Melinda Ozongwu in This Is Africa:
A Nigerian friend, with whom I went to university in the UK, had tribal marks on his cheeks. I never felt comfortable enough to ask him about them but eventually the subject came up. He wasn’t proud of his traditional Yoruba markings and was tired of explaining to foreigners that they were not accidental scars.
image courtesy of This is Africa
He felt sad that he had never known his face without them and wished he’d never had them. I had always been under the impression that people with tribal marks were uneducated and lived in rural areas, the bearers of African traditions without compromise, but it isn’t always the case. My friend was from an affluent family, brought up in an urban area by educated parents who made the choice to uphold their traditional practices by having their kid’s face marked. That was thirty years ago, but now fewer and fewer people are choosing to do the same. Is this one of the consequences of modern Africa adjusting its beauty barometer according to Western standards of beauty or are we simply changing our traditions and culture to suit ourselves?...[continue reading]
