The Un-Natural Side of Ghana

After getting one too many crazy looks from the women here in Ghana, I felt that I needed to speak on it.  Like I’ve said in several posts, the people here are nice…but I’m getting to the point where I can take or leave some of the women.  So here goes…

A friend told me once that people in Africa are going to look at me crazy with “that hair all over your head” but I was not trying to hear any of that.  I was certain that if any place would embrace being natural and relaxer-free, it would be mother Africa.  Well friend (read: Zee), you were right and I was oh so wrong.

African women are no better off than American women when it comes to defining beauty outside of what the media or years of oppression says it should be.  The Black woman in America has been plagued with images of beauty her entire life that oftentimes don’t look anything like her – the same goes for African women.  As I’ve gone throughout the city, I can probably count on two hands the number of women who are natural here – regardless of living conditions.  

When I first arrived, I was so excited to see that girls at public schools here are made to cut their hair as short as the boys.  The first thing I thought was: “How awesome, they get a fresh start and don't have to define their beauty by the length or texture of their hair.”  Then, I was yanked back down to reality when a Nigerian friend of mine said: “Kim, don’t overly romanticize it, those little girls run to get a weave-on whenever they are out of school on holiday.  I haven’t seen a woman with natural hair for 10 years here in Nigeria and I know it’s the same in Ghana.”  I was also told that people still bleach their skin here (sad sad sad).  And if that wasn’t enough confirmation, I saw a middle-aged Ghanaian woman yesterday at the mall with dreadlocks.  When I told her how beautiful they were she said: “They don’t appreciate it here.  They follow the white man’s view of beauty like they hate themselves and the hair that grows out of their very own heads.”

There it is folks: Same self-hate, different continent.  Honestly, my decision to go natural back in 2002 wasn’t rooted in anything pro-Black or Afrocentric.  I was just sick and tired of having my scalp set ablaze every four weeks just to have that shaky, bouncy look.  But I have to say, after seeing the “stank” thrown my way from some of the women here because I don’t have a perm, I’m taking a real stance.  If you’re a woman of color reading this, hear me loud and clear: It’s time for us to let that old slavery, colonialism, segregation mentality go and stop abusing ourselves because of it.  We will never look like the girl on the TV, naturally anyway (let Lil' Kim be a warning to us all). 

And this is more than just about our hair ladies - it’s about our bodies, our skin color, our imperfections that make us stop short of being all that God wants us to be and realizing our full potential.  One of my favorite movies of all time is “Imitation of Life,” an unfortunate tale about a black woman who “passes” for white and alienates herself from her Black mother in the process.  It isn’t by any means a feel-good movie, rather it is a metaphor for so many of our lives.  Whether we’re “passing” with our skin, our hair, our language, our backgrounds, we all live double lives just to make it here in America. 

And it appears as though our sisters in Africa are “passing” too – perhaps having a perm or a “weave-on” signifies status for them, allows them to pretend like they’re not going home to no indoor plumbing or electricity if that's their reality.  But I can’t help but feel like we in America are somehow responsible – like the big sister who drops out of school and then tells her little sister to make good grades.  Sometimes they do as we do, not as we say.  And what we do in America is certainly traveling across the waters and stripping away so much of the culture, beauty and authenticity of Africa. 

 

This blog isn’t meant to do anything more than encourage us all to take a step back, strip ourselves of all the things the world has ascribed to us, look in the mirror and find self-love and acceptance in what's looking back at us.  God wouldn’t have us to believe that we’re ugly because we don’t perm our hair, undesirable because we have more than a few extra pounds to lose, or unlovable because we are a couple shades too dark for some man’s preference.

So, with that said, my goal for the rest of the trip is to continue to be proud of and liberated by my nappy hair, get the darkest tan possible and walk around like I’m God’s gift to the earth…because I am.  And plus, our little sisters in Africa are watching.

Open for business...I guess you don't need much more space than this.

Smallest beauty shop in the world...and yes, that's Kelly Rowland's face on the bottom right.