Delineation of Eurocentric Attitudes towards African Hairstyles as Catalysts for Identity Crisis in Kopano Matlwa’s Coconut

Abstract

Kopano Matlwa’s Coconut depicts hairstyles as an essential insignia of identity, especially in the African context. The ancient African civilisations championed their identities through their hairstyles amongst other representations of aboriginal Africanity. These hairstyles in their diversified forms, served beyond beautification purposes as they were also utilised to communicate meaning, give a message, convey status and position in society, perform rituals and embrace Africanness. However, the colonial intervention in African affairs moulded many epitomes of Africanness including the representation and essence of African hairstyles. It is the colonialists that occasioned demeaning stereotypes against African identities and imposed Eurocentric standards upon Africans. This resulted in many Africans abandoning the African manner of hairstyling and adopting Eurocentric charms in an effort to elude the stigma that colonialists attached to African identities. This engendered an identity crisis that is still at large even in the post-colonial period as portrayed in Matlwa’s Coconut. The main characters in the novel, two black women, Fikile and Ofilwe menace their African identity by giving in to Eurocentric ideals of beauty and this affects their lives dearly. The paper uses a qualitative methodology to delineate Eurocentric attitudes towards African hairstyles as catalysts for identity crisis in the post-colonial day through the lens of Matlwa’s Coconut. It has been found that African identities are gradually being lost due to Eurocentric canons that appear to be the source of influence on the perception of beauty, success and sophistication in the modern day Africa.