(This was a piece i did after Kenyans were declared the ugliest people in the world a few months back. I gues it got lost in my PC but here it is now)
Ugly is in the eyes of the Beholder
So Kenyans were ranked the ugliest people in the world, and to add insult the funniest so you can laugh at us, ‘we don’t mind really’. Am not sure I sympathize with this somewhat harsh judgment. At least I am not surprised because we have been declaring ourselves the ugliest since before they thought of making it official. The other day I went home for our annual get together, some of my high school leaver cousins had decided to keep their hair long and unkempt, one even had the audacity to dye it brown. This sparked off an outrage nearly resulted in the affair being turned into a hair bashing ceremony. I find it disturbing that even after half a century or being free from colonial rule, we still Eschew our African aesthetics. It is ironic that a white man can keep hair over 3 inches long and go for a job interview, any black guy trying the same is looked down as not being serious and potential employers will immediately label him a deviant. Parents chastises their children for having long hair or dreadlocks, they want them to have the shortest and neatest hair possible, a legacy of the colonial heritage where the Christian missionaries insisted that we make ourselves as un-African as possible firstly by shedding our shaggy ungodly hair.
The intricate patterns of hair designed done by the Maasai and Turkana people Mohawks and every dying their hair is today looked upon as crude and uncivilized. The very symbols of African beauty have been selectively adopted by the west and they are sold back to us, along with weaves and make up. Am not saying people should plaster their heads with red mud but I do not see why I should not dye my hair red in respect to the Maasai or Turkana culture. A Mohawk on my head for my Turkana neighbor or don the earrings that many of my male ancestors so proudly wore. Instead we have been reduced to a colonial, almost military sense of aesthetic with the only acceptable beauty accessories being imported. That is why my sister can go for an interview confidently wearing mascara but her turkana collegue cannot dare do so in a Mohawk.
Parents teachers and the corporate world but most importantly ourselves needs must recognize that beauty is not closest one can get to being western but being as original as one can be. That is why “they” recognized Lupita as beautiful although if she was a Kenyan primary school teacher she would probably never have counted on her looks to bag a man. Next time you dismiss a person because they have locks or long shaggy hair, remind yourselves that Kenyatta and the other Kapenguria 6 did not spend years in prison so you could walk around hating on your African roots. It’s a big shame that women will make fun or my shaggy hair and beard yet the same are cooing over Brand Pitt and his flowing locks, his only being superior because they he is white.
Good article there lad. The problem is that we have been so much brain-washed by the Western culture to a level of forgetting our own African identity. I would not be surprised to see an African walking on his head just because he spotted a mad white man walking on his head not knowing that the white man in question was out of his mind.
ReplyDeleteNothing worse than someone trying to be what they arent.
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