Being Black is magical

In today's five minutes, I stumbled upon this article, "South Sudanese model Nyakim Gatwech, "queen of the dark" refused $10,000 offer to bleach her skin." by Cityscrollz. After you learn how much social media can waste your time, you find yourself taking at least 5 minutes scrolling on Facebook and going back to doing something 'constructive'. This topic is constructive and personal but I don't mouth much about it until I saw something that displaced by hormones and put them correctly making me look for my pen.

"My skin absorbs the sun rays an my hair defies gravity. Now you can't tell me I'm not magical", Nyakim Gatweech 'Queen of the dark'

Now you know why. The hair part of it. Being a natural hair junkie, I was like, yeah, 'African hair actually does go against physics laws. While attending one of the seminars for cryptocurrency some weeks ago, I meet this lady with massive hair and had some kind of discoloring at the front part of her hair but she didn't bother to color it to be like the other hairs dictated by society. I was thrilled and posted it on LinkedIn though it was already sabbath.

'Appearing in an interview with kinky hair is wrong'. 'Why? It's my hair. What's wrong with my hair? She was not alone. There were other women with natural hair but theirs were straightened so you know why we are recognizing that. If you have watched Nappily ever after, you will know what am talking about. Do you know that lady actually shaved her hair? It wasn't acting. Did you see how it turned out later? Someone will start by saying that there are rules that need to be followed and will not forget to point out that I am an INFJ explaining my attitude. But look, this kind of me makes me speak when other beautiful characters won't because it's just them. Being the same is boring.

At the end of 2019, the beauty contest covered the headlines with 5 black women winning top contests. The one that caught my eye first was Zozi's. This South African lady who was brought up in a community where white individuals were considered south African, had won her hair short and busy defying gravity. Of cause, I had to search more about her and look at her previous social media activity before being on the limelight. Being a digital marketer, I am quite good at digging the internet effectively. Maybe it's the scientist in me. Did I mention I dug into the internet and found only one paper relating to my weird undergrad research though important in the African setup? No, And we are not speaking of that. This slender lady had been following up on this beauty contest since she was a teenager. It was her dream. All this time she has been seeing women with hair obeying gravity winning. Even the Angolan beauty had the weave or wig on. I am not sure of the difference between the two. But she went strong with the natural hair and finally winning. Some will say, its some bureaucracy kind of thing, I don't even know the meaning of that, Google help!

Was this a Lupita effect? That Kenyan beauty whose name is recognized by the dictionary is another sensational being. I never knew Beyonce was a black woman until I had the brown skin song where she mentions Lupita. Whitney Houston, a voice I work to have, the range I work on every day as a singer was a black woman. I was brought up in a home where we never had a TV and I never found myself sneaking into a friend's house when mum wasn't watching. I only saw these women in magazines that depicted them in straight hair and lightened skin, or rather lightened photos. Let's be true, isn't nearly everybody not happy about a picture that makes them look dark? What's wrong with being a little dark?

Since am still a fresh graduate, I got lucky and attended some interviews but mum, the mama who bore me would ask me why I didn't 'do' my hair. If you read this mum, I am just saying as it is. I mean, I can't comb my hair as easily as the individual with straight hair. I will be hurting my delicate hair follicles. It needs time. No, I am not lazy when it comes to hair at least... and labwork .. maybe writing. I just love it when I let my fingers touch the coiled 4c (KINKY) hair and it feels nice. I need to feel nice before I make any human feel nice. The confidence will definitely resonate with my whole body and ready to be myself in an interview. wearing braids on that first day will be a lie. In reality, y hair is not like that. What do you think I am also lying about? A lot! reality is my hair is coiled and kinky. That's what you get. I brought my intellect to work, Not hair or skin. I don't need to have a fake smooth face all plastered in paint when in actual sense it's has a number of beauty spots. And No, I am not trying to beautify "ugly spots. They are Beautiful.

Just the other day, I had my twists on and this beautiful elder woman walks up to me in church and asks to pray. We pray together and she goes ahead to tell me since I am in leadership, I shouldn't 'Kwaza' someone in the church by my hair. It's not presentable! I wasn't annoyed but understood where she comes from. Let's be real, some part of me wanted to tell her that I am no going to put someone's hair or plastic hair to be presentable. I am fine. This same thing had happened before but now with an elder guy. This time I was on fire. I was the lead singer and he loved my voice but he hated my hair. he hated every bit of my kinky hair. he didn't ask me to put the plastic hair but straighten my hair. He needed my brain fried so that I can sing in front of the masses. The image of the great choir. I was young then and walked out of the whole singing ordeal until recently when I realized I was missing some notes.

Blue eyes are supposed to be scary and weird. Women wearing trousers are supposed to be ungodly. The thought of women holding big positions is supposed to be uncalled for. A black man is not supposed to be heading a white country. Being gay was termed ... I don't know. Wearing earrings for a guy was an issue. Add all those things that were not accepted but are now accepted. Who accepted them? You and me. I will write about it. What will you do on your part to make young girls love themselves more? If you are a man, whom most women enhance their looks, all shades of skin and all types of hair are beautiful. Be keen on what you say to a woman. This goes to our women too.

I am not going to do this activism and bash having white skin just as the girlchild has been supported and leaving the boychild suffering. However, I have to mention how much I came to realize the preference I have of dark skin. My love for music gave me an opportunity to travel to Canada for the Kathaumix festival while in Statehouse girls' high school. While walking through the streets, I couldn't help crushing on the women I came with, beautiful skin. We are all different and beautiful in our own ways. No color or hair should be granted unaccepted unless its a spouse. Maybe you don't find a certain skin attractive but not in the cooperative sector. The same way there are emoji's for dark skin, and a storybook for dark skin girls like Sulwe by Lupita Nyongo, curly, kinky African hair should be normalized in the society.