adminMorris Mtisi
AT THE same NASH school heads conference at the Troutbeck resort, Guest speaker-eye-surgeon-philanthropist-educationist, Solomon Guramatunhu, took the bull by the horns, was it a cow? When he told women present to desist from the unhealthy habit of braids hairstyling and other ‘beauty’ industry exhibitionist tendencies that make African women each day progress from what he called from sublime to ridiculous.
Urging school heads to be exemplary role models, the famous specialist eye-surgeon did not mince his words when he asked, “Do African women hate themselves so much that they fall so deeply in the addiction of buying Indian, Brazilian and Peruvian human hair and Chinese plastic hair to look better?”
The good doctor reminded the school heads of days in the remote past when African women bleached their skin using skin lightening creams and tablets in the early 60s and 70s. “Some of them carry permanent scars and embarrassing blemishes on their skins today,” he said.
“We cannot teach our young girls to hate being African and be proud we are role models. Teachers, especially lady teachers, must lead the black-is-beautiful campaign by keeping short hair which makes our women beautiful,” continued the good doctor with what ended up a brave straight-talk lecture on female personal hygiene.
“The scalp needs fresh air as it breathes to conduct its normal function. Suffocating it with mops or layers of artificial or bought human hair is not only unwise and unnecessary, but dangerous, as layers of sweat soon become breeding ground for certain types of fungi and bacteria. The stench of rotting scalp is bad enough . . . yet our African women are all beautiful as they are without these additives,” Guramatunhu emphasised almost verging on the brinks of a love poet when he started to describe the thick sexy lips, boobs and bums of African women which he alleged many ethnic groups worldwide admire.
The cold silence amongst the women wearing these fabulous hairstyles at the conference for a moment spoke louder than words and visibly stabbed deep into a moment of truth too difficult to deny. The doctor called a spade a spade. What was best was that he taught, not rebuked anyone. It was not a mind-blast. It was free education. He spoke the truth that I always say cannot be reserved for Sundays alone.
The day was Wednesday, and the doctor spoke the truth that was scaring but setting free. What an avalanche of free education for all of us who heard him speak! We need such broad-minded and knowledgeable ‘teachers’ in schools and in the Media.
When he revealed harrowing evidence that some of the human hair was smuggled from Peruvian and Brazillian mortuaries by voodoo-cult sort of ‘business’ women and men who shaved dead heads clean to make money from the human hair in demand in Africa, the dagger sank a little deeper into the heart.
It is amazing how much we know about the world around us, but even more amazing what we don’t know.
When guest speaker Guramatunhu quoted figures of how much Zimbabwean women spend annually on these hairs from dead people’s heads running into excess of 6million US dollars, experts say, and the whole of Africa from African women running in excess of 6 billion American dollars, you saw a whole cloud of shameful wonderment descend on every thinking woman’s face. There is no space to hide behind one’s finger, the African philosopher said.
I admired the doctor for speaking so bravely and so straight. I always thought I was the only straight talker. The doctor is straighter, I must admit. However, I agreed with him religiously on everything he said, except on one point: I would have imagined as an eye surgeon and specialist, his own vision is perfect. But when he stood there to tell everyone that ‘ALL’ African women are beautiful, I wanted to advise him to check his own eyesight.
Online Reporter