About a year ago, I wrote this article on the politics of hair/authenticity/blackness etc for City Press. Its blurb went like Trudi Makhaya relaxes her hair, but that doesn’t mean she isn’t proud of who she is, which is true…
Perhaps what black women need to transcend is not just the Western beauty standard, but the politically correct one that shackles us to a provincial utopia.
Black men and women should constantly push the boundaries of what looking black, African and authentic means.
Not every alteration is harmful or driven by self-hate.
Two weeks ago, I revisited this subject with host John Perlman and all-round fabulous poet/student/woman Nova Masango. The podcast is here.
The show’s producer Ncebakazi Manzi shared her thoughts in a post (My hair is political) here. You can hear inputs from some of the show’s listeners on the podcast, but also at this facebook page.