Freedom is more than escape

Bob Marley, global icon and musical prophet, once sang the immortal words, “Emancipate yourselves from mental slavery; none but ourselves can free our minds.” Borrowed from Marcus Garvey’s famous speech delivered in Sydney, Nova Scotia, those words have become more than lyrics. True personal liberation is rooted in the deeper exploration of who we truly are.

The truth is, a well-known African symbol from Ghana, West Africa, is a perfect representation of reflecting on our past to make way for the future. The “Sankofa” symbol, an image of a mythical bird looking back to fetch an egg from its back, is found in many public places across the country, etched into local carvings and prevalent in metalwork.

Its presence (as seen in pictures and carvings) underscores the importance of reclaiming the traditions and practices that have always sustained us as a people. From the continent of Africa to the Caribbean, and right here on Turtle Island. In addition, the importance of reclaiming the ways of our ancestors that came before us, not just as outward gestures, such as that drop of alcohol on the ground after cracking open a celebratory bottle, but also as an internal connection.

By exploring the stories, struggles, and wisdom that shaped our ancestors, we move beyond surface-level self-help and into genuine self-understanding. This serves as an open door to the Liberation we collectively and individually seek, in some cases without even knowing it.

So how do we emancipate ourselves and what does that mean in 2026? True emancipation (or liberation) is a theme relevant to our recent celebrations right here in Toronto; The Toronto Caribbean Carnival, what we affectionately known as Caribana. Carnival reminds us of our ancestors’ resilience and creativity, but if the celebration ends at the removal of our costumes and waving of our flags, then we have missed a huge part of its deeper meaning. Liberation is not only something we put on and dance to, but it is something we live.

There is another misunderstanding that liberation is a form of escape rather than retrieval. Retrieval of the inner wisdom that serves as a guide for us, each day. Let us peel back the layers of the escape that I mentioned for a moment.

Now what is wrong with escape, you ask? Especially in a world saturated with media, substance use, and countless forms of distraction, we have grown so accustomed to looking outside ourselves for relief that we often avoid sitting with our emotions or uncomfortable truths, and rarely do we address the importance of truly healing from the inside out. Seldom do we understand what it truly looks like.

So, what does escape versus liberation look like? Changing your circumstances instead of your relationship with yourself. Liberation is freedom from within, as opposed to freedom from something. If we do not deal with what is going on inside us, changing our job, moving somewhere new, or starting a new relationship, usually will not solve the problem. The same issues often show up, just the same, but in a different place or with different people.

One way we can catch these patterns before they show up on our doorstep is by taking an honest look within. A little self-reflection can reveal more than we often realize. We can start by honestly asking ourselves, am I calling something freedom when it is just creating distance? What part of myself have I left behind that I still need to reclaim?

Too often, we think of Sankofa as a one-time journey, as if we can go back, reclaim the part of ourselves we abandoned or left behind, and then miraculously we are healed, whole, and free. As we know, that is not how life works. Sankofa is not a single moment. It is a lifelong practice of remembering who we are and returning to ourselves.

When the previous version of us shows up, unpolished, we sometimes mistake it for failure. It is not. It is an invitation; to meet our growth with care, not judgment. Instead, let us see it as an invitation to address our growth with care and compassion, and in the spirit of moving forward with greater awareness. Freedom was never a place we arrived at. It is a door we choose to walk back through, again.