We’re so insecure that we’re inserting ourselves into the history of ancient, influential civilisations through historical distortionism, in order to feel good about ourselves by engaging in both self-delusion and self-deception. Using pseudo-history to put ourselves alongside historically influential groups of people to inflate our own self-worth. We are like the Afrocentrists who insist ancient Egyptians were mostly black Africans; materialising this pseudo-history narrative into Netflix’s controversial show “Cleopatra”. It is clear why the showrunners did this, to make their own sense of identity feel more important. The fact is, they never had to even distort the history of Egypt to place the importance of black Africans in the former glory of ancient Egypt. Ancient Nubia (now known as Sudan), a country predominantly populated by black people, did rule ancient Egypt for over a century. Why not start from there instead of pointlessly re-writing history?
It is the same for us Filipinos who don’t try to look back and embrace our ancient past. We do not embrace and are not proud of the rich, pre-colonial heritage we have as descendants of sea-faring Austronesians. We were more gender egalitarian, even revering baklas as “babaylan”. We were also already democratic, at the microscopic social level when people lived in ships called balangays, from where the word barangay come from, and long before the introduction of European liberal democracy. Our ancestors also wore gold in their everyday fashion because it was so abundant in the country. We should embrace these facts as Filipinos and show it with pride. Our heritage is already great without distorting and “ume-epal” into the history of others. Respect others heritage, not bastardising it. How can we respect others if we can’t respect ourselves? We’re like social climbers pushing ourselves next to famous people.
This is the product of colonialism and the hang over of needlessly belittling ourselves, because we were taught we are never good enough.
We’re so insecure that we’re inserting ourselves into the history of ancient, influential civilisations through historical distortionism, in order to feel good about ourselves by engaging in both self-delusion and self-deception. Using pseudo-history to put ourselves alongside historically influential groups of people to inflate our own self-worth. We are like the Afrocentrists who insist ancient Egyptians were mostly black Africans; materialising this pseudo-history narrative into Netflix’s controversial show “Cleopatra”. It is clear why the showrunners did this, to make their own sense of identity feel more important. The fact is, they never had to even distort the history of Egypt to place the importance of black Africans in the former glory of ancient Egypt. Ancient Nubia (now known as Sudan), a country predominantly populated by black people, did rule ancient Egypt for over a century. Why not start from there instead of pointlessly re-writing history?
It is the same for us Filipinos who don’t try to look back and embrace our ancient past. We do not embrace and are not proud of the rich, pre-colonial heritage we have as descendants of sea-faring Austronesians. We were more gender egalitarian, even revering baklas as “babaylan”. We were also already democratic, at the microscopic social level when people lived in ships called balangays, from where the word barangay come from, and long before the introduction of European liberal democracy. Our ancestors also wore gold in their everyday fashion because it was so abundant in the country. We should embrace these facts as Filipinos and show it with pride. Our heritage is already great without distorting and “ume-epal” into the history of others. Respect others heritage, not bastardising it. How can we respect others if we can’t respect ourselves? We’re like social climbers pushing ourselves next to famous people. This is the product of colonialism and the hang over of needlessly belittling ourselves, because we were taught we are never good enough.