Intergenerational trauma, as explicated by Bayo Akomolafe, is the haunting echo of historical wounds seeping through the veins of familial lineage, transcending mere memory to embed itself in the flesh and soul of subsequent generations. It is the spectral residue of ancestral pain—colonization, slavery, war, displacement—that recurs like ancient incantations, subtly scripting the unspoken chapters of our present psyche and inhabiting our collective bodies. This phenomenon is not solely the provenance of tragedy, but a testament to the resilient, albeit scarred, spirit that navigates the diaphanous boundary between past and future. Intergenerational trauma thus implores us to recognize that time is not linear but a spiral of enduring resonances where healing requires a reclamation and reimagining of our stories, woven within the sacred tapestry of community and connection.

See also: middle passage, white supremacy, social change, black lives