Before
Of course we miss Toronto Raptors. We live in Canada. We even miss their hair. I like Rondae Hollis Jefferson’s hairstyle this NBA game, we mused. Who plaits his hair?
Chris Boucher, who does his hair? I was upset one game when the master blocker gave his hair a break. It stood tall, all regal, challenging the sky, like all black hair.
If they had lived in another era, in some part of Africa they would have sat on the floor, their heads on their mother’s, sister’s or aunt’s lap, having their hair plaited, remotely listening to stories.
Before we paid for water, air and love, hair braiding was an unconscious history lesson. We sat on the floor, our heads between our mother's legs while she did our hair and talked to someone in the room or under a tree.
We imbibed stories about how she lived in the servants’ quarters while she worked for the Nash family, why we moved from Point A to Point B, why Auntie B. was ‘swallowed by Johannesburg’, why Sisi F. became a nun and the reason for our names.
It was nice hearing yourself in the oral history, ‘when Nonqaba was five, I sent her to live with her grandmother…... I seldom heard the rest of the story because I always dozed off.
Before we paid for water, air and love, aunts and sisters also braided our hair, which meant it was not only family history we heard, sitting in the origin of humanity: between someone’s legs. Sometimes we giggled when older sisters talked about the boy next door or up the hill.
‘What are you laughing at? Silly girl.”
Rondae Hollis Jefferson and Chris Boucher are on the road all the time playing basketball so they don’t have family to do their hair. They pay someone, like all of us, even Lupita Nyong'o, who keeps her hair short. I once saw a video where she talked about plaiting her friends for free. She loves the feel of the hair.
Before we paid for water air and love, little girls from the aristocracy in Victorian England, were deprived of the joy of dozing off between someone’s legs.
They sat primly on Princess Anne chairs covered with brocade while working class maids from the poor parts of London or Birmingham did their hair. So did their elder sisters, while they kept their fingers crossed for an arranged marriage with a member of the royal family, however distant.
Hair is big business now, so hair salons all over the world, must be suffering like all business. Before we paid for water and air, it was a labor of love, a history lesson and the indelible class line that divides English society.
Just a thought, as you sit between someone’s legs at home this minute, while they do your hair and tell stories about our current solidarity, COVID-19.
By: Nonqaba waka Msimang.
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Chris Boucher part of the Toronto Raptors famous benchmark.
online photo: flipboard
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If they had lived in another era, in some part of Africa they would have sat on the floor, their heads on their mother’s, sister’s or aunt’s lap, having their hair plaited, remotely listening to stories.
Before we paid for water, air and love, hair braiding was an unconscious history lesson. We sat on the floor, our heads between our mother's legs while she did our hair and talked to someone in the room or under a tree.
We imbibed stories about how she lived in the servants’ quarters while she worked for the Nash family, why we moved from Point A to Point B, why Auntie B. was ‘swallowed by Johannesburg’, why Sisi F. became a nun and the reason for our names.
It was nice hearing yourself in the oral history, ‘when Nonqaba was five, I sent her to live with her grandmother…... I seldom heard the rest of the story because I always dozed off.
Before we paid for water, air and love, aunts and sisters also braided our hair, which meant it was not only family history we heard, sitting in the origin of humanity: between someone’s legs. Sometimes we giggled when older sisters talked about the boy next door or up the hill.
‘What are you laughing at? Silly girl.”
Rondae Hollis Jefferson and Chris Boucher are on the road all the time playing basketball so they don’t have family to do their hair. They pay someone, like all of us, even Lupita Nyong'o, who keeps her hair short. I once saw a video where she talked about plaiting her friends for free. She loves the feel of the hair.
Before we paid for water air and love, little girls from the aristocracy in Victorian England, were deprived of the joy of dozing off between someone’s legs.
They sat primly on Princess Anne chairs covered with brocade while working class maids from the poor parts of London or Birmingham did their hair. So did their elder sisters, while they kept their fingers crossed for an arranged marriage with a member of the royal family, however distant.
Hair is big business now, so hair salons all over the world, must be suffering like all business. Before we paid for water and air, it was a labor of love, a history lesson and the indelible class line that divides English society.
Just a thought, as you sit between someone’s legs at home this minute, while they do your hair and tell stories about our current solidarity, COVID-19.
By: Nonqaba waka Msimang.
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