Religion

Africa — DreadLocks — Rastafarianism — Wee’ (D) — Appropriation

Why is there such a misunderstanding and hatred for dreadlocks, Rastafarianism and weed in America & African countries

TB Obwoge
8 min readAug 6, 2022

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As I look down to make sure my foot doesn’t step into a gutter or a hole in the poorly paved Accra road, I hear him call towards me, “Goddess!” I scan the road to find this happy faced, short man with neat hair, he offers me his services for my locs (dreadlocks). I thank him but refuse as I don’t let anyone touch my hair so I do it myself.

Ghanians call weed, Wee without the D. I was going to insert some perverted joke but I’ll let the reader do so.

Authors Photo

I don’t call them dreadlocks or dreads as there is nothing dreadful about them. My hair is stronger this way, my body moves with power & confidence. It is illegal in all but 52 African nations to wear my hair this way. Even the United States Supreme Court agrees that I deserve to be discriminated against because of my hair style.

Birth of a Rasta —

It had always annoyed me when my Kenyan in-laws referred to anyone with dreadlocks as a Rasta. I would correct them, saying it is just a hairstyle. Charles would never stop though, possibly to annoy…

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TB Obwoge

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