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Yamatta Viaan grew up in Lofa County in northern Liberia. She is a member of the Kpelle tribe, one of nearly thirty tribes that make up the indigenous population of this west African nation. In 1989, just before the civil war began in Liberia, Yamatta came to the United States and settled in the East Bay with many members of her extended family. She completed high school here and hopes eventually to earn a college degree in pharmacology, with the intention of helping to make medicines more available in parts of Africa where they are now difficult to obtain. In the meantime, Yamatta puts her traditional skills to good purpose in an Oakland salon, African Designer Braiding & Boutique, where she works braiding hair alongside her sisters, cousins, and other Liberian immigrant women. Yamatta is accompanied by her aunt, Fikpee Flomo, who also emigrated from Liberia. In addition to her work at the braiding salon, Fikpee directs Dehcontee Liberian Dance Company, a troupe that presents music, dance, drumming, drama and storytelling to audiences in the Bay Area and elsewhere. |
 Hair
braiding is an ancient art, handed down from generation to generation
in Africa. The origins of the art form can be traced back to Egypt as
far as 3500 BCE. Each region of Africa has its own traditional styles,
and each tribe its distinctive aesthetics. In many West African countries,
hair braiding developed into complex patterns signaling one’s social status,
age group, and village affiliation. Certain elaborate hair treatments
were reserved for ceremonial occasions—weddings and other rites of passage,
for example. While braided hair is principally a women’s fashion and art
form, in some areas men also create and wear these styles.
From a very young age, Liberian girls of the Kpelle tribe wear their hair styled into braids or knots. Girls first have their hair done by older female relatives—sisters, mothers, grandmothers, cousins, aunts. They learn first by watching, then by doing. A girl just developing these skills will usually practice on her peers or on younger girls, since no one wants to have her hair done by someone younger (and, therefore, less adept) than she. When girls from traditional Liberian families reach marriageable age—formerly 16 or 17, but now whenever their formal schooling is finished—they spend three months to a year in a "traditional" or "country" or "bush" school, where they learn the domestic skills whose mastery marks their accession to adulthood. In these schools, women depend entirely on their own knowledge and abilities to survive. The initiates learn to weave fish nets and catch fish, to cook, braid hair, and perform traditional dances and songs. When each "graduating class" returns to town in March (the start of the regular school year), the arrival of the young women is marked by several weeks of festivities. Hogs and beef are butchered; there is music, dancing, feasting, and extended celebration before life returns to its normal pace. The young women are adorned in specific ways for their first appearance as adults: they wear colorful traditional clothing, and their faces are whitened with chalk. In addition, their hair is braided in a special version of the country plait (see Types of Braiding) unique to this occasion, and specially treated palm fibers are woven into the braids to give them greater volume. Preparing the palm fibers is a lengthy process, which involves carefully separating the fine blonde threads from palm leaves, letting them dry in the sun, and finally dyeing them a dark brown (to match the woman’s hair) with a natural dye made from the bark of a certain tree. When they are ready, the dyed palm fibers are braided into the hair by the same technique now used in the United States to attach synthetic hair "extensions." The resulting plaited hairstyle is intended to enhance the young woman’s beauty and attraction and to draw particular attention to her readiness for marriage. Hair-braiding is often an immensely time-consuming activity: some styles can take an entire day or more to create. Among those who have already mastered the art, there is an informal reciprocity to the practice: if someone braids your hair, you are expected to braid hers in return. But the practice of such an intricate traditional art depends on the ample leisure time available to those living in rural and village communities. In the wake of urbanization and industrialization, hair-braiding has in part been turned over to professionals. While the more complex and intricate braided styles may still be found in village settings, salons offering the simpler of the traditional braided styles have become commonplace in Africa’s urban areas. And over the last two decades, braiding salons have also sprung up in many urban areas in the United States. Because braiding takes so much time, it offers women an opportunity to socialize together. In Africa, having someone braid your hair is also a sign of the friendship, confidence, intimacy, and good will you share. In the Oakland salon where Yamatta Viaan and Fikpee Flomo work, the women—braiders and customers alike—talk and laugh together, watch videos and listen to music, and generally entertain each other during the long hours of braiding. This salon socializing recalls the informal sociability that women in Liberia share at home while performing this service for one another. Sources consulted:
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