Mental Marronage on the Metacognitive Mountain Teaching Critical Analysis, Historical Awareness and Social Activism to ADW Student Writers

Abstract

Just as their ancestors went through the process of being physically liberated, students must undergo the process of being intellectually liberated—a mental marronage. Historically, the term marronage classified those who were enslaved, emancipating themselves by way of escape from the plantation, forming free and independent communities, and resisting, through armed rebellion, those who opposed their freedom. Essentially, African Diaspora and the World teaches students to use their minds for the same purpose. Hence, a mental marronage is a psychological emancipation from the negative perceptions surrounding those of African descent, created by forming communities of intellectuals, who use their knowledge of the African Diaspora to reform the historical narrative through creative forms of active and written resistance. Students, just as many authors have done, must pick up their pens and use their writing as a method of connecting, critiquing, and changing their world.