boldly examines the psychological impact of enslavement on Africans on the continent and in the Americas.
The author traces maladaptive behaviors to practices promoted by the values that characterized slavery. Dress, language, sexuality and religiosity, according to the author, emerged from a dysfunctional system that adversely affected the oppressed and the oppressor.
The restructuring of the family and religion, he argues, is essential to stem what he calls the "psychological hemorrhaging of black peoples." The author discusses race, color and Christianity as it relates to the black experience. He chronicles his childhood and adult experiences in the Caribbean, the United States and Africa that shaped many of his existential views.
His discourse on Vodun as a means to psychic liberation and political empowerment is richly presented and is a boon for anyone interested in Traditional African Religions. The author introduces womb therapy as key to cultural reclamation and conflict resolution, and presents the 4-R Model: Rethinking, Re-learning, Re-Speaking, and Re-Doing, as essential to personal transformation. Conflict of Identity ends with Appendix 1: published articles around the theme of the book, and with Appendix 2: the author's personal diary on his experiences in Africa.
