AFRICAN WOMEN ON BRAZILIAN/INDIAN HAIR HAVE LOW SELF ESTEEM.

I picked up the above heading last week, precisely on Thursday via the social networking site, facebook, on a pointer of the award winning and author of Half of a Yellow Sun, Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie, late professor Chinua Achebe’s groom child, as I call her. The topic hit me as it rekindled my cultural song on the essence and value of advancing the African tradition and upholding to the value of Nigerianism (if the word don’t exist yet am booking and colonizing it).

The generation before our generation, before my own generation, was people of great intelligence, prestige, honour and value. Value for decency, culture and tradition. Great custodians with attributes that not too many people in our contemporary world today have. Speaking strictly on upholding the African culture, our women today has lost it, nothing about that is real and this is as a result of inferiority complex in them.

Aside Chimamanda who is a fundamentalist towards African women hair and a strong custodian of African/black woman hair sustenance, another Nigerian who has wowed the world with her singing talent is also in the same category with Chimamanda. If human hair manufacturing companies have people like her as their target audience, they will surely run into administration. The truth however is, our women, African women need not wear foreign hair, fake hair, to be what they want to be, and they definitely don’t need to be artificial to be superior or to prove anything to their counterparts. From where I stand, women of other continents have more to learn from African women not the other way round and so, they should put on some uniqueness for them to learn from.

Most African women lately, believe it is akin to a taboo for them to carry their natural unique hair. They believe for one to look beautiful, you must wear Brazilian, Indian, Lace wigs or Peruvian hair. I have traveled to foreign countries and seen how most of the white women who have African friends, begged to get an African braid. When they look into the mirror, they marvel at the glossy and amazing beauties that befall them. If they could do so, if they could be proud of African braids, the original African hair and style, why then should African women not be?

Our world many say is dying, for me I think the western world is already dead with respect to all that it concerns. The world that I think is speedily dying and will fade away if attention is not given to it is the African world. I write to address the hate and dislike of African hair by African women today, but we know that’s not all, there are other irregularities that negate the value our fore-fathers laid for us.

Look closely to any woman you see around, 95% of what they put on are all artificial, from their hair down to the shoes they wear. None, not even one is proud of their original hair. They spend fortune to get most of these artificial things down their body. There are wig/hair that cost around NGN180, 000 and more. Those who claim to be wealthy carry this hairs, they even plait their children…promoting other peoples culture, other peoples identity while theirs die away.

Here is my resolution, any woman, any African woman that isn’t proud of the true and real African hair, that isn’t carrying more of her real hair, then she don’t just have low self esteem but isn’t worth been an African woman.