Trivial Behaviors as Valuable Data

Abstract

I cannot now visualize myself without my dreadlocks. My hairstyle has become a significant defining feature of me, earning me in some quarters the name Rasta. At Shashamane, Ethiopia, and in Trinidad, I received Rastafarian greetings from practicing Rastafarians. On each occasion, I was embarrassed not knowing how to respond. In Ibadan, elderly women, who are neighbors and around my mother’s age, call me “Dada.” Younger people preferred “boda Dada” as term of address. Most, however, maintain their distance, mouthing onirun were (one with the hair of lunatics), ever ready to treat me as such; the others who for whatever reason are unable to avoid me never cease to ask, “Why is your hair like that?” This book is about the different and mostly contrary responses that my hairstyle has induced primarily among Yoruba people and relative to other people. These differences point to different politics and cultures of visual perception. A reviewer commenting on an initial discussion of my encounters with Yoruba people as a result of my hairstyles and their language use said it was based on “trivial and anecdotal evidence”; however, this description misses its mark. Those mundane words, actions, and feelings are offshoot of certain values.