A Modesto high school student’s hair is a cultural expression of Black history | Opinion
Box braids, cornrows, locks and classic afros are just a few of the thousands of Black hairstyles people see today. But where do braids come from? To answer this question, we must first have historical context.
Braids and cornrows date as far back as 3000 B.C., depicted within Stone Age paintings from the Tassili Plateau in the North African Sahara. Men and women in Ancient Egypt wore “cornrows and other small braids … often seen with … with golden thread,” according to an article from University of Bedfordshire student Tabitha Ajao.
Braided hairstyles were used to show age, ranking, social class and power.
Opinion
From the Nile, Black hairstyles spread to the west coasts of Africa. Thousands of years later, in the United States, millions of African immigrants were enslaved from 1562 to 1867. Not only were these people stripped of the land and people they loved, but they were also forced to part with the most personal connection to who they once were: their hair.
The heads of enslaved Africans “were shaved to take away their cultural identity,” Ajao writes.
Slaves in the U.S. were beaten, ridiculed and tortured. Through their hair, they rebelled.
Not only were cornrows “small acts of rebellion and resistance” that reunited slaves with their African heritage, Ajao writes, and “they were also used as “a discrete way to transfer information.”
Slaves used braids to hide information for escape plans, creating intricate designs that hid food like rice, beans and seeds needed if they were to survive their escape.
In 1867, just years after President Abraham Lincoln issued the Emancipation Proclamation in 1863, declaring all enslaved individuals free, Madam C.J. Walker was born. Born into poverty in the South, Walker would go on to become the first self-made millionaire through her inventions. Walker improved and popularized the hot comb for Black women, a hair tool used to straighten curly hair.
The hot comb gave Black women, specifically, new ways to express themselves through their hair.
Over a century after Walker’s invention, her legacy continues to inspire Black people — including me.
We owe our brave and amazing ancestors a debt of gratitude. I have a sense of pride for my culture, seen through my hair, because of them.
But we must continue their legacy of fighting for the right to wear our hair how we want. In some parts of the world, including in some parts of the U.S., braids or cornrows are seen as unprofessional. We must fight to preserve our cultural heritage.
Kenyah Hibbitt is an artist, actor and self-described future entrepreneur who attends Grace M. Davis High School in Modesto.
