By Kabiesi Oba Adekunle Aderonmu
There is no burden heavier, no mission more complex, than the work of liberating people from the chains they cannot see — mental slavery.
The hardest job is not physical labor, nor is it political leadership. It is the sacred and dangerous work of awakening a consciousness that has been lulled into submission, often for generations, by invisible forces cloaked in tradition, religion, and fear.
Mental slavery is the quietest and most effective form of oppression. It does not need shackles made of iron — it thrives through ideas, beliefs, and systems that program people to believe that their servitude is sacred, that their suffering is holy, and that their liberation is sin.
The Pain of Revival
We who are engaged in the work of revival — cultural, spiritual, ancestral — do not expect to be loved by all. In fact, we are prepared to be misunderstood, attacked, and rejected. Why? Because revival requires disruption. It challenges the comfort of conformity. It pulls people away from what they’ve been taught and demands they see with their own eyes.
This is not a journey for the faint of heart. It is a calling that walks against the wind of mainstream acceptance. But revival is not about popularity. It is about truth. And truth, when it begins to rise, always shakes the structures built on lies.
We are not here to please — we are here to awaken.
Religion: The Mask of Control
Let us speak boldly: Religion is evil when used as a tool of oppression, no matter the name it wears or the book it quotes. Religion becomes a problem when it teaches you to hate yourself, your culture, your ancestors, or your body. It becomes a curse when it convinces you that your god lives far away and speaks only through colonizers, conquerors, or patriarchs.
All over the world, people have been mentally enslaved by religious systems that were never theirs. These systems came in the name of salvation, but they brought erasure, guilt, fear, and dependency. They demanded worship, but offered no dignity.
The name of the oppressor’s god may change — but the goal remains: Control the mind, and you control the people.
Even African traditions, when stripped of their essence and turned into hierarchy, superstition, and ego, can become chains. That is why discernment is key. We must separate what is divine from what is manipulation.
The Sacred Work
Our work — those of us who carry the flame of ancestral memory — is not to destroy faith, but to restore freedom. We are here to remind our people that spirituality should liberate, not imprison. That ancestors do not want worshippers, but awakened descendants. That divinity is not in a faraway heaven, but in the blood, the land, and the rhythm of the drum.
We are not missionaries. We are reminders. We do not convert — we reconnect.
This work is the hardest job because it requires patience, courage, clarity, and love. It requires standing alone sometimes, speaking truths that others are not yet ready to hear. But we do it anyway — because silence would be betrayal.
Final Word
Mental slavery is real. Religious deception is real. And the revival we are living is not a trend — it is a return.
We will not be loved by everyone. But we are not here to be loved. We are here to be free. And to free others.
“Emancipate yourselves from mental slavery; none but ourselves can free our minds.” – Bob Marley (inspired by Marcus Garvey)
May this be more than a quote. May it be a way of life.
By Kabiesi Oba Adekunle Aderonmu
Traditional Leader | Cultural Reformer | Son of the Soil
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