Staff Pick: “This book certainly packs a punch when it comes to a deeply researched topic close to the author’s first-hand experience. Part memoir and part series of essays, Dabiri not only examines the history and politics surrounding black people’s hair, but also gives an insight into what it was like to grow up black and Irish in 1990s Dublin.” Sarah U.
Don’t Touch My Hair by Emma Dabiri
ISBN: 9780141986289
€13.75
Description
Staff Pick: “This book certainly packs a punch when it comes to a deeply researched topic close to the author’s first-hand experience. Part memoir and part series of essays, Dabiri not only examines the history and politics surrounding black people’s hair, but also gives an insight into what it was like to grow up black and Irish in 1990s Dublin.” Sarah U.
From women’s solidarity and friendship to forgotten African scholars and the dubious provenance of Kim Kardashian’s braids, the scope of black hairstyling ranges from pop culture to cosmology, from prehistoric times to the (afro)futuristic. Uncovering sophisticated indigenous mathematical systems in black hairstyles, alongside styles that served as secret intelligence networks leading enslaved Africans to freedom, Don’t Touch My Hair proves that far from being only hair, black hairstyling culture can be understood as an allegory for black oppression and, ultimately, liberation.
‘Groundbreaking . . .a scintillating, intellectual investigation into black women and the very serious business of our hair, as it pertains to race, gender, social codes, tradition, culture, cosmology, maths, politics, philosophy and history’ Bernardine Evaristo.
ISBN
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| Weight | 0.3 kg |
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