We once had a conversation with our colleagues that drifted into the decolonization movement and how we as Africans are perceived; our style of dressing, how we wear our hair, and how our languages are influenced by colonialism and more recently, pop culture trends. While referring to one of our female colleagues who was wearing an African print shirt and has short, close-cropped natural hair, there was a shared perspective within the group that more “enlightened Pan-Africans” tend to wear “traditional” African print clothes and natural hair as a resistance to Western styles that have come to represent a stereotypical version of professionalism.
During the 1960s and 1970s, Black nationalists began renaming themselves to shed off slave owners’ names as a step towards self-definition and liberation. Therefore, while it was easy to understand our colleagues’ acknowledgment of the dress and hairstyles as somewhat inherently revolutionary, we were uneasy about how much value we seem to attach to what we colloquially refer to as the ‘aesthetics’ of decolonization. Accurately assessing Africa’s past and present is essential to undoing the effects of colonization, shifting power, and reimagining a future in which aid is done differently. Read more