Our people have been rocking headwraps and different head coverings for centuries. It’s a tradition that predates coloniality, and despite what anyone says, it’s a beautiful custom we should hold on to.
Headwraps were worn as traditional attire in many African countries like Ghana and Namibia, where they’re called dukus and doek. Certain headwrap styles indicated wealth, marital status, and family lineage.
During the 1700s, Louisana’s Tignon Laws prohibited Black women from being in public without covered heads. The system used these laws to shame our hair and bodies, and although they were rooted in anti-Blackness, ancestrally, we had already been proudly wrapping our heads long before.
The Tignon Laws did create a ripple effect, though, and for many, head scarves of all kinds became associated with servitude because of mammy caricatures like Aunt Jemima.
Although some folks choose to carry this shame and the respectability politics behind it, we don’t have to. Headwraps, bonnets, and scarves are all a part of who we’ve always been, and companies like The Wrap Life are embracing the tradition.
Like headwraps, our customs, from fashion to food, make us who we are. We should embrace all of them as the beacons of cultural pride they are and never get too wrapped up in what anti-Blackness has created.