This photo was taken last month. Yes, I am “hiding” a huge 6 month pregnant belly here. But you can see how my hair has grown since my last length check.
The longest part of my hair now touches my hipbone. YAY! That was my goal. Folks can criticize my protective style, hair preservation method all they want (*whines* uuuungh you never have fun, *whines* uuuungh never flaunt your hairrrr)…
But I’ve done what I’ve set out to do. Prove that kinky hair (all hair in fact) can only be preserved or destroyed.
To reach this length with kinky hair you’ll need patience and discipline (no different than managing & saving money). This is what it means to maximize growth. Sure, everyone can grow hair, but few may maximize their results. I grow an average of 6 inches of hair a year (or 0.5” a month) And for the most part, it seems like I keep nearly all of the hair I grow.
My new goal is to simply sustain this length and fill out my ends. Sorry, hair does not grow evenly. Especially if you cut it unevenly 4 years ago like I did! The back right of my hair is about 0.5” - 1” longer than the left. So keep that in mind. Where you start is where you’ll end!
I’m proud to say that my hair still curls up at the ends and its pretty well preserved considering that it is 4.5 years old!
Black Athena - The Fabrication of Ancient Greece
This documentary examines the claims of Professor Martin Bernal who questions the assumption of the “Europeaness” of our civilization, placing instead the “black” Egyptians and Phoenicians at the center of the West’s origin.
Black Athena examines Cornell Professor Martin Bernal’s iconoclastic study of the African origins of Greek civilization and the explosive academic debate it provoked. This film offers a balanced, scholarly introduction to the disputes surrounding multiculturalism, “political correctness” and Afrocentrist curricula sweeping college campuses today.
In his book Black Athena, Prof. Bernal convincingly indicts 19th-century scholars for constructing a racist “cult of Greece” based upon a purely Aryan origin for Western culture. He accuses these classicists of suppressing the numerous connections between African and Near Eastern cultures and early Greek myth and art.
Leading classical scholars, on the other hand, contend that Bernal, like the 19th-century classicists he attacks, uses evidence selectively, uncritically and ahistorically to support his own Afrocentric agenda. They argue that cultural diffusion alone can’t account for the distinctive achievements of the Greeks during the Classical Period. Black Athena can help students begin to distinguish between sound scholarship and cultural bias - whether inherited from the past or imposed by the present.
Afrikan Alphabets Book by Saki Mafundikwa
Afrikan Alphabets – The story of writing in Afrika is a book written by Zimbabwe designer Saki Mafundikwa.
“Afrikan alphabets have a rich cultural and artistic history. Many continue to be in current use today. Their story, however, is little known due largely to their past suppression by colonial powers. This book sets the record straight. Both entertaining and anecdotal, African Alphabets presents a wealth of highly graphical and attractive illustrations.
Writing systems across the Afrikan continent and the Diaspora are included, analyzed and illustrated: the scripts of the West Africans – Mende, Vai, Nsibidi, Bamum and the Somali, and Ethiopian scripts. Other alphabets, syllabaries, paintings, pictographs, ideographs, and symbols are compared and contrasted.”
“Princess of Africa” is the story of two dreams. Marem, a 14-year-old dancer from Senegal, has a dream to migrate to Europe; and Sonia, a Spanish dancer, is attracted by the “magic” of Africa.
Both are linked by Pap Ndiaye, Marem’s father and at the same time Sonia’s husband. Africa did not turn out to meet Sonia’s dream (Pap Ndiaye had two additional wives), nor was Europe what Marem expected (no children in the street and a lot of poverty).
“Princess of Africa” is a love story, full of music and dance, where nothing is what it seems and women are the main characters.
A friend applies the finishing touches to a girl’s face-paint. Ashaninka Indians apply face-paint each day, in a design that reflects their mood. Made from the seeds of the Urucum plant, the paint has a rich, red color. Sometimes they also use fire-black for details. (© Mike Goldwater)
That’s so cool.
