Black Hair is Political
Assembly in a Zimbabwean Primary school. Boys hair was inspected, it was supposed to be combed and short. Today we call it a brush cut but back then I just knew it was the rule. Girls had to have their hair short or plaited against their skulls. No afro’s, no fancy braids hanging down to their necks and definitely no dreadlocks. I hope you understand that by this I mean the black boys and girls. Different rules seemed to apply to the white children. What did I know of the politics of hair back then? Almost nothing. What do I know today? Just a little bit more.
“Relaxing your hair is like being in prison. You’re caged in. Your hair rules you. You didn’t go running with Curt today because you don’t want to sweat out this straightness. You’re always battling to make your hair do what it wasn’t meant to do.”
― Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie, “Americanah”
Really think about it though. When was the last time you saw Michelle Obama with her natural African kinky hair? Or Oprah? Or Beyoncé? Why is it such big news when black celebrities let out their natural hair? I remember my shock when I learnt that Oprah was wearing a weave. I stared gobsmacked at my mother as she explained how other peoples hair was weaved into Oprah’s natural hair to make it appear like that. The question my mother had been answering was my innocent query on why no other people that I knew in…
