Healing the Kenyan psyche to end historical patterns of self-sabotage

Police keep vigil during Saba Saba protests in Kitengela, on July 7, 2025. [Collins Oduor, Standard]

July 20 was pivotal day in the history of the world. It was the date of birth of Frantz Fanon, the revolutionary Martiniquian psychologist who chronicled the psychology of post-colonial people's in classic texts including Wretched of the Earth and Black Skin, White Masks. He is perhaps most known for his quote: "Each generation must discover its mission, fulfill it or betray it, in relative opacity."

In his work, Fanon dealt with how unhealed trauma acted as a block for post-colonial people's transformation. Black rulers, taking after the white colonialists, became the new vampire elites, extracting from and exploiting, rather than nurturing their populaces. Kenya, and the bulk of its African compatriots, is stuck in a situation where cultures of self-sabotage and failure are normalised, rather than victory and triumph.