YEAH

HAIR POLITICS

They say, I say 'they say' because I was not there, that on 21 September 1982 when Swaziland King Sobhuza Dlamini passed away the whole kingdom was instructed to cut their hair as a form of respect and mourning for their departed deity. It didn't matter if you found him and the Tinkundla system to be oppressive or not, you had to partake.

I'm made to understand that there are lots of people who protested on the grounds of human rights and they faced serious retribution. Well, I don't know what I would have done if I was in that situation but given that I keep my head bald in memory of all my fallen soldiers, maybe the King would have passed on and found me bald. Or maybe with that miniature three days growth. Would I have shaved the little because of instructions?

Well, I don't know because as an anarchist I ask myself if they would have also asked the late Bob Marley to shave his root if he was resident there. Marley's hair did eventually fall off due to chermotherapy but I doubt he would have obliged to the Babylon instructions to cease chanting down them evil forces.

I'm also reliably informed that when the late Kamuzu Banda was dictating in Nyasaland (Malawi) they had a pair of scissors at Customs and long dresses. The scissors was to shave the dreadlocks and Afro of those arriving to Malawi while the long dresses was for the women wearing pants. If you screamed 'human rights' they simply refused you a visa and deported you back to paradise.

I don't know if I give a shit what some folks want me to do because all I know is that I only listen to the voice within me and that's all I listen to.

However poet Kagiso Lesego Molope had a very interesting statement made in the event of the suicide of Sello Kabelo Duiker. "So I will, in the tradition of my people, cut my hair and mourn your passing", Molope wrote.

Did it make sense? I guess 50% of it does. But me, I'll stick with the other 50.