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| Diana with her locks showing beads |
The Dinning Hall during evening meals at St. Paul’s Secondary School, SPACO was usually packed as this was one meal you never wanted to miss after activities. It was also the perfect time to make important announcements.
Still in my first year; ninoes they called us then in the early 80’s it was obvious an important announcement was to be made in the Dinning Hall one fateful evening.
When the Project Monitor (a school prefect) directed by the Senior Prefect; stood up to make an announcement the students shifted focus from their meals for a moment.
At issue was one of the seniors (can’t recall his name ) then in Form 5 who had his hair in natural locks....He called himself a Nazarene and said it was against his religion to cut his hair...
Now, anyone who has ever been to a Catholic school or knows the concept of Catholic schools is well aware of the discipline and sometimes informal regimented way of life in such schools.
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| Naturally herself |
St Paul’s Secondary School was no different even with its reputation as a “bad boys” school those days. The worse and the best that could ever happen when you put boys with high testosterone levels in a boarding school those days days was the norm. Sports and academic achievements sometimes went side by side with unwanted behaviors like weed and cigarette smoking, boozing and running out of bounds.
Even with that kind of recalcitrance, no student stood a chance coming up against those Catholic School rules applied.
That evening, the Project Monitor had the full attention of the young men waiting hungrily for their meal. With the bell in hand, he announced that soso and so youngman with the “rasta” hair needed to get rid of his locked hair per the school authorities and comb it.
The youngman with the natural locks did not take kindly to the order and he expressed himself physically. I remember a commotion and the poor Project Monitor and some others stumbling on the floor. The next day the Nazarene was escorted out of the campus by the school Cadet Corp members.
Youngman had his black African curly hair in natural locks and he was expelled for that. I do not know what became of this student now but I hope he stayed true to his roots.
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| Root of the loc |
More than two and a half decades later I was reminded of this story when I saw the Facebook Picture Album titled “Be Yourself” by Diana Sogbey. See, Diana represents part of the new face of the new St Paul’s Secondary School that has become a mixed school admitting and graduating both male and female students.
Diana’s locks looked beautifully natural and those strong black African curly hairs on her head have grown uninhibited into a strong mane, lush, rich in color. And Diana holds her head proudly; unpermed san hair extensions or attachments
Dinana Sogbey’s natural locks represent a victory however small over that self limiting attitude that makes a black man look down on his own. It is payback for that day in St Paul’s when a black African in a black African country was expelled by black Africans; forget its Catholic school, because of his natural black African hair.
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| Thick Mane |
I hope Diana is not discriminated on especially by black Africans because she refused to use ammonium thioglycolate on her hair. “Why would anybody do that” a chemist asked Chris Rock in his documentary, Good Hair after the comedian told him that women, especially black women used that chemical compound to perm their hair.
Still, perms, weave ons, plaited hair, nappy hairs are all hair style choices available to women. It seems those that are not black African origin and take a negative toll on the black woman are the ones more accepted by black society.
For now Diana Sogbey, let it flow….And to my sistas rocking their natural hair, let it flow
