Images. tumblr (via melatonin). juliaprokhorova. Unknown. Unknown. (tell me)

When I was young, my grandmother (my African one that is) once told be a story. It was about a man who had to go on a long journey and leave his village an all he knew. Whilst traveling, he came upon a very old man and woman who had settled by the roadside resting from their long journey. He approached them, wanting to say hello and curious about what they were doing. As he drew closer he noticed that the old man was catching flies, killing them and giving them to the old lady, who fried them in a pan. The sight puzzled him, but  most of all disgusted him, as he had never seen such a sight in his home village. Not knowing how to react he burst out in laughter and told is entourage not to pay attention to such nonsense, since they still had a long way to go. Shaking with laughter the pointed at the old couple, telling them to hurry up and go home, since it would be dark soon. The two groups parted and the man moved on commanding his workers that were carrying his luggage.

Two days later the group reached a swampy land, that was very hard to pass. On top of that the man fell ill due to the unfamiliar surroundings, and they had to take a break. In his fever he longed for his home and his family, calling out their names and wishing he had never gone on the journey, but nothing would help.  Then suddenly the old couple appeared out of nowhere. “This is a very dangerous disease.”, they told him. “You don’t seem to be from here, so you won’t know how to cure this. Remember the flies you found us frying? We were preparing a very rare medicine only we know how to make. And it is very effective against what you’re suffering from.” The man, stared at them, clearly not sure if his fever playing tricks on him and said nothing. “Open your mouth. If you don’t take this, you might die.” The old lady fed the traveler and the next day he was already recovering. Without the help on the old couple, he would have found his deathbed in the swamps.

So what do we learn from this: If you find people who are frying flies, don’t laugh, because it might be medicine. In other words: there is a reason why people behave the way they do. Just because you cannot understand what they are doing, doesn’t always make it wrong, strange or funny. In the end, their actions, might even be something good for you. Think before you judge.

When I thought about this saying when I was younger it didn’t even make sense to me. Children think in such different patterns: Eww, why should somebody even be frying flies? But as I grew older and began to look around, I slowly began to understand.

My way to campus every day is quite long, I have to change trains twice and that gives me a lot of time to take a look around and observe people. Men and women looking smart in suits on their way to work in the sparkly sky scrapers. Workers in their overalls and all sorts of other people who’s profession I could never guess from their appearance. All of them are frying flies in their own way. Doing things we might not understand, which still come to influence us. Some of them causing harm, others causing good.

Even though my grandmother has no idea who Plato is she was trying to tell me some thing similar to what Plato is trying to say. In different words of course.

So, making a snood is pretty easy actually. I can’t teach you how to knit (there are many videos on youtube and websites out there that can: Knitting Naturally) but I can give you a short instruction of how to make a snood for beginners.

First of all you need wool. Depending on how you want your snood to look (large meshed or not) and how much time you want to spend knitting, choose large kitting sticks or thin ones. I went for size 10, which may appear pretty big, but gave me the exact kind of knit I was looking for.

Now make about 60 eyes, so that it is really big and start knitting. Use the pattern you know how to knit. I used the regular beginners patters. It’ll take you some time, nerves and patience to knit about 1 meter, but that’s about the size we’re looking for.

After you’re through (don’t forget to cast off, there are many videos and instructions on that too) take the two ends and sew them together, with the same kind of wool you used for knitting. You’ll get a tube like thing that you can wrap around your neck once or twice, depending on how long you made it and there you go: YOUR OWN SNOOD. Pictures of me wearing my snood, soon. :)

Images. La fabuleux destin d’Amélie Poulain (2001). Perfectbound.

In case you have watched La fabuleux destin d’Amélie Poulain before I am sure you remember the time Amélie noticed she had a loose tile in her bathroom. And when she removed the tile, she discovered a hollow space in her wall which had a little treasure hidden in it for over forty or fifty years. She managed to return it to it’s rightful owner, who cried tears of joy, remembering the time of his childhood.

Have you ever written a letter to yourself, planning to open it in a few months or maybe even years? I subconsciously did exactly that about two years ago. That was long before I had this blog and was working on other little projects of mine. I had developed and idea to a certain point and then forgot all about it and left it to collect dust in the furthest corner of my hard drive. Looking back the idea was brilliant, but the time hadn’t come yet. Brainstorming on how I am going to go on with the first issue of Oyasumi Magazine is what finally made me rediscover these old drafts and ideas of mine. Today, approximately two years later, I was going through my old stuff, seeing what I could delete. I found my project still waiting for me to continue working on it, like a time capsule. I carefully took a look at everything and realised, that I could still make use of it. I have rediscovered it just at the right time. All I’ll say is that it’s got something to do with letters, but at the same time it doesn’t. Just be patient, you’ll see :)

First of all I would love to thank all the people who replied to my last post. I was happy to get such diversified feedback and glad to hear that I am clearly not the only one struggling with hair. University is keeping me quite busy at the moment, so please excuse my late replies :)

One of my readers, Maya, asked about good products that can help over-treated hair. I thought about a few products I have used and never had any problems with. Of course hair is different from person to person and these are based on my personal experiences, but I think they’re all worth a try.

Images. Fakingfashion. Melodiesndesires. Unknown Runwaym

“If your hair is relaxed, people are relaxed. If your hair is nappy, they’re not happy.“  – Paul Mooney (Comedian)

It seems like African women can wear any hairstyle they want, apart from their own hair. I’ve been thinking about writing this post for some time. Whether or not I should wake the sleeping dragon or open Pandora’s box. But when I saw Oprah, Chris Rock and Solange Knowles (sister of Beyoncé) talking about his new film entitled Good Hair I thought about the history of my own hair and the battles African women all over the world go through to have “good hair”. I also watched Tyra Banks show entitled “Good Hair” which was a direct response to Chris Rock’s film.

Now I know that a lot of my readers might not understand what I am talking about, since they’re not black. Someone who is not familiar with African hair might be thinking: What is all this about?  But I’ll try to start start at the beginning. A book called Untangling the Roots of Black Hair in America by Ayana D. Byrd and Lori Tharps gets to the root of a problem that many people on this earth are not aware of, despite it’s historic and political importance. Throughout history hair has always been an important factor, even politically. Think of the kids of 1968/69 with their long untamed, natural hair, or the ladies of the Roaring Twenties who simply cut it all off and moved around proudly with their bobs. It all was a sign of freedom and independence, because most of the time it went against the customs of that time. Unlike those “hair revolutions” the hair of a black woman has been more of invisible shackles than freedom. Even if the book only refers to the United States what I’ve heard so far can be applied to the whole world. The black woman changed her hair from nappy to silky to fit in. To survive, get a job or simply to be able to be part of a society or community.

The media is not doing any better by producing role models for little (and older) girls. The success of an African woman somehow always seems to be linked to her silky, straight, shiny hair. When I was a little girl of five or six I used to watch the supermodels (particularly in George Micheal’s Too Funky which is still one of my faves) and loved every bit of Naomi Campbell working the catwalk. Deep down every little girl wants to be like the girls they see on TV or magazines, regardless of how good or bad it can be for them.

Solange, Beyoncé’s little sister decided to cut all her hair, after she grew tired of extensions. I particularly lover the contrast between the two.

Thinking about all this, I asked my mother what her opinion is on black hair a couple of weeks ago. Why we can’t wear it the way it grows. Like all other girls, whether they’re Asian or European or something else. The black woman is the only one struggling with her hair, trying to make it into something it will never be. Why is that? She told me point blank: “If your hair isn’t straight, you’re not going to archive your goals. Whether it is a simple job, record deal, you want to be in a movie or you’re an aspiring model.” Then she asked me: “Have you ever seen a black woman on the stage singing with the hair God gave her? And I mean famous ones, superstars.” And I thought about that for a moment. She was right. Apart from Erykah Badu and India.Arie there weren’t many out there rocking their natural hair. Fortunately there are some rising starts out there:

Shinigai Shoniwa ( The Noisettes ) & Janelle Monáe

There is a song by India.Arie which is entitled “I am Not My Hair”. In a nutshell all black women around the world (especially in the western world) carry around this weight with them every time they look in the mirror or go to get their hair done. Why is it like that?

Good hair means curls and waves/  Bad hair means you look like a slave/  At the turn of the century/  Its time for us to redefine who we be/  You can shave it off/  Like a South African beauty/  Or get in on lock/  Like Bob Marley/  You can rock it straight/  Like Oprah Winfrey/  If its not what’s on your head/  Its what’s underneath/

~

Regardless of all this I was particularly impressed by the amount of models of color on the runways this year. We all know that most things happens in the fashion industry happen because of money, still it is a nice development.

But I don’t want any of you out there to get my wrong. I don’t want all African women or women with African roots to all wear their natural hair from now on and keep their hands off relaxers or hair extensions. I just want people to be aware that beauty has different forms and all of them should be accepted equally. I also want women out there (particularly African women like me) to be happy with the beauty that was given them without loosing the freedom to change it into something else. And I am emphasising freedom.There is nothing worse than forcing yourself to fit in.