Award winning and author of ‘Half of a Yellow Sun’, Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie, has criticized the use of Brazilian/Indian hair attachment by African women, implying that they have low self-esteem by feeling insecure with their natural hair.
Adichie made this known while in aninterview with The Observer, stated that African women should be proud of their natural hair, which is the pride of Africans instead of having inferiority complex carrying it.
When asked to discuss about her new novel ‘Americanah’ that includes the detail descriptions of black women having their hair done and also to give a brief description of her own hair, she replied;
“That is the best question! My hair is in tiny cornrows; I have a big ponytail on the top of my head. I quite like it. It is natural. I am a bit of a fundamentalist when it comes to black women’s hair. Hair is hair – yet also about larger questions: self-acceptance, insecurity and what the world tells you is beautiful. For many black women, the idea of wearing their hair naturally is unbearable”.
The hair industry is worth billions of dollars with massive importation of the attachment to Africa as the female beauty trends is largely about fluffy long Caucasian hair instead of their natural kinky hair.
Americanah was released in Australia on the 1st April 2013. It will be released in the UK on the 11th of April 2013 and in the US on 14th of May 2013.
