A hair-raising business

I WOULD like to weigh in on the hair hoopla. Why all the fuss about hair that most women, no matter from which culture or race, love long and done nicely, enhancing the way they feel about themselves? No surprise the hair business is an established player in economies the world over, notwithstanding the black realm.

Hair is a woman’s crowning glory. It amazes me why some cultures have their women’s heads covered and hidden. Even artificial hair as perfected by some salons is admirable.

The natural look and afros favoured by liberated and intellectual black sisters is also most appealing – but I don’t think it defines women. As men we know women are God’s gift to us, nothing short of marvels and mysteries at the same time. Women are not only about their hair, they are much more and I love loving them do their thing. — Pat Kondile, via e-mail

TEENAGERS, no matter what race they may be, test the boundaries of authority. But when children are at school they need to learn to respect authority and keep to standards set by adults, not the other way around.

I am not referring to horrendous “regulations” like having to chemically straighten black hair. The mind boggles as to how anyone in authority ever came up with such an idea.

But thankfully it is not a norm. The point is, very fashionable hairstyles for girls wearing school uniforms look out of place. There is value in children learning to respect authority, learning to comply with regulations and also learning to wait before they are old enough to do certain things.

Once these youngsters complete their schooling they can dress as they please and no university lecturer can then tell them to toe the line. — Patricia, via e-mail

HAVING read Momelezi Vellem’s letter “What’s inside your head trumps hair” (SD September 10), one cannot but think he is right. However, he did decide to remove his bulletproof vest. Perhaps if he were to rewrite the content swapping race zones he would also learn about “Afrika and all its peoples”, as he so puts it. He writes, “we were born and made here”. And? So was I. He seems of the view that being darker is the passport to being “African” WRONG! The paler variety did not step off the plane from Brussels yesterday. Genealogy tells us there are few families in this country that do not have some connections, however far removed, across different races. Examples include Hintsa, whose maternal grandmother was of the paler variety.

I have genetics that take me back thousands of years. In 1825 there was a union between an 1820 settler of European descent who married a Koi woman, who is part of my ancestry. But I am defined as “of the paler variety”, or perhaps I am a fringe “coloured”? Are coloureds less African?

Momelezi, please understand that we too are all “NOT JUST OUR HAIR” as you put it. I too am African! — “Paler variety”, BCM

THE elusive “they” and “we” in Momelezi Vellem’s “What’s inside your head trumps hair” refers. Collective pronouns must be preceded by specific nouns that specifically identify the contextual noun or nouns in a discourse.

Vellem writes: “Can we talk about content of our children’s schoolbooks and curricula in former model C and private schools? We’re so mad about our children’s hair, but do we know what they learn?”

Who is this “we” in “...our children’s schoolbooks... in former model-C and private schools”?

Bundling readers as either parents of children attending former model C or private schools or learners at these sites of learning defies principles of research science.

It smacks of being disingenuous to regard all white South Africans – George Bizos as an example – as “our former masters”. — Monde Ndandani, Dutywa