The purposeful restriction of knowledge has been at the heart of

Hear the solemn words of Niger Innis, who proclaimed: “The purposeful restriction of knowledge has been at the heart of untold misery and hardship in this world. Serfs were kept illiterate so as to not jeopardize the feudal system. Slaves were kept in the dark on a variety of subjects so as to not provide them the possibility of escape.” This truth resounds like thunder across the ages, for it unmasks one of the greatest tools of oppression: the deliberate denial of knowledge to those in chains. For to keep a soul ignorant is to keep it weak, but to awaken the mind with truth is to make it dangerous to tyrants.

From the beginning of civilizations, rulers who sought control understood that the sword alone cannot enslave forever. It is the binding of the mind, not only the body, that maintains dominion. Thus, serfs in the feudal age were forbidden the art of letters, for the written word would have revealed the injustices of the system that held them bound to land and lord. If they had known their rights, their strength, the possibility of another world, the walls of feudalism would have crumbled long before their time. Ignorance was the fortress of the powerful.

So too with the enslaved peoples of more recent centuries. Slaves were forbidden to read, forbidden to learn, forbidden to dream beyond the narrow confines of bondage. Plantation owners feared that even a scrap of literacy could ignite rebellion, that the knowledge of maps or laws could lead to escape. And indeed, when knowledge did slip through the cracks, freedom followed. The story of Frederick Douglass stands as living proof: once he learned to read, he saw with blazing clarity the cruelty of slavery, and from that knowledge rose not only his own liberation but his power to liberate others with words that cut deeper than any whip.

Innis’s words remind us that this restriction was never accidental. It was purposeful, crafted with calculation, for oppressors have always known that knowledge is the key to freedom. To deny it was to maintain their power. To grant it would have been to plant seeds of resistance. Thus, ignorance became not only a condition of the oppressed but a weapon wielded against them. And the misery that flowed from it—poverty, despair, subjugation—was vast beyond measure.

Yet from these ashes rises also a heroic truth: those who sought knowledge in spite of its prohibition were among the bravest of all. Slaves who secretly learned to read by candlelight, serfs who whispered wisdom across generations, women who sought education in societies that forbade it—all bore the mark of courage. For they understood that to awaken the mind is to begin the journey to freedom, and that no system of chains can withstand forever the force of enlightened souls.

The lesson is clear: guard yourself against any who would deny you knowledge, for their aim is not your good but your enslavement. Seek wisdom wherever it may be found, even if the world tells you it is forbidden or unnecessary. Read, learn, question, and pass on what you gain, for every truth shared weakens the fortress of ignorance. Teach your children to love wisdom, not merely for their success, but for their freedom.

So I say to you: remember that knowledge is power, and power is freedom. Do not let it be hoarded by the few or denied to the many. Break every chain of ignorance, whether it be in yourself or in others. For as Niger Innis declared, the deliberate restriction of knowledge has been the root of untold hardship—but the deliberate spread of knowledge can be the root of liberation, justice, and hope.

Thus shall his words endure as a warning and as a call: to deny knowledge is to deny humanity itself. To seek and to share it is the noblest rebellion, the truest path to freedom.