Neurodivergence in Ancient Africa: What History Forgot but Our Ancestors Knew
How West African societies embraced autism, ADHD, and neurodivergence as spiritual gifts and communal roles long before diagnosis existed.
Neurodivergence Was Supported, Not Pathologized
In ancient West African societies, neurodivergent people weren’t seen as broken they were healers, memory keepers, griots, and seers.
“We are your ancestors returning. We are part of the brain’s ecosystem, not to be pathologized.” — Lovette Jallow
© Lovette Jallow. All rights reserved.
This section is part of a protected and copyrighted body of work. It may not be reproduced, excerpted, adapted, or cited in academic, commercial, or derivative work without explicit permission. This is living, ancestral research rooted in lineage, not labs.
How African cosmologies and community structures recognized neurodivergent minds as part of the whole not broken, not cast out.
This segment is part of a larger body of protected and copyrighted research. It draws from oral histories, lived experience, and multilingual archives. The full scope of the work remains unpublished and intentionally reserved from academic extraction or open-source frameworks.
Over the past three years, I’ve spoken with griots from the Fula, Mandinka, Serer, and Wolof branches across my extended family—gathering oral histories, cultural memory, and spiritual knowledge. I used the DSM not to frame the work, but to translate symptoms and behavioral traits into language that could guide questions across generations and dialects. It allowed me to trace neurodivergent patterns that communities already understood—but had never named in clinical terms.
In these precolonial societies, neurodivergent individuals were not seen as broken. They were integrated into communal roles: healers, memory keepers, rhythm holders, energy workers, herbalists, and advisors. Their traits were understood through lived observation—not through pathology. Autism and ADHD were not illnesses; they were specific orientations toward sensory input, attention, language, and time.
This series is not a rewrite of Western theory. It is a remembering—for Black neurodivergent people across the diaspora who’ve been mislabeled, misunderstood, and made to feel like anomalies. We were never broken. We were embedded in structures that understood our function.
“This is cultural research rooted in lineage, not labs—guided by oral historians, spiritualists, and multilingual archives across three regions.” — Lovette Jallow
Whether you are African, Caribbean, or Black American—if this resonates, it’s because you were never outside of it. Our neurodivergence has always existed. In form. In function. In flame.
Neurodivergence Was Spiritual, Not Pathological
“Before the DSM, there was divination. Before labels, there was recognition.” — Lovette Jallow
In many precolonial African societies, neurodivergent traits were not medicalized—they were spiritual signposts. A child who didn’t speak for years might be seen as touched by the divine, not broken. An adult with intense focus or unusual routines might be guided by spirit, not a psychiatric manual.