The Black Hair Movements
During the last week with a set reading material, we discussed the black hair movements. Because I cannot completely relate to the topic of black hair or the importance of hair in a spiritual sense, I have decided to concentrate more on theopoetics. Black hair movements served as a form of emancipation from an enforced western colonial mindset about people’s bodies – there is a visible connection to the Hijra community because they also face oppression regarding their bodies due to colonialism – creating what is seen as the norm and what falls outside of it. Black women would be forced to change their hair to be accepted by society. Through the black hair movements, which promote natural hair and braiding, women could find more safety in beauty salons while also connecting with one another and creating an even closer community.[1] Since hair can be something that binds a specific group of people together because of common experiences regarding it, even if it is something material and bodily, it shapes a person and their understanding of the world. Theopoetics takes mundane earthly things and gives them spiritual meaning through the eyes of an individual. Catherine Keller speaks about ‘material entanglement’, describing that cosmos is something that is created through human interconnectedness where material things belong as well.[2] I believe it is a beautiful way of seeing things that are dear to us and shape us as people. Everyone has different experiences and even something material can shape us spiritually. Similarly, Not Eden is a depiction of a physical garden that is far from perfect but holds a deep spiritual meaning to Heather Walton. Because religion is a rather complex topic that heavily depends on individual interpretations, and because considering material things to be sacred might seem odd from a western perspective does not mean it is the same way in different cultures. Although I cannot fully relate to hair being something very important to me culturally, I can understand it can be different for black women or Native Americans who have faced oppression because of it and therefore have completely different sentiments towards it.
[1] Cruz-Gutiérrez, Cristina. “Hair Politics in the Blogosphere: Safe Spaces and the Politics of Self-Representation in Chimamanda Adichie’s Americanah.” Journal of Postcolonial Writing 55, no. 1 (May 17, 2018): 66–79. https://doi.org/10.1080/17449855.2018.1462243.
[2] Darroch, Fiona. “Journeys of Becoming: Hair, the Blogosphere and Theopoetics in Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie’s Americanah.” Text Matters, no. 10 (November 24, 2020): 135–50. https://doi.org/10.18778/2083-2931.10.08.