Why is the African woman not proud of her natural beauty? Why is she so obsessed with borrowing Western beauty? Is our kind of beauty not good enough? Is that what appeals to modern African men? Or is Western way of defining beauty, the ideal? These are questions needing to be considered.

In the past, our mothers and grandmothers kept their natural hair braided beautifully and later on most of them hid their hair with wigs introduced from the Western world. With time they exchanged the natural shea butter and African soap for Western cosmetics.

Presently, both women and men are applying all kinds of creams just to have a lighter complexion. In the past and even more so presently, one is considered a lady when dressed in Western attire.

The men are also considered gentleman when they are in suits. No matter the heat, these men suffer silently just to be considered gentlemen. I once met a man in Accra Central, the sun was blazing and scorching, but the poor man was dressed in a suit and virtually strangling from a marching bow tie, sweating profusely.

He kept wiping the sweat off his face as if that would minimize the effect of the sun. Well at least it gave him some comfort. I took pity on him but I don’t think he shared my sympathy. He tried to inject dignity into his strides, but his discomfort showed all over his face. What a sacrifice, all in his quest to be a gentleman.

By the way, who defines who a lady or gentleman is? Of course the answer is obvious, it is just like asking if the Pope is Catholic? What can we call this dissatisfaction? Is it wishful thinking to be like the white man?

We always lament the past when Africans were taken into slavery. Though the Slave Trade has been demolished, most Africans are still enslaved in their thinking, mentally, socially and financially just to mention a few. Do we even have a mind of our own? When there is an argument about the ideal things that have to be done, reference is always made to the white man’s way of doing things. All our preferences have been exchanged for that of the Western world. We no longer take pride in what an African can do, and neither do we consider certain good cultural values. Once it has the label ‘African’, the first thing that most of us do is to begin to find fault with it. This kind of attitude has to be discouraged.

From birth to death we tow the line of the white man Where is our originality? I do not dispute the fact that we as a people do not know it all. Yes, it is good to learn some positive things from other cultures but it does not mean that we have to ignore what good things we have and copy blindly every move that the white man makes. Some of their practices cannot be suitable for us.

Consider our marriages for example. Now, the church wedding is seen as the proper way to get married; the women wearing the white gown and the men their suits. Why can’t we wear something African on such a great occasion? The traditional marriage though performed is considered incomplete without the complimentary church showmanship. For this reason a lot of young men are running away from marriage just because they are not in the financial position to add the “church wedding”.

There are a lot more issues that we, as Africans must critically think through and reform. We can only sustain our presence here on earth first and foremost as Africans by joining hands and rediscovering ourselves. There is nothing wrong with having a global outlook on development for the motherland, but there is certainly everything wrong in starting anything from nowhere. I thought the wise say charity begins at home.

Author: Natalie Ofori© [Natalie.ofori@myjoyonline.com]