Allow The Hair

Sigh, I am surprised by the decision of Achimota school to reject a child placed in their school because of his dreadlocks and the comments from ghanaians who support this move. Wait, did I only mention surprised? I’m sad and pissed as well.

See it’s 2021 and our primary and Junior high schools don’t have libraries,science labs or sports complexes, some even don’t have computer labs. The science labs in our senior high schools can’t handle the numbers, they are archaic with equipment from Adam’s time.
We are tolerating this, we are not disturbed by it, it’s not against our rules it’s a child keeping his natural hair that is against our rules. Rules, lol rules. Rules huh?

Why are we so much against students keeping their hair? their own hair, their natural hair, what logical reasons do we have?

At what particular point in time was the “school hair cut” bill passed into law? By whom? For what reasons?I think the conversation about what we can and can not do with our hair in our schools must be re-had.

Way back in Senior High School, we couldn’t even keep a simple afro, our hair was always down, teachers chasing us up and down with canes to ensure that. They’d stick a pen in your hair and of it holds, you’re due for a cut. That was how one barber did me bad.

After the haircut, he asked me if I had some pomade I use for my hair, I said no,then he responded “no problem, your hair will soon grow back”. I smiled and paid for my cut only for me to get to the dorm and my school daughter starts laughing .

“Ah sister Joanna, what has the barber done to you? Your ‘head back’ nu, oh yawa o, and this side too” pointing to some portions around my ear. It was at this point I understood the barber’s question and his follow up, “your hair will grow back soon”.

An article on myjoyonline.com ; “Let it grow:why the policy against long hair in schools must be abolished ” mentions how schools demanding girls cut their hair originated during the colonial era, when local girls attending the castle schools were forced to shave their heads as a distinguishing feature between them and the mullato children. It says during that era, some African women were also forced to shave their heads because their hair was supposedly confusing white men. Then it adds “It is baffling that this policy initially fashioned by the colonisers to undermine our people is still strictly enforced in many African countries”

In all of my daddy’s school pictures from the 70s, he’s got an afro so I asked him, were you guys not forced to cut your hair?
“No, it wasn’t a thing at the time, we could keep our hair, one guy called Moses had so much hair, his afro was always big so we nicknamed him afro Moses. The outbreak of head lice was what caused some people to start cutting their hair. It wasn’t a compulsory thing”

What changed?
The prevailing defence for this practice is
“Keeping their hair will serve a distraction “
“Instead of learning, they’d be focused on their hair”
“Our type of hair is difficult to manage, it will waste their time”

Let people be the ones telling you their hair is difficult to manage and so they’d rather cut than keep it, or they just prefer short hair. I think students cutting their hair should be a choice rather than a MUST!, a rule they’re supposed to obey .

If we are soo concerned about the child’s hair distracting her, if this haircut rule is soo binding, why do we let Caucasians in these very same schools of ours keep their long hair? Keep in mind they’d have to wash and dry their hair as often as they can to keep it unsmelly and neat.

“Oh that’s how their hair is, it’s naturally long”
No my dear, their hair is not naturally long. Wait, I don’t even know what you mean by their hair is naturally long. Are their babies born with long straight hair? No. Their hair can be cut just like us but they decide to grow and keep it. Same applies to their men.

Instead of enforcing hair cut for all students, we should emphasise keeping it neat, whether it be short, afro, long or locks. We should emphasise students wearing their natural hair in simple styles like buns, ponytails, cornrows and twists which require little time and effort in doing and keeping.

Our high schools can even have salons, run by the kids themselves, trained and supervised by the school of course, where on saturdays they get to wash their hair and wear the simple styles. That’s skill training right there.

If we say our students should not braid with hair extensions or wear weaves especially those in boarding school, it’s fair, because that requires much more time and attention, but to NOT KEEP THEIR OWN HAIR? Please no.

A.J Kwame