African mental health: Historical context and cultural beliefs

Historical context

Race and slavery overlap with mental health throughout the history of the United States. In the mid-1800s, American physician Samuel Cartwright created two racist and false mental diagnoses. He called these “drapetomania” and “dysaesthesia aethiopica.” The purpose of this was to keep Black people oppressed, captive, and abused.

Cartwright claimed that free Black and African American individuals suffered from mental diagnoses more than enslaved folks. Much of the medical community backed this claim. They used this in arguments with abolitionists. Even in the early 1900s, leading psychiatrists thought Black and African American people to be “psychologically unfit” for freedom.

The history of communities of African descent in the U.S. has been plagued by trauma and oppression. But that does not make up the whole story. There is much to be celebrated and learned from Black and African American cultures. Some communities' specific ethnic origins have been lost over time due to slavery. These communities came from various areas of Africa. This includes places in which the earliest humans may have originated 2 to 6 million years ago.

In the U.S., communities of African descent have been relatively erased from history books. They are often reduced to only the difficulties of their pasts. But these communities have been on the front lines of activism and fights for justice. This includes historical greats such as Harriet Tubman and Dr. Martin Luther King Jr..

Bebe Moore Campbell was an author whose writing and advocacy focused on the experiences of Black women and those with mental health conditions. This led to the formal recognition of Bebe Moore Campbell National Minority Mental Health Awareness Month in July.

Marsha P. Johnson was one of the revolutionaries who helped make LGBTQ+ pride what it is today. Audre Lorde spoke of intersectionality long before the term was coined by Kimberlé Crenshaw. Frederick McKinley Jones invented theautomatic portable air-cooling unit. This allowed us to preserve food, medicines, and other medical supplies. Due to the erasure of Black positive history, many of these great leaders are not commonly known names.