African Hair before Bondage

"African Hair before Bondage" was a recent presentation from London Black History Walks as part of the Queen Nzingha Lecture Series.

The initial publicity was fascinating.  To quote, "Ever since African civilizations bloomed, hairstyles have been used to indicate a person's marital status, age, religion, ethnic identity, wealth, and rank within the community". Click here to read more. 

The presentation covered some of this material.  Hairstyles were such a key part of African people's identities that one of the first things the slavers did was to shave the heads of the enslaved, as a way of robbing them of those identities. 

"African Hair before Bondage" focused more on African hair during and post-bondage.  I would have liked to have heard more of the pre-bondage material.

For more amazing images of African traditional hairstyles, plus Black history and more, see:  African Images. 

Click here for more about how to celebrate beautiful, healthy Black hair and skin.

See also:  Hands Off My Child's Hair. 

White Mother: Hands Off My Black Child's Hair

When the late Dh. Vijayatara did her research some years ago on the experience of Black people in predominantly white Buddhist Sanghas (spiritual communities), one of the issues that kept coming up was the need white people express to touch our hair.  Many white people seem to have an unhealthy fascination with our hair, and they also seem to feel they have every right to touch it – often without our permission.

(My experience was somewhat different from this - I often had Black people wanting to touch my hair.  But that's a whole other story.) 

Today, I really wanted to share this very positive post by a white mother asking other white  people not to touch her Black daughter's hair, and explaining why it's disrespectful to do so. As she says, it can affect the child's self-esteem.  

I understand the relationship between white mothers and their Black children, and/or the children's hair, can be difficult. I find it refreshing and inspiring to read this white parent's words about the need to respect her child's personal space. 

White parents and other white people are more likely to pay attention to this message coming from one of their own.  I only wish they would listen when we say similar things.  

Click here to read more about how to enjoy beautiful, healthy hair and skin.    

I welcome your comments below.

Is Black Really Beautiful?

Below is my review of the new documentary Beauty Is, from director Toyin Agbetu of Ligali.  

Beauty Is explores the relationship people of the African Diaspora, and all African people,  have with beauty.  

Our quest for beauty influences:  
- our health
- our economics
- our relationships and
- our self-esteem

and the film explores all of those areas.  

This is a very important film, and we need to keep having these conversations.  

There is a link to the Ligali anti-skin-bleaching campaign below.  

I will be interviewing the Director of Beauty Is, Toyin Agbetu, soon, so stay tuned!  

You can listen to my review below.  

Find Additional Books Podcasts with Zhana21 on BlogTalkRadio

 

Click here for Natural Hair/Nappturality. 

Click here for The Key to Confidence and Self-Esteem.  

Click here for the Ligali anti-skin-bleaching campaign. 

 Click here for my Black Success audios. 

Click here for my analysis of the film 12 Years a Slave.

Black Hair Care - From Korea to Your Neighbourhood

I read an article in this month's Ebony about the use of products sourced from Korea. Although I was aware of this, what I did not realise was that many of the shops that supply Black haircare products in the States are also Korean-owned. These are the little neighbourhood shops selling in Black communities.

The article cited a video about this - I list several YouTube videos below. Most of them were made by Aron Ranen, a white man. I know Spike Lee dealth with this issue of Korean-owned shops in "Do the Right Thing", and also dealt with the self-hatred issue in "School Daze".

In the UK, this was certainly a problem in the past. Many of the shops were owned by Asian business people (from Bangladesh, Pakistan or East Africa). One of the videos, subtitled "Report from London", states that this is still an issue. However, in my experience, many of these shops are African-owned.

Asian grocers still often supply the food products we enjoy, such as sweet potatoes, plaintains, mangoes and other tropical fruits.

I am wondering (just wondering, folks) whether it would be in our best interests to partner with Asian businesses in order to gain the opportunity to supply people in our own communities. This could potentially be a step towards economic self-sufficiency.

The article quoted Ranen as saying that African Americans should go to Korea to source the hair themselves, rather than buying through a third party.

This is a sound business principle - know your suppliers and deal with them directly.

Of course, the article did not address the basic problem of why African and African Diasporic women feel the need to buy hair from Korean people to disguise the natural texture of their hair. And why we are still allowing European sensibilities to define our concepts of beauty.

The way I see it, this is part of the legacy of slavery - what is sometimes called "Post-Traumatic Slave Syndrome".

We need to learn to love ourselves, inside and out. We need to love ourselves enough that we are willing to buy from Black businesses - to prosper those who look like us and with whom we share a common cultural identity and heritage. That way, our Black businesses and communities will thrive, for the benefit of everyone.

To read more about Black haircare and the need for self-love, read "What They Don't Want Us to Know". http://www.lulu.com/content/2571278

Aron Ramnn’s Black Haircare Documentary Part One
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=p96aaTSdrAE
Black Hair Documentary Part Four
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=m67P2kT7TzQ&feature=related
Aron Ranen's Black Hair Documentary- Report from London
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SICRkQzww5Q&feature=related
"My Nappy ROOTS" Award winning documentary on Black hair
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-fZaDf15O-8&NR=1