The objective of this article is to bring awareness about where the ancient hairstyle “Bantu knots” originated.
Small History about The Bantu People
The term Bantu comes from the word “people.” Bantu are the speakers of Bantu languages, consist of several hundred indigenous ethnic groups in sub-Saharan Africa. The term “Bantu people” is a generic name for more than 300 African ethnic groups that cover a vast geographic region of Southern and Central Africa. Shona of Zimbabwe, Zulu of South Africa, the Luba of the Democratic Republic of the Congo, the Sukuma of Tanzania, and the Kikuyu of Kenya are where the individual Bantu groups populated.
In the 1920s, liberal South African missionaries used the phrase “Bantu,” referring to the “Native.” However, after World War II, the National Party governments adopted the term “Bantu” officially as their norm. During this time, growing African nationalists and their liberal allies identified with the term “African” instead of “Bantu.”
By the 1970s, the term “Black” came into place. Black was the official racial categorizations, restricting it to Bantu-speaking Africans. It was around the same time that the Black Consciousness Movement (BCM) led by Steve Biko defined the word “Black” to mean all non-European South Africans (Bantu, Khoisan, Coloureds, and Indians).
History of Bantu Knots (Zulu Knots) Hairstyle
“It’s one thing to use a tradition from other cultures, but it’s a whole other issue when the borrower does not give credit where it’s due.“
The history of the Bantu Knots hairstyle dates back to 1898, with images of Madagascar women wearing the hairdo. Madagascar is an island country lying off the southeastern coast of Africa. However, like most trends or inventions, if you don’t put your name on it, someone else will steal your idea or style and proclaim it to be theirs. Nevertheless, this is a practice that is very common in our society.
In recent years, most notably the early 2000s, Bantu Knots surfaced in the American society calling it “twisted mini hair buns.” At one point, there was an uproar when fashion designer Marc Jacobs, models rocked the Bantu Knots hairstyle while walking the runway, and people started to believe that Marc Jacobs invented the hairstyle. Immediately the African American (Black) communities made it known that Marc Jacobs did not design the Bantu Knots hairstyle but instead was a traditional hairstyle of the Bantu People of Africa.
How to create the hairstyle:
Bantu Knots is considered a protective hairstyle. The site Thirstyroots defined a protective hairstyle as a “style that tucks the ends of your hair away from being exposed to damaging agents such as sun, heat, and constant manipulation.”
You can create the Bantu Knot hairstyle by sectioning your hair into small parts all over your head, then start twisting the hair (two strands or one strand) each session and wrap the twisted hair around until it forms like a mini knot. You can wear the hairstyle as is, or loosening the knots would create a curly hairstyle known as “Bantu knot-outs.”
The next time you see someone sporting the Bantu Knots hairstyle, make sure to give them a little historical fact check.
