why does black hair need permission in africa?

what does an afro have to do with an exam? from university hair passes to my nigerian secondary school experience, i explore black hair discrimination, african hairstyle traditions and how colonial standards and ideas about discipline & appearance shaped the rules that a huge part of society still enforces. #blackhair #hairdiscrimination #africanhistory #videoessay #nigeria #africa 🔖chapters: 00:00 introduction 00:46 a hair pass ? 01:32 “make your hair!” 02:52 what our hair can say 05:42 discipline is a display. 07:02 did colonialism breed self-hate? 07:46 “that just our culture” 09:05 different institutions, different rules. 09:37 safety, cost & uniformity 11:10 who gets to decide for black hair? 13:29 outro 📚references & readings: • @anniiethecreator on tiktok. video: student testimony about hair restrictions during an exam]. available at: https://www.tiktok.com/@anniiethecrea... • amamnsunu, j.e. (2026) ‘Rethinking hair cropping in Ghanaian schools: coloniality, discipline, and the path to reform’, Journal of Education Policy. https://doi.org/10.1080/02680939.2026... • babcock university (2026) ‘Strict enforcement of approved haircut, hairstyle, and dress code regulations’, official notice, 5 January. https://babcock.edu.ng/storage/media/... • bolawa, p. (2026) ‘“No dreadlocks, beards” — Babcock rolls out new dresscode for students’, TheCable, 8 January. https://www.thecable.ng/no-dreadlocks... • dairo, m. (2023) ‘Nigerian university dress codes: markers of tradition, morality and aspiration’, Journal of African Cultural Studies, 35(3), pp. 345–352. https://doi.org/10.1080/13696815.2023... • paoletti, g. (2014) ‘A tribute to J.D. ’Okhai Ojeikere (1930–2014)’, The Metropolitan Museum of Art, 5 March. https://www.metmuseum.org/perspective... • rwanda cultural heritage acaademy (n.d.) ‘Traditional hairstyles of Rwanda’, Google Arts & Culture. https://artsandculture.google.com/sto... • sanwo, j. (2022) ‘Ojeikere: fleeting and captured moments’, post, Museum of Modern Art, 23 February. https://post.moma.org/ojeikere-fleeti... • watson, r. (2018) ‘“My desire is to be the possessor of all the best books in this world of struggle”: respectability and literary materialism in colonial Ibadan’, Africa, 88(2), pp. 312–331. https://doi.org/10.1017/S000197201700... [additional images were appropriately sourced through google photos, stock images and pinterest]