Page 16 - 10th Annual International Charles Town Maroon Conference and Festival Magazine

June 2018 Charles Town Maroon International Conference Magazine

HAIR TERRORISM!!

The tyranny against black people’s hair

Pam Hall

What is “a black pepper grain”? It is a term of seventies. Black people began to wear their hair in its
contempt used to describe a curl… a small curl. This natural state. There was huge push back from friends,
is the basic unit of the average black person’s hair, so family, schools, places of employment because of
to speak. Hundreds of years of terrorist conditioning centuries of conditioning. It left many with options:
has taught black people that this is your worst enemy. to straighten or not...”trus mi that was big”. Many
There are many black women and girls walking began to appreciate the beauty of natural hair, even if
around with headaches from too-tight hair. Many of not exercising that option.
them have no idea of the source of their pain is. All
they know is that their hair is ‘neat’. “No black peppa HAIR REBELLION and the pushback against racism
grain roun ere”. This applies whether the hair is natural I found it quite astounding that people, many of them
or not. No puffy plaits or twists….got to be ‘neat’. black, were busy harassing Gabby Douglas the

Our hair has been terrorized by way of the hot
comb, chemical straighteners, traction alopecia,
weaves, tight hot wigs, gel, tight hair curlers , tight
plaits, tight pony tails, tight twists(can you believe
twists can be too tight? Yes), rules against natural
hair in schools, rules against natural hair in the
work place, police trimming the locks of
Rastafarians (memba dat?), public condemnation
“Dat Bumpy Head Gal” and so on and so on…

HAIR REBELLION/REVOLUTION
FIRST EDITION
This first hair rebellion/revolution took place
during the sixties and seventies. It was, however,
preceded by the Rastafarian Movement in Jamaica
and their hair rebellion/revolution. They preached
much that is now normal and quite popular:
exercise, healthy eating, natural living, African
pride, including hair, universal love. .. I’ll say no
more about Rastafarians at present, except to say
that Jamaica and the world owe them a debt of
gratitude.
So the first edition of the hair rebellion/revolution
happened, as I said before, during the sixties and Pam Hall wearing her afro

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