City Libraries, City of Gold Coast

Don't touch my hair, Emma Dabiri

eng

Includes bibliographical references

illustrations

no index present

non fiction

Don't touch my hair

electronic resource

bibliography

Emma Dabiri

The erasure, appropriation and stigma of the reaction to black hair even among well-meaning liberals is taken stock of in this engagement with body politics comparable to John Berger, Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie and Renni Eddo-Lodge. Presents the attitude to hair as a blueprint for decolonisation., 'Groundbreaking . . . a scintillating, intellectual investigation into black women and the very serious business of our hair, as it pertains to race, gender, social codes, tradition, culture, cosmology, maths, politics, philosophy and history' Bernardine Evaristo, The Times Literary Supplement Books of the Year In this powerful book about why black hair matters, Emma Dabiri takes us from pre-colonial Africa, through the Harlem Renaissance, Black Power and on to today's Natural Hair Movement, the Cultural Appropriation Wars and beyond. We look at everything from hair capitalists like Madam C.J. Walker in the early 1900s to the rise of Shea Moisture today, from women's solidarity and friendship to 'black people time', forgotten African scholars and the dubious provenance of Kim Kardashian's braids. The scope of black hairstyling ranges from pop culture to cosmology, from prehistoric times to the (afro)futuristic. Uncovering sophisticated indigenous mathematical systems in black hairstyles, alongside styles that served as secret intelligence networks leading enslaved Africans to freedom, Don't Touch My Hair proves that far from being only hair, black hairstyling culture can be understood as an allegory for black oppression and, ultimately, liberation. SHORTLISTED FOR THE 2019 IRISH BOOK AWARDS

specialized