Clothes do not make me African
A true Representer Ur Highness brings up a topic that’s been runnning around quite a bit in our circles… does your style define who you are as a person? Does it mean because I choose to have a weave I am ‘shallow’ or ‘trying to be ‘white'” (that’s a whole nother topic we need to talk about…this white-bashing nonsense – watch this space). Why should I be judged and who are you to jud…
ge me? Does what you wear represent your mind and opinions? Surely we should be free to wear whatever suits us without fearing that we are being ‘UnAfrican”? What do you think…?
No doubt in your daily life you have run into dreadlocked black brother or sister head wrapped in turban long skirt and the Bob Marley bag,not neccessarily rastafarian but just a “REAL AFRICAN”. But really does all that give the true African sense? Does it seem that some Africans think that they are more African than the other Africans walking past coz he/she has got s-curl& cut or a sister has hair weaves and they don’t go to poetry sessions… they think Skwatta kamp is hiphop and they think Kwani Experience is a new drug?
Does how you look, what interests you , who you hang with suddenly give somebody their true African sense?
It just seems to me that most Africans who have ever been colonised , are just suffering with their blackness. Yes, in the past we were made to believe our skin is too dark or hair is too curly – it needs to be stretched , and now that we are enjoying the fruits of freedom we do what ever we please with ourselves.
So now most of the other Africans who even after liberation still wanted to lighten their skin, strech their hair and dress in western designs are what…. hmmm…. fake (note that all aspects mentioned refer to the external appearance)?
In these 21st century revolutions against the system and so forth, do you need a certain look in the revolutionists eyes to get your point taken seriously? Can you be you be considerd to have an African conscious mind if you dont look according to what they perceive to be real African (dreadlocked and all)?
Trust me im not hating I am a poet, I got an afro myself and I dont know if I look strange but I manage to get a few stares, mouth gags and giggles here and there . Though I have noticed being around these circles that they manage to outcast and judge people based on how they look or the music they listen to to be less ‘African’ than are.
My friends though are diverse from mshoza,sistren,miss thang(snorb sa se kasie) to my sika lekhekhe gal(umajahvani) and from all of them i get this blissful taste of a true Africa. My mshoza knows more ’bout African history than any other self-claimed conscious brother.
And me they say I have the junkie look, but I can rip it up for my God op a Sondag ,on my stilletos and pencil skirt and I don’t feel any less African… I just exhume my inner diversity of being African and really I am from same continent as Cleopatra…. a gal gotta look good from time to time.
So the point im trying to run home here is if you look the way you look now hope it’s because it defines u (whether you’re “African/rasta, you’re pantsula or your hair is bought )
and never let your look(or even taste of music or hobbies) scale your status as an inferior or superior African to the next, coz it iz wat iz and wat it iz is is just a look.
