For more ideas consult the attached paper entitled Black Hair/Style Politics by Kobena Mercer - you may also wish to check out the following ideas presented by Kihumbu Thairu way back in 1975 in his very controversial book titled The African Civilization: Utamaduni wa Kiafrika:
The modern medical records on "tropical demartology"...are full of complications that attend our attempts to ape European hair. Anything from partial baldness to complete loss of hair has been reported...doctors' warnings are going unheeded because the real reason behind burning hair is not to be a beautiful African, but to look European like the "Memsahib" and therefore beautiful and civilized. The desire is deeper than just "fashion". It is a deep rooted substitution complex which perhaps needs the psychiatrist more than the aesthetic or the physician. If you have tapped with a pencil the head....of an African you will know that our hair forms a protective shock-absorbing coating over our heads. The hair therefore helps to protect our brains against shocks or blow on the head. Yet instead of thanking "Providence", "God", "Nature" (and whoever else people believe in) for the kind of hair we have, many of us are busy subjecting it to all sorts of insults to change its nature to something slimy and unprotective simply to look like foreigners! (pp. 37 -38)
From: imma dominic <immadominic@gmail.com>
To: wanazuoni@yahoogroups.com
Sent: Fri, October 1, 2010 7:34:14 PM
Subject: Re: [wanazuoni] Is there such a thing as 'African Hair/Hairstyle'?
What makes one an African? what hair is african hair?
Africa multi race continent-hair of which race one conceptualizes as african hair
Is it about ones being natural in hair texture or being african in hair texture?
more ideas plz!!!
From: carolinechumo <carolinechumo@gmail.com>
To: wanazuoni@yahoogroups.com
Sent: Fri, October 1, 2010 7:14:05 PM
Subject: [wanazuoni] Re: Is there such a thing as 'African Hair/Hairstyle'?
To: wanazuoni@yahoogroups.com
Sent: Fri, October 1, 2010 7:14:05 PM
Subject: [wanazuoni] Re: Is there such a thing as 'African Hair/Hairstyle'?
Oooo, nice topic.
I get what the author is saying. But what would be worse: people wearing amazing "natural" hair while upholding racist status quos, or people wearing "White" or "Asian" hair while preaching truth?
Anyway, time to share websites about beautiful hair!
A how-to for (almost)every style of "natural" hair you can imagine:(http://www.youtube.com/user/PRETTYDIMPLES01#p/u
The science behind curly hair care, plus good/bad ingredients to look for in hair products: http://www.tightlycurly.com/welcome/
From: Ellis Nkunga <nkunga@gmail.com>
To: wanazuoni@yahoogroups.com
Sent: Fri, October 1, 2010 1:12:09 PM
Subject: Re: [wanazuoni] Is there such a thing as 'African Hair/Hairstyle'?
Interesting!Being African has nothing to do with color of your hair!
Sent via DROID on Verizon Wireless
On Fri, Oct 1, 2010 at 2:58 AM, Chambi Chachage <chambi78@yahoo.com> wrote:
Hope Mankwana Papo, Letters, Business Day, Johannesburg, 30 September 2010
African-hair identity
Following a long, protracted struggle for freedom, in the era of the African renaissance and transformation and retracing of our suppressed and lost identity, why are some of the black African people dumping their natural African hair and trying to look like Asian and white women through long artificial hair and wigs? This is contrasted by a very small number, if any, of Asian and white women who want to have their hair look like that of black women. Some black people even sport long blonde hair. What really motivates these hairstyles?
What is the difference between these hairstyles and the mentality which motivated the misguided and colonially inspired use of the abominable skin lighteners in the '70s and '80s? Some people argue that they have a choice and can afford to do all sorts of things with their African hair. Granted, but I think this choice has to be exercised and informed by available hairstyle options, which retain the essence of who we are as Africans and an understanding of the terrible apartheid history of being called monkeys, baboons, barbarians and not being good at anything.
This choice has to be informed by the humiliating and racist practice of the pencil test through the texture of the hair, to see if a person was a black African or a coloured.
Did we struggle for some African people to consciously and unconsciously ridicule our rich African identity?
Does freedom mean always having to conform to the practices of other people? Should we accept silly arguments that people feel uncomfortable with their African hair? Is mimicking some of the mannerisms of some of the African-Americans, influenced by an inferiority complex, correct?
We cannot talk big about being African when we cannot deal with basic things which are within our control, such as our attitude to some of our natural attributes like hair.
It is a recorded historical fact that African people contributed immensely to human civilisation. Does changing our hair to look like the natural hair of Asian and white people enhance this history?
While issues such as health, education, fighting crime and corruption, rural development, creating decent work and poverty eradication are important to continue addressing, we cannot do that outside the context of understanding who we are and our background as Africans.
As we part with the September Heritage month, we should ask whether we are ashamed of our African identity. Being African is an important aspect of building a nonracial SA.
Hope Mankwana Papo
Johannesburg
From: http://www.businessday.co.za/Articles/Content.aspx?id=122366
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