Proud To Weave, Plait, Braid…

In response to my fellow Namibians who have developed some sort of hatred and negative criticism for weaves and skin lightening: I do not believe by any chance that this constitutes a sign of ungratefulness for what was given to us, or some sort of inferiority or low esteem.

This is indeed being grateful for what God has given us. God gave us the potential and creativity to do whatever we want with our hair, including cut it short, bald or wear it long.
I do not find it fair to judge black women’s self-contentment by the way they wear their hair. What if we could buy fellow black people’s hair the same way we buy these weaves? Would the same criticisms apply?
Perhaps you can make it a business idea for yourselves: process black people’s hair for those who wish to try it and take the stats of how many people, regardless of colour, will be willing to try it.
People who have been flooding the newspapers with complaints about weaves fail to realise that women do it on a temporary basis. They wear their own hair, use ordinary braids, plait a different style and have weaves.
So, these women are indeed proud to be able to do different things with their hair, which is an advantage to us black women.
I think there are more important things to focus on than what women do with their hair. This is certainly not an issue of self-esteem but confidence. You have no idea how many non-black women out there envy our potential to wear different hairstyles – world over.
As for the use of skin lighteners, I do not support that since most of them have permanent negative effects but then again, we live in a free country, so we cannot necessarily judge men and women who use them.

Pombili
Proud and confident black woman

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