Jambo!
That's how you say 'Hello' in my home country.
As I mentioned before, I come from Kenya, a country in East Africa.
My town being Mombasa, it has a rich history of different foreigners (Arabs, Portuguese, Persians and Indians) who settled and intermarried with the Africans, leaving a trail of their cultures with us including architecture,how we dress and how we do our ceremonies .
I am a product of this mixture of foreign settlers and the Africans, they call us the Swahili people. I have a great grandmother missing 6 lower teeth from Kendubay and the other great grandmother with Facial tattoos from the caves of Hadhramaut, and yes they both moved from their native homes to Mombasa and were buried here.
Growing in the Afro- Arab community, there are a lot of superstitions that have been moving from generations to generations!
I won't go into all of them, I will just go and share the hair -related ones ( coz am all about hair) and also these ones are kinda familiar with anyone living within the Coast of East Africa.
1. If someone trims your hair and it takes a long time to grow back ,then , the person who trimmed you has a 'bad hand' and shouldn't cut/trim hair. It also applies the other way round. If a person trims it and it grows back fuller, healthier and longer. Then that person has a 'good hand' and everyone should get their hair cut by him/her.
I am not sure how true that is but everyone knows this one.
2. Never throw out your hair strand (after combing or a haircut); because the witches will use it to do voodoo on you. Hair strands are to be thrown in a pit latrine, or buried in the ground.
Well... my mom explained to me that this is to avoid hair strands from flying all over the house, or in the food etc.
3. If one uses the Amla hair oil , specific the Amla by dabur ,you will catch a case of lice! Lice like living in hair with AMLA oil.
Lol this one is straight up false! Amla is actually very good for hair and lice is caused by hygiene reasons, and maybe contiguous from one head to another.
4. Coconut oil causes Dandruff
FALSE! its actually can act as a remedy for dandruff.
5. Coconut oil causes hair texture to go coarse , dry and kinky
Mombasa is a huge producer of coconut oil, thus its cheaper here. Anyone can afford it, its the main hair oil by the poor villagers who are mostly Mijikenda people with kinky hair textures and this kinda makes the Afro - Arab believe it's what causes it. I think it's ignorance - coz coconut oil is a good hair moisturizer and is so expensive in other parts of the world; and kinky texture is NOT 'bad hair' (stop being shallow)
6.When you cut hair with a blunt pair of scissors, your hair will never grow longer.
This can be true and is used to encourage usage of a sharp pair of scissors to cut hair to avoid raggedy and split ends
7. Braiding cornrows(mistari) will change hair texture from silky to kinky coarse texture.
Not true! Periodt!
Please comment and share any superstitions( hair or general) from your community.
Till next time! See you on the next blog!
That's how you say 'Hello' in my home country.
As I mentioned before, I come from Kenya, a country in East Africa.
My town being Mombasa, it has a rich history of different foreigners (Arabs, Portuguese, Persians and Indians) who settled and intermarried with the Africans, leaving a trail of their cultures with us including architecture,how we dress and how we do our ceremonies .
 |
| Fort Jesus by the Portuguese |
I am a product of this mixture of foreign settlers and the Africans, they call us the Swahili people. I have a great grandmother missing 6 lower teeth from Kendubay and the other great grandmother with Facial tattoos from the caves of Hadhramaut, and yes they both moved from their native homes to Mombasa and were buried here.
Growing in the Afro- Arab community, there are a lot of superstitions that have been moving from generations to generations!
I won't go into all of them, I will just go and share the hair -related ones ( coz am all about hair) and also these ones are kinda familiar with anyone living within the Coast of East Africa.
1. If someone trims your hair and it takes a long time to grow back ,then , the person who trimmed you has a 'bad hand' and shouldn't cut/trim hair. It also applies the other way round. If a person trims it and it grows back fuller, healthier and longer. Then that person has a 'good hand' and everyone should get their hair cut by him/her.
I am not sure how true that is but everyone knows this one.
2. Never throw out your hair strand (after combing or a haircut); because the witches will use it to do voodoo on you. Hair strands are to be thrown in a pit latrine, or buried in the ground.
3. If one uses the Amla hair oil , specific the Amla by dabur ,you will catch a case of lice! Lice like living in hair with AMLA oil.
Lol this one is straight up false! Amla is actually very good for hair and lice is caused by hygiene reasons, and maybe contiguous from one head to another.
4. Coconut oil causes Dandruff
FALSE! its actually can act as a remedy for dandruff.
5. Coconut oil causes hair texture to go coarse , dry and kinky
Mombasa is a huge producer of coconut oil, thus its cheaper here. Anyone can afford it, its the main hair oil by the poor villagers who are mostly Mijikenda people with kinky hair textures and this kinda makes the Afro - Arab believe it's what causes it. I think it's ignorance - coz coconut oil is a good hair moisturizer and is so expensive in other parts of the world; and kinky texture is NOT 'bad hair' (stop being shallow)
6.When you cut hair with a blunt pair of scissors, your hair will never grow longer.
This can be true and is used to encourage usage of a sharp pair of scissors to cut hair to avoid raggedy and split ends
7. Braiding cornrows(mistari) will change hair texture from silky to kinky coarse texture.
Not true! Periodt!
Please comment and share any superstitions( hair or general) from your community.
Till next time! See you on the next blog!
I love reading your blog. Keep up the good work
ReplyDeleteThank you
ReplyDelete