Sometimes I wonder if colonialism ever truly ended in Africa, or if it just changed form.
Because why are African children still being taught that their natural hair is “unacceptable” in schools? Why is professionalism often measured by how closely we can distance ourselves from our own natural features? Why can't we simply embrace our features without feeling like it is a taboo, like something is wrong with us?
What makes this even more disturbing is the double standard. Foreigners are often allowed to keep their natural hairstyles and identities without criticism, mind you,this is our own homeland, while African children are disciplined for embracing theirs.
At what point did we begin teaching African children that parts of their identity must be suppressed before they can be considered presentable?
Maybe the most dangerous effect of colonialism was never just political control, but psychological control! The ability to make people question the value of their own identity. Because a society that constantly teaches its children to reject themselves will eventually begin to lose its cultural confidence.
There is nothing unprofessional about African features. There is nothing inappropriate about natural African hair. And there is certainly nothing wrong with embracing the identity we were born with.
True freedom is not just gaining independence from foreign rule; it's freeing ourselves from the mindset that makes us believe being less African will make us accepted.
The most dangerous part of colonialism was never the physical control, it was convincing us to do the policing ourselves. When a child grows up believing their natural hair needs to be "fixed" to be acceptable, no foreign power needs to enforce anything anymore. The mindset does the work. That point about the double standard is hard to ignore too. A foreigner embracing African culture gets celebrated, an African doing the same gets called unprofessional. The standard was never about professionalism.