South African School Under Fire After Being Accused of Banning Black Hairstyles

You would think that of all places in the world, South Africa would be one where black women and girls could wear their hair the way it grows out of their heads and not be an issue. But that is apparently not the case at Pretoria High School for Girls.

Black students at Pretoria are saying that the school’s rules relating to how pupils wear their hair are racist. The current dress code allows for locs, cornrows (as long as they go straight back), and “singles/braids” with or without extensions … if they are no more than 10 millimeters in diameter. It also says that hair must be off the face and out of students’ eyes.

The students claim that hairstyles like Afros (what African hair looks like in its natural state) and Bantu knots (ironically, a traditional style worn for centuries by the Bantu people of Southern Africa) are not allowed in school and that students are also banned from speaking in their native tongue while in school, though those who speak Afrikaans go unpunished. Black students have also been accused of “conspiring” when standing around together in small groups.

A petition calling for change at the school has garnered more than 20,000 signatures. “We stand in solidarity with the learners, who marched at the school on the 26th to say enough is enough,” the petition reads. “It is unacceptable that in a country in which Black people are a demographic majority, we still today continue to be expected to pander to whiteness and to have it enforced through school policy. Black children should be allowed to just be children, without being burdened with having to assert their humanity.” The petition mentions Gauteng MEC of Education Panyaza Lesufi and the school’s headmistress, Mrs. K Du Toit. Lesufi is said to be looking into the claims and visited the school on Monday.

This weekend, current and former students showed up to stage a protest against the unjust behavior. The protestors, many of whom were diminutive teenage girls, were threatened with arrest by security, to which they responded, “take us. Take us all, guys.” Video of a former student explains that while the school’s handbook doesn’t specifically ban them, students are told by administrators that their Afros are untidy and should be straightened.

People on social media have tweeted their support for the girls, who, quite frankly, shouldn’t be fighting to wear their hair in its natural state in their own country.

“The problem with the rules is that they are still written through a white gaze so our hair is supposed to conform to what our white counterparts’ hair is supposed to look like,” Pretoria alum and columnist Zama Ndlovu says. “What is defined and conceived as neat is still the same as it was before, and we used to justify it by saying to ourselves this was very soon after 1994 and the spaces had not been used to having black students. It’s been nearly 15 years since we matriculated and that same gaze is still there, that same attack on the black child’s body is still there.”

And Pretoria isn’t the only school with this problem. As Mishka Wazar writes for the Daily Vox: “The frustration and helplessness that these students feel are not limited to this school. The attitude of South African schools, in particular former Model-C schools, and indeed the South African education system as a whole, is racist and steeped in coloniality and imperialism. The constant policing of the clothing, hair, bodies, and behavior of women of color takes its toll on the psyche of young girls, who must begin to unlearn and recover from their education in the tertiary sector.”

For those wondering why hair in black communities across the world is still an issue, this is just another example. Until black people can wear their hair in its natural state without having to cater to Eurocentric notions of what hair should look like, it’s going to continue to be a problem, and we’re going to continue to hear about it. Indeed, Eurocentric beauty values have so permeated societies worldwide, that even in countries with black majorities, black people are still made to adhere to these standards. In order for us all to move past this issue, black hair needs to be accepted as it is. Until that happens, we will still have brave people like the girls at Pretoria Girls’ High fighting for the right to exist as God made them.

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