World Afro Day is celebrated on September 15 every year. The day celebrates the natural kinky, coiled, or curly hair for people from black or mixed-race ethnicities. World Afro Day was founded in an attempt to normalize afros and their natural texture and end discrimination towards people who wish to wear their hair in their natural afros. The day also attempts to instill a sense of pride in people about their hair and remove feelings of shame that might be associated with tightly coiled and kinky hair.
HISTORY
World Afro Day is celebrated on September 15 worldwide every year. The day celebrates the natural hair of people from black and mixed-race ethnicities, normalizes afros, and prevents discrimination based on hair.
When Africans were enslaved, they were forced to conform to the hairstyles and clothing of their enslavers. Their natural hair texture was seen as undesirable, so even after enslaved people were freed, societal pressures forced them to modify their natural hair. The process of changing naturally kinky and coiled hair into the straight, smooth hair that was seen as desirable was not easy. Even today, the process of straightening and smoothing extremely coiled hair requires expensive substances that must be applied by professionals. These chemicals can cause burns, hair loss, and damage to the hair over time.
Apart from the physical damage, people with naturally coiled hair have faced discrimination because their hair was unfairly seen as messy or unkempt. This led people to believe that their hair was not attractive and would also lead to them losing out on job opportunities as employers would discriminate against them.
With the advent of the Civil Rights movement, more black people adopted the afro as a simple, easy-to-maintain hairstyle that did not require them to change the natural texture of their hair. Today, World Afro Day celebrates the afro and all other hairstyles worn by black and mixed-race people and all elements of afro hair, culture, and identity. It also educates people to understand more about afro hair and hairstyles.
Credit: National Today
