Why some of our cultural values, beliefs, practices & even taboos were valuable…
Many years are gone since our childhood. And when we were still enjoying our childhood close to our parents, we observed and recall some of their interesting beliefs & behaviors.
Our mothers especially, like those of nowadays loved beauty. Thanks to charcoal jikos, empty metal tins (these could be modified to become combs) & metallic combs and the easy availability of hair oils (and especially pure coconut oil), our mothers regularly ‘cooked’ or rather ‘burnt’ their hairs in readiness for the imminent and specially liked weekends.
They ‘burnt’ their friends’ hairs first after which their friends would then burn theirs next in the midst of laughter and chitchats as we, their carefree children, played hide & seek & ‘gatini & banya’ games as we waited.
The smell of the burning & burnt hairs still rings bells in the memory of some of us.
However, the burning was alternated with plaiting also courtesy of friends and relatives also in readiness for the then always special weekends.
Undoubtedly, our mothers’ innovation dates back to those years.
And seeing that the manufactured metal ‘burning combs’ were costly, our mothers opted for ‘the manufacture of tins combs’ which served the hair burning purposes right.
By then hair salonists were unheard of and our mothers played salonists to each other.
Yet, they ensured the right choice of their ‘salonists friends’ in protection & fear seeing that some people would, allegedly, touch & make dense, long hairs shrink in mischievous plots.
And still, despite all the detailed & passionate hair beauty endeavors, our parents would, each, carefully gather their split hairs/hair shreds and pack them safely for safer disposal that time in the commonly available pit latrines.
Whether this was superstition or not, our mothers strongly believed that loose and irresponsibly disposed hairs could be picked by malicious people (enemies) who would then deliver the hairs to witches to harm the ‘hair owners’…
In reflection, whether the fears were false and grounded on superstition or not, these were positive fears that stopped irresponsible disposal of hairs waste.
Our mothers also never discarded their old, used clothes carelessly and would also burn such items in privacy also ensuring that all the clothes and personal linen items were surely consumed by fire. This responsible disposal was also fired by fears that such clothes and linen items could also be used by enemies in witchcraft and sorcery practices.
And today in reflection, one wishes that our people, and especially women, would be responsible enough to dispose of their ‘modern day’ waste responsibly.
One wishes that our people would responsibly dispose of their natural & now very common ‘human’ or man-made hairs more responsibly instead of needlessly and carelessly polluting our soils and general environment.
One further wishes that our ‘modern’ women and girls would responsibly dispose of their other very personal wastes including sanitary pads & related items more responsibly instead of throwing off the same not only in open fields, gardens and even roads and footpaths….
One wishes that fear of witchcraft and sorcery would resurface to force more responsible disposal of such very ‘personal’ and related wastes
