We’ve all heard about the hullabaloo at Pretoria High School for Girls about their hair, which has since spread like wildfire to other schools in the country where the same practice is followed.
I deliberately call it a ‘practice’ as opposed to racism, which is what some people have preferred to label it. I do not entirely agree with the racist commotion that followed, but rather in that it is a school requirement, calling for all our young school-going girls to keep their hair neat and tidy.
What I think could be labelled racist, though, was the manner in which the communication was put forward. I still consider there could have been a more decent and humane way – less racist maybe – to communicate the school’s requirement, rather than bringing the element of race into it.
We all need to understand that school grounds are a learning space where pupils are trained and moulded into becoming upstanding citizens of society; where children are not only taught from books in terms of reading and writing but have a lot to do with instilling in pupils manners, etiquette and respect.
School is not a catwalk or ramp for fashion parades, hence, school uniforms were devised to standardise the appearance of our pupils, which also instils pride and etiquette.
Can you imagine, for a moment, the chaos that would ensue if pupils are given carte blanche to wear civvies as and when they choose? The rich children would be dressed to the nines, while the poor would remain bare or, to be more precise – naked! You just need to visit Alexandra to witness the state of uniforms worn by the poor children.
The beauty of it is, they are still in uniform and remain at the same level as all other children, except for the quality and condition of the uniform.
Now to get to the crux of the matter I, for one, believe that allowing our children to wear all sorts of fancy hairstyles and hairdos defeats the very purpose of a uniform, which was designed to keep them all at the same level – as one. Wealthy folk can afford to buy their children a new uniform every month but that is only a condition or state of the uniform and has nothing to do with its fanciness; it is still a uniform, sold at the same price, to everyone.
Also, allowing our schoolchildren to have weird and wonderful, out-of-this-world hairstyles will always have consequences, as witnessed in various schools recently.
In their defence of wearing hair extensions and weaves, pupils called it ‘black hair’.
There is nothing African about weaves, extensions or wigs. All these are colonial artefacts which were designed to bring an African closer to the much sought after European appearance.
We, as black Africans, need to decolonise ourselves, believe in ourselves and our hair, appreciate that black is beautiful and that ‘yellow bone’ (light-skinned black women) is nonsense! By so doing, we shall stop guzzling ‘internal bleaches’ to give us the ‘yellow bone’ look.
This will signal the beginning of self-esteem and prosperity for Africans.
