Are you proud to be black? Are you proud to swag in and around the street corners with afro, kinky or dreadlocks? Embracing this new ideology to some, it will call for a change of mentality.
The debate of black hair then as now remains a contestable and debatable discourse that still reigns supreme in the corridors of any institution you can name off the head. Dating back 400 years ago, before the white interaction disrupted black communities on the African continent, growing such a great amount of hair symbolized a significant stage in somebody’s life.
An afro hairstyle indicated a sense of beauty, wealth, fertility and a rite of passage to interact in social causes like marriage. A lady with hair was respected in a household and her say was not to be refuted by anyone. In some cultures hair epitomized a strong reverence to one’s spiritual belief. It was some array of a divine channel that was used to interact with ancestors.
To understand how hair held such an important part of the body, before the invention of chemically manufactured hair products, African women and men applied natural hair products that produced such amazing results. For example, ancient beauty queens and mothers from Egypt used castor oil due to its healing and wholesome properties it had and the people of the Afar tribe in Ethiopia used “Niter kibbeh” some kind of butter as a relaxing agent that helped shape the hair in any preferable style.
When the white Europeans managed to break into Africa, then the controversy of hair was set into motion. Some of these white folks will argue that when they came in contact with these organized ethnic groups, they admired the intricate hair designs. When slave trade gained momentum, many Africans including children saw their once cherished hairstyles shaved off. This I bet signified an end of an era or African culture continuity. Practically, they were forced to embrace a new culture of straightened hair just like that of their colonial masters.
While working in the fields, your hair was a major factor in allocating work responsibilities. For the Africans who had some kind of Caucasian hair texture, worked in the houses, while those with afro or kinky hair looks labored hard under the sun.
To this point, women were compelled to wear a cloth that concealed her hair. This not only killed the beauty but it changed her world view that African natural hair was not accepted in the white-dominated areas. In that regard, it was passed down from generations how African hair could make you lose out on wealth creation opportunities. This kind of thinking continued until the early years of the civil right movements fighting for equality.
During this season, Afro hair movement took center stage. It became some kind of hair politics that was not welcomed by both whites and blacks.
To this day kinky, afro hair is still struggling to be embraced by some blacks and whites. Yet it’s one avenue to express your beauty and pride of being African or having African blood. Some boarding schools in African greatly encourage their students to shave off the hair before they report to school. The reason behind it, “we are teaching etiquette and hygiene” why would you condition a young mind to think that his or her African hairstyle is not in proper order and therefore needs to go.
Thankful enough, people of color have woken up including institutions that command authority, and are now in support gear for afro and kinky hair. In recent months, beauty pageants queens have won competitions while enveloped in their natural black hair. Talk of Zozibini Tunzi Miss South Africa 2019, Kaliegh Garris, Miss Teen USA 2019, Cheslie Kryst Miss USA 2019 and many more have come out to defy odds and stand for what they feel best represents beauty in their original skin color.
If you out there struggling with shame that your African hair doesn’t fit into society, I don’t blame you. But you should know that your hair adds such tremendous beauty. Don’t allow anyone to ostracize you because of your kinky hairstyle.