[Robert Urbanek]

When the British colonized Africa in about 1870, they not only carted off resources such as gold, ivory, and salt, they also took away the dreams of tribal leaders. No, I don’t mean hopes and aspirations; I mean the dreams you have at night.

In the book Man and His Symbols (1964), page 37, psychoanalyst Carl Jung reported his experience with a tribe in east Africa. The tribesmen felt that the dreams of ordinary men meant nothing. “They thought that the only dreams that mattered were those of chiefs and medicine men; these, which concerned the welfare of the tribe, were highly appreciated.”

Alas, the chief and medicine man claimed they had ceased having meaningful dreams after the arrival of the British. “The district commissioner—the British official in charge of them—had taken over the functions of the ‘great dreams’ that had hitherto guided the tribe’s behavior.”