I was in church this Sunday, and we had a departmental meeting after church. We were gathered in a circle, and our head of department was addressing us, when a woman came into the room, asked for excuse, walked up to him, and addressed him quietly. My HOD then asked to be excused for five minutes, and walked out of the room with the lady.
Everyone’s eyes were fixated on the woman, and the reason being that she had long relaxed hair reaching down the middle of her back. Immediately they stepped out, one mischievous woman amongst us said “Omo, see mami water hair.”
Another man and a woman said “No o, that’s not her hair. It is attachment.”
“It’s her hair joo. Can’t you see it’s coming out of her scalp?” the first woman insisted.
“See you. With all the tricks women come up with nowadays, you cannot trust what you see o.”
At this point I stepped in. “I think it’s her hair. It looks real.”
“See, even Anna the hair guru agrees that it’s her hair.” Everyone laughed, but the argument continued.
True to his word, my HOD came back in about five minutes. We asked him if he knew the woman well. He said she’s his cousin, and confirmed that it’s her hair.
The mischievous woman continued. “You see, its mami water hair. It’s Niger delta people that always have that kind of hair.” She said confidently, knowing my HOD is from the Niger delta.
“When will I have this kind of hair now? It’s just not fair.” The assistant HOD, who is a Yoruba woman, said.
“Actually, I disagree. There are many people with natural hair in Nigeria that have longer hair than that.”
“Anna has come again. Which natural hair? Is it not the natural hair I see everywhere?”
“I’m serious, even in this church many women have hair longer than that. You just can’t see it, because of shrinkage.”
At this point, they all looked at me like I was speaking Greek.
“All I know is that people from the riverine areas have longer hair than other Nigerians. It’s in their genes.” Someone insisted.
“Many Nigerian women have hair long to the middle of their back, and even their waists.”
“Annnnaaaa. You are lying joo. We are in church o.” they chorused.
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“You just can’t see it.” I insisted.
“Why can’t we see it? Is it not the natural hair we are looking at every day? Are we blind?
At this point, I knew there was no point arguing with them, they would never understand. It was a pity I had no one with natural hair to support me in this argument, as the only lady with natural hair had just been moved to another department. So I brought out my phone, and googled natural hair shrinkage, and showed the pictures to them.
They saw pictures of women with half of their hair in really shrunk up afro, and the remaining half stretched down to their waist, all in black skin. After about 10 of those kind of pictures, and so many ‘oohhs’ and ‘aahhs’, any further argument was put to rest.
As they say, only fools argue with proofs.
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So wat is the basis behind niger delta people having longer hair?
ReplyDeleteWell, I don't know, lol. Some people claim it is a myth, cos there are many niger delta people who don't have longer hair.
DeleteIn all honesty, I know a lot of Niger delta people with long hair and some with short hair.
ReplyDeletesome people say it because most of them have mixed raced ancestors in their lineage which also explains some of their English surnames.
Anywayz.. but you have time o. to actually google images to show your church people. my own people wont believe until they see it with their korokoro eyes. (people of little faith)