Wednesday 25 June 2014

Africans Hating on African Americans?

Warning, controversial content ahead. *Don't crucify me*

Hi Doves!

How are we today? I was doing my regular blog browsing when I came accross a post which caught my attention. The author lives in the US and went to home to Nigeria and Ghana for a visit. She is also a natural hair blogger. When she got to Nigeria and Ghana she was faced with the usual "perm your hair" "how do you make your hair curl like that" "your hair is unmanageable cause it is natural" comments, and of course the rough-handed hair stylists. Now this is a throw back post from last year.The blogger stopped blogging for a while and got back to it in March or May this year. 

She noted that in Nigeria she was faced with more resistance to her hair, as compared to Ghana where people were more receptive and open to it. To round off her post, she stated that overall though, the perceptions of Africans towards natural hair is improving and is not all bad. 
Now to the crux of this post. A commenter stated that the reason why she met more resistance in Nigeria was that Africans hate African Americans and so they were negative towards her. She also added that there are more African Americans in Ghana, where the commenter lives therefore there was less resistance to the blogger's hair there as opposed to in Nigeria.


Source

At this point I was just like WWHHHAAAAT?! I had to comment. I stated that it's not a matter of Africans hating African Americans but rather a matter of  the amount of exposure people in a country get. Then I gave the example of my friend, a fellow natural who was in a taxi with another woman. The lady told my friend that her boss said that she (not my friend) should either perm or put a weave in her hair, because it is 'unprofessional' to keep her hair in it's natural state. My friend told me this on Monday this week. And this was said by one Namibian to another. 

As long as hairdressers don't accept and learn to work with natural hair, and as long as people don't accept it for the beauty that it is, it will always be met with resistance. Whether one is pink, blue, orange, magenta, fuschia,  African American, Mixed or African; if you wear your hair out natural and the people or particular individuals in that area have less appreciation for its beauty, how to care and handle it...it will be met with resistance FULL STOP. Therefore it is a matter of the open mindedness in that country or area, rather than your nationality.

Having said all this, I am aware that the perception of natural hair in Africa as a whole is changing. I follow Nigerian and Ghanaian hair blogs, I see that it is current and popular there, and people are loving it too. So please, don't mistake me for saying people in other countries are unexposed and hate natural hair. I just mean it in the context of the appreciation that a particular person may have towards natural hair.

I don't know guys what do you think? I would really love to get an opinion from West Africans and in fact, everyone one around.
Here is a photo of the comments. Hope you can read it.


2 comments:

  1. I completely agree with your response, and I love how you were so courteous and mature about it- that is how negative perceptions get changed.

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  2. Aaw thank you Sandra! It's really frustrating to be faced with such perceptions.

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