Angela Davis On Radical Self

“ ANYONE WHO’S INTERESTED IN MAKING CHANGE IN THE WORLD, ALSO HAS TO LEARN HOW TO TAKE CARE OF HERSELF, HIMSELF, THEIRSELVES. ”

Angela Davis during a speech in Northern California. Spring, 1981. Photo by Ilka Hartmann.

Angela Davis on radical self-care:

For a long time, activists did not necessarily think that it mattered to take care of themselves; in terms of what they eat, in terms of mental self-care, corporal self-care, spiritual self-care…

I know that there were some people who emphasised it. I’m thinking about one of the leaders of the Black Panther Party, Ericka Huggins, who began to practice yoga and meditation in the 70s, and she encouraged many people including Huey Newton and Bobby Seale to join that practice.

I think they did a little bit of it, but I think that movement would have been very different, had we understood the importance of that kind of self-care. Personally, I started practicing yoga and meditation when I was in jail. But it was more of an individual practice; later I had to recognize the importance of emphasizing the collective character, of that work, on the self.

Why is it important for activists and organizers to practice radical self-care?

Well, it means that we’re able to bring our entire selves into the movement. It means that we incorporate into our work as activists, ways of acknowledging and hopefully also moving beyond trauma. It means a holistic approach.

What impact can radical self-care have on the sustainability of our movements?

I think longevity is important, and not simply individual longevity, it is equally important to recognize that as we develop our movement today we’re creating a terrain for the emergence of new activists and what we do today has an impact on what younger people will be able to do tomorrow. I think we have to imagine ourselves as connected to people who came before us, and those who will come after us.

When practiced by Black people, how can self-care become a radical act?

Black people all over the world have been subjected to the most unimaginable forms of violence: slavery, and torture. But at the same time, black people have also offered the world, we’ve also produced beauty, music, and art. And I think that the self-care that gets produced by Black people, recognizes the connection between struggle and art and beauty and the imagination.

What role does radical self-care play in our collective liberation as a people?

It’s very dangerous not to recognize that as we struggle we are attempting to precise the world to come. And the world to come should be one in which we acknowledge collectivity and connections and relations and joy. And if we don’t start practicing collective self-care now, there is no way to imagine, much less reach, a time of freedom.

Transcript from Angela Davis Interview with Afro Punk, 2018.

Watch in full, here.