LINDIWE MAZIBUKO: Reference to Afros as a ‘style’ is rooted in racism
MY HEART broke when I first saw the images of 13-year-old schoolchildren at Pretoria High School for Girls protesting their right to "wear" their hair as it grows out of their delicate young scalps. By the time I clicked on the shaky cellphone video of what appeared to be a school official threatening to have pupils arrested for their protest, while the girls shouted "Arrest us then! Arrest us!", my tears were full-blown, as was my anger.The reputable German news agency Deutsche Welle titled a story about the anti-racism protest at Pretoria Girls’ High "South Africa: Schools Under Attack Over Afro Hairstyles Ban".This word "hairstyle" has been variously used in coverage of the protests at home and abroad, obtusely ignoring the fact that for a black woman (or man), an "Afro" is not a style, it is precisely how the hair grows out of your scalp.This is the heart of what is at stake in this debate. It is not about "neatness" or "order" or "rules". Those are merely fig leaves intended to...
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