Cornrows

Dear Cynthia,

I was only now just watching a Nollywood movie as my hair was conditioning, and it occurred to me—it had occurred to me before, but I just thought I should mention it to you—that we, Nigerians and our movie industry, don't really help our case as Africans. In this case, how we perceive and depict our women’s hair, even in Nollywood movies.

“Cornrows are protective and fantastic for natural hair. But I don’t know why we have demonised them; why we feel so unattractive wearing them”

Let's face it. We watch a lot of Nollywood films and it shapes how we see society especially parts of it that we don't directly experience for ourselves. So, say, you are a working-class Nigerian; Nollywood is kind of like your peek into how, say, a richer person would live. Of course, there are times when things are exaggerated; you know, like the “Chief Daddies” of this world—in their grande mansions with dozens of domestic workers.

In many Nollywood movies, there is typically a grass-to-grace story of a girl who is suffering; maybe her parents are dead and she has had to drop out of school; maybe she’s been raped and is now pregnant. Whatever the story is, the bottom line is that we are supposed to feel pity for her.

She has her hair, like, all-natural and cornrowed, and that is it. The hair may look tidy. That is fine. We do feel pity for her. We see her relatively cheap clothes. We see that she has no make-up on her face because she can't afford it.

Now fast-forward to when she makes money, which is usually due to meeting some male benefactor that hands her everything in life. Her social standing gets elevated and then what changes? Of course, she gets to wear better-looking clothes. Fair enough. She wears make up and lip stick now. She even wears heels just to go down to the shop to buy milk or bread.

I don’t really mind all these. What strikes me the most is the transformation her hair goes through. She no longer has her natural hair out. No. Why should she? Pretty, rich, or well to do African women don’t carry natural hair. Her hair is no longer corn-rowed. Why should it? Cornrows are for village girls.

Our new, reformed, successful, beautiful African queen is now wearing a weave. She’s wearing Brazilian or Peruvian hair or something from India or China that is not “rough” or “hard” like the brittle African hair. Something that does not break.

Our African heroine now wears a weave or a wig because to have made it is to be able to afford a wig or a weave. It is not to look after your hair properly or to still have your cornrows. Unsurprisingly, the African hair has become a symbol of poverty, suffering, and destitution.

Cornrows are protective and fantastic for natural hair. But I don't know why we have demonised them; why we feel so unattractive wearing them—our own natural hair! The successful girl that has “made it” (in Nollywood, of course) no longer does cornrows or other hairstyles depicting her natural hair. That would be beneath her status! She is never seen without makeup because she can now afford it. She has to wear it 24/7 even to the shower!

I really don’t get it. So, to carry your own hair is akin to not having made it in life? I might be reading too much into this, but I feel like most Nollywood films peddle the same shit.

 Yours,

Anon.