On hair…
My lil sista Lorea is a daughter of a close friend from Ethiopia and a man of Italian origin. Lorea has a head full of dreams, desires and rich curls. We are all aware of her almost 15 year old dreams and rising hormones, but we almost never see her rich curls. She straightens them. And says that she hates curls. I wonder if things would have been different if she was growing up in Africa. I am not sure because even in Africa, Black women relax and flatten their curls. In fact, when i was in high school, i always had my ponytale flat and in place, without any “bad growth” coming from underneath. In fact, i would be happier to go to school the week of my newly relaxed hair, because it would be easily manageable. As the week advances, the growth would reappear and so would my bad hair days. Lorea’s situation is illuminated by the fact that in Italy, there are not many BLACK CONSCIOUS youth, never mind black people. She is among a few black people in her school. Unlike most of the mixed “race” kids that i see around, Lorea’s face bears strong African features, her lips (which she hates) and her dark(by European standards) skin. She is a voluptuous African looking girl, growing up around three strong women (mother and two sisters) born and partly raised in Ethiopia. Her household is then often spiced with hair odours from the washing, and plaiting and combing (but never straightened). They eat Ethiopian njera almost everyday, listen to Ethiopian and other African music, and make home (away from home) for me. We love, laugh and lie around together nurturing one another’s journey with kisses and a kind of sister love. This however, is still not enough for Lorea. She is fifteen, she is Italian, and that is it for her! Africa?? It happens to be the womb she comes from, but has no taste of the place. Has never been nor wants to go there. “I mean, there is always war,” she says, without wondering about those who cause the war (for oil and its routes), even when her sisters try to get some perspective through. She is not aware of the war she will most probably have to face all her life. Refusing who she is (she is already on a diet) because she heard that African women are fuller figured. If she becomes rich and famous she will “halve her lips”. For now, she can only use what they call “piastra” in Italian, to straighten her curly beautiful black hair…
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