© 2020 BET Interactive, LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Black Entertainment Television LLC. Braid patterns or hairstyles indicate a person’s community, age, marital status, wealth, power, social position, and religion. In this book, they describe the primary reason behind braiding patterns in Africa, especially West Africa, and how different braids were an indicator of particular regions: “In the early fifteenth century, hair functioned as a carrier of messages in most West African societies. Garcia said with satisfaction that there has been a resurgence of braided hairstyles in Colombia in recent years. On Sundays, some masters allowed their slaves to have some time to themselves to prepare for the week of labor coming. Bioho created his own language as well as intelligence network and also came up with the idea to have women create maps and deliver messages through their cornrows. “Presumably the slave traders shaved the heads of their new slaves for what they considered sanitary reasons, but the effect was much more insidious. “Since slaves were rarely given the privilege of writing material or even if they did have it, such kind of messages or maps getting in the wrong hands could create a lot of trouble for the people in question, cornrows were the perfect way to go about such things. The Miango women cover their braids with scarves and decorate with leaves. ". Submit, Bridget Boakye is a writer, activist, and entrepreneur based in Accra, Ghana. (Photos from Left to Right: Pictorial Parade/Archive Photos/Getty Images, Michael Ochs Archives/Getty Images, Albert L. Ortega/Getty Images), TRENDING IN 4. All Rights Reserved. People brought from Africa to the U.S. as slaves would braid rice seeds into their hair so they wouldn’t starve. In the ‘60s and ‘70s, America experienced its first natural hair movement when the Black Power Movement started to rock picked out afros as well as cornrows in an effort to reject the Euro-centric beauty standards, as Emma Dabiri wrote. Black hair has been ridiculed, mocked, discriminated against, and policed since the first colonizers arrived on the continent of Africa. ", When White people simply adopt our hair as a trend and refuse to take on any guilt, we remember when the LA Times said that White celebrities like Kristen Stewart and Cara Delevingne had moved cornrows “from urban, hip-hop to chic and edgy,” stating that cornrows had to be “on the right person with the right clothing.” The problem with crediting White women for braided hair trends is reiterating the fact that our culture is “ghetto” or “urban” until a White girl decides to adopt it. The following only covers black women in America. Suriname boasts a breed of rice that’s only found in Africa, whereas the rest of the non-African world uses Asian rice varieties. (Photo: Pictorial Parade/Archive Photos/Getty Images), (Photo: H. Armstrong Roberts/ClassicStock/Getty Images). In the time of slavery in Colombia, hair braiding was used to relay messages. In that part of the world hair is anywhere between kinky to loosely curled and flowing. The Massai belong to South Kenya and Tanzania. “Women and men of all ages are getting their hair braided on a day-to-day basis. The hairstyle also served as an indicator of a person’s geographic origins.”, “One of the first things the slave traders did to their new cargo was shave their heads if they had not already been shorn by their captors,” Byrd and Tharps explain. Once their hair began to grow back, plaits, braids, and cornrows were the most convenient hairstyle for slaves to have their hair neat and maintained for a week. But more interestingly so, Suriname is the only place where one can find a specific grain of rice from Africa. Legends passed down over generations recount how women hid rice grains, which could serve as seeds if they were still husked, in their hair before boarding the ships. In … Young girls attach their family’s silver coins and amber on their braids … According to Know Your Caribbean on Instagram, braids were also used in order to hide rice or seeds into their hair before their Middle Passage journey. And in some cases, braids were a form of survival. First, Peter instructs, “Do not let your adorning be external—the braiding of hair and the putting on of gold jewelry, or the clothing you wear” (1 Peter 3:3–4). “Up until the American revolution, slaves used mortars and pestles—just as in Africa in rural areas—to take off the husks of the rice,” she notes. Wait, Could You Just Explain That One More Time?”. Sometimes it can feel as though black people are not allowed to keep anything.”. However, for some escaped slaves in South America, braids were a survival mechanism and led to … In the Quapaw tribe, braids were worn only by the single women. They didn't have the combs and herbal treatments traditionally used in Africa, so the slaves relied on bacon grease, butter and kerosene to clean and condition their hair. According to an instagram post by @KnowYourCaribbean, rice was hidden in braids in order to help slaves survive the middle passage (see the video below): Our hair is our crown: a source of strength and a symbol of the creativity that we show to the world. As mentioned earlier, Asprilla Garcia also spoke on how hairstyles were a mode of communication within communities, with … The source for this data falls back on an Afro-Colombian woman named Ziomara Asprilla Garcia who shares about the ancestral practice of escape routes being braided into hairstyles in her home country of Columbia. Cornrows have long been a facet of African beauty and life. Women often washed and conditioned their hair with butter, kerosene and bacon grease. “It had thick, tight braids, braided closely to the scalp and was tied into buns on the top,” Asprilla Garcia says. So, it is very difficult for Black women to sit quietly when we see others taking from what we have worked so hard to accomplish or minimizing what we have done, merely for their personal or commercial gain. “It had thick, tight braids, braided closely to the scalp and was tied into buns on the top. Black hair isn’t a trend as soon as it’s on a white head. Many African women braided rice or seeds into their hair before journeying the Middle Passage, on their way to enslavement or braided it into their children’s hair before separation between plantations, so that they could eat. is speaking out against a private Catholic school in Louisiana that sent home an 11-year-old black girl this week because her braided hair violated a school rule against hair extensions. "Braids are not just a style; this craft is a form of art," says Pace. Married women usually wore their hair gathered up into a knot at the back of the head, or coiled atop their head in some arrangement and often covered their hair with a cap, veil (hustrulinet) or headdress 24. Moreover, they do not know of its role in the freedom struggles which have led to the liberties we now enjoy. Just one week earlier, a … In recent years, the controversy surrounding braids and braided hair has become a topic of heated discussion. It is based on "Hair Story" (2001) by Ayana D. Byrd and Lori L. Tharps: Most blacks in America come from West Africa. In many African societies, braid patterns and hairstyles indicate a person’s community, age, marital status, wealth, power, social position, and religion. Blackdoctor.org writes on the history of cornrows: “Depictions of women with cornrows have been found in Stone Age paintings in the Tassili Plateau of the Sahara, and have been dated as far back as 3000 B.C. They decorate their hair with beads and cowrie shells. The shaved head was the first step the Europeans took to erase the slaves culture and alter the relationship between the African and his or her hair… Arriving without their signature hairstyles, Mandingos, Fulanis, Ibos, and Ashantis entered the New World, just as the Europeans intended, like anonymous chattel.”. We quite literally use our braids to communicate with the world. Hair braiding has a long history of innovation and adaption in Black America. From warriors and kings in Ethiopia to young women coming of age in West Africa, braided styles were significant to where you came from and where you were going in life, according to the book entitled Hair Story: Untangling the Roots of Black Hair in America by Ayana Byrd and Lori L. Tharps. In some cultures, a person’s surname could be ascertained simply by examining the hair because each clan had its own unique hairstyle. The Tignon Laws in Louisiana were created in order to enforce the false narrative that Black women were a threat to White women’s status, constantly seducing White men and disrupting the social order. Dr. Tia Tyree, a professor of communications at Howard University, is a media scholar who focuses on images of Black women in mainstream media. (Photo: Michael Ochs Archives/Getty Images), A Brief History Of Black Hair Braiding And Why Our Hair Will Never Be A Pop Culture Trend. In slavery, many Africans brought back the braids both as a way to stay connected to their heritage and to assert their independence. You can find her on Instagram at @boakyeb. The theft of these customs from one continent evolved into new cultural traditions on another. There are many interesting beliefs associated with braids. But not all enslaved Africans would not keep their hairs cut. Some of this involves how we showcase our beauty, including braiding our hair and creating certain styles. (Photo: Smith Collection/Gado/Getty Images). In the braids, they also kept gold and hid seeds which, in the long run, helped them survive after they escaped.”. ✊ Many African women braided rice or seeds into their hair before journeying the Middle Passage, on their way to enslavement or braided it into their children’s hair before separation, so that they could eat. Cornrows were also a sign of resistance as Emma Dabiri describes in her book, Don’t Touch My Hair, that slaves hid signals and maps in plain sight of the slaveholders in their braided hairstyles.Â. This act of using hair as a tool for resistance is said to have been evident across South America. Dr. Tyree exclusively told BET why it's so frustrating when Black women's appropriation claims are brushed off by White perpetrators. But this reality is not only evident in Colombia but all around the world. This Haitian explorer and entrepreneur is the founder and father of Chicago, How the King of Buganda massacred 45 Ugandan Christian martyrs in 1886, 10 timeless quotes that pay homage to black beauty, The story behind the only African country formed by merger of two states, 5 hot African inspired hairstyles for spring 2018, Butter Braids and Dreadlocks: A look at Africa’s traditional hairstyles, [Reality Check] Sorry Kim Kardashian, they’re Fulani braids from West Africa, Weave? For example, the Kiowa women either wore their their hair in two braids or let their locks flow free, while the Plains Indian women kept their hair short and reserved braids for the male tribe members. She is currently an Amplify Africa Fellow and member of the Global Shapers Accra Hub. The men usually braid their hair and stiffen it with animal dung. The rest of the ‘New World’ cultivated an Asian rice. While to some people they seem like just a hairstyle, others feel that it is part of their culture and tradition and that having hair braided in a particular style without belonging to a certain culture is an example of cultural appropriation. All rights reserved. Question: "Why does the Bible speak against braided hair?" Slave women who worked in the house kept their hair braided. In 2019, the media is flooded with positive imagery of Black women embracing our hair practices as a norm as opposed to a taboo and, to Dr. Tyree, this is a step in the right direction. No one would question or think that one could hide entire maps in their hairstyle, so it was easy to circulate them without anyone finding out about it.”. When African peoples were brutally kidnapped and arrived in unfamiliar lands in 1619, they were stripped of their traditional garb, practices and rituals unique to their ethnic groups. a headscarf, to conceal their hair and make it known that they were slaves. In the 1800s, ships stopped bringing slaves from Africa, and the value of slaves increased. Many would braid their hairs tightly in cornrows and more “to maintain a neat and tidy appearance”. In the Caribbean, the style may be referred to as cane rows to represent “slaves planting sugar cane”, and not corn. The citizens of these societies- including the Wolof, Mende, Mandingo, and Yoruba-were the people who filled the slave ships that sailed to the ‘New World.’ Within these cultures, hair was an integral part of a complex language system. Many African women braided rice or seeds into their hair before journeying the Middle Passage, on their way to enslavement or braided it into their children’s hair before separation between plantations, so that they could eat. The braid patterns … Cicely Tyson is famously known as rocking the first cornrows on television on the CBS series East Side, West Side in 1962. Enslaved Africans also used cornrows to transfer and create maps to leave plantations and the home of their captors. TV with plantations and slavery, we now have to endure the style being called boxer braids after women UFC boxers who wear them. They like red and use this color to dye their hair. Braids? Then the '90s and early 2000s brought us braided styles being celebrated in mainstream media: from Janet Jackson in Poetic Justice to Queen Latifah in Set It Off to Brandy in Moesha. We have value and pride in our hair. 3. 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