Cover not available

In:A Comparative Literary History of Modern Slavery: The Atlantic world and beyond
Edited by Karen-Margrethe Simonsen, Madeleine Dobie and Mads Anders Baggesgaard
[Comparative History of Literatures in European Languages XXXVII] 2025
► pp. 368–378

Get fulltext from our e-platform
JBE logo with link
PDF logo with download linkDownload Book PDF
EPUB logo with download linkDownload Book EPUB
authorization required

Chapter 20
Hair and body fashion identity narratives in The Return of the Slaves exhibition

Published online: 29 April 2025
DOI logo with link
https://doi.org/10.1075/chlel.37.20ess
Abstract
This chapter focuses on crazinisT artisT’s exhibition/re-enactment of the transatlantic slavery historical narratives in the Ghanaian experience titled “The Return of the Slaves” in the year 2015. The re-enactment dramatises the suffering of the captives in a 12-hour durational event in Elmina Castle. Analysis is centred on the Afrocentric hairstyles and body fashion of the principal artist and other participating artist-collaborators. This study also analyses the relation to the stigmatization of the captives vis-à-vis the modern Ghanaians’ attitude to rasta-hair and other Afrocentric hairstyles. The findings revealed issues of hair and skin colour politics associated with the transatlantic slave trade, which have trickled down to contemporary Ghanaian societies such as proscribing a particular hairdo in public schools, a phenomenon that needs thorough deprogramming.
Article outline
  • Who is crazinisT artisT?
  • Slavery and stigmatization of black Africa
  • Analysis of the Art piece / Re-enactment and perspectives on actual identity issues
  • Conclusion
  • References
References (25)
References
Agabond. 2010. “Black Women’s Hair: A Brief History: 1400–1900.” Accessed July 3, 2018. [URL]
Bankhead, Teiahsha and Johnson Tabora. 2014. “Self-Esteem, Hair — Esteem and Black Women with Natural Hair.” International Journal of Education and Social Science 1 (4): 92–102.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Bankole, Katherine Olukemi. 2005. ‘Black Anglo-Saxons.’ In Encyclopedia of Black Studies, edited by Molefi Kete Asante and Ama Mazama, 113–114. Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Black, Jeremy. 2015. The Atlantic Slave Trade in World History. New York: Routledge. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
[URL]. 2015. “School bans students with ‘unkempt’ hair from writing WASSCE”, April 22, 2015. [URL]
[URL]. 2015. “Biography.” [URL]
Daugbjerg, Mads, Eisner, Rivka Syd, and Knudsen, Britta Timm. 2014. “Re-enacting the past: vivifying heritage ‘again’” International Journal of Heritage Studies 20, (7–8): 681–687, Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Dei-Anang, Michael. 1975. “History of the Black Peoples of Africa.” In World Encyclopedia of Black Peoples (Vol. 1.), 194–219. Michigan: Scholarly Press, Inc.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Digital History. 2019. Enslavement. Accessed May 16, 2019. [URL]
Dzramedo, B. Edem. 2010. “Clothing and fashion in Ghanaian culture: a case study among the Akans” PhD diss. Kumasi: Kwame Nkrumah University of Science and TechnologyGoogle Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Essel, Q. Osuanyi. 2016. “The Gown Must go to Town.” Curator: The Museum Journal 52 (2, April): 103–111. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
. 2017. “AFCON 2017 Hairstyle Fashion Identity of Selected Players.” International Journal of Social Sciences and Management Research 3 (6): 13–26.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
. 2021. “Conflicting Tensions in Decolonising Proscribed Afrocentric Hair Beauty Culture Standards in Ghanaian Senior High Schools.” International Journal of Research and Scientific Innovation, VIII (3, March): 116–112. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Fanon, Frantz. 2008. Black Skin, White Mask. Translated by Charles Lam Markmann. London: Pluto Press.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Fiatsi, Elikem Vabene. 2015. [URL] Accessed April 16, 2017
. 2018. “Return of the Slave Exhibition,’ Why the need for the exhibition” Interview by Osuanyi Quaicoo Essel. April 18, 2018.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Kwesi. “Next Time Someone Says, “But Africans sold themselves into slavery!”, send this Article to them”, beyondentertainmentblogdotcom 2015, [URL] Accessed April 5, 2023.
Lake, Obiagele. 2003. Blue Veins and Kinky Hair: Naming and Color Consciousness in African America. Westport, USA: Praeger Publishers. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
League of Nations. 1936. “Slavery.” Report of the Advisory Committee of Experts. Third (Extraordinary) Session of the Committee Held in Geneva, April 15th to 24th, 1936.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Long, A. Richard. 1975. “Arts of the Black Peoples of the Americas.” In World Encyclopedia of Black Peoples (Vol. 1.), 16–32. Michigan: Scholarly Press, Inc.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Morrow, L. Willie. 1973. 400 Years Without the Comb: The Inferior Seed. Accessed April 17, 2019. [URL]
Return of the Slaves. 2015. Accessed April 16, 2018. [URL]
Thomas, Tiffany. 2013. ““Hair” They Are: The Ideologies of Black Hair.” The York Review, 9 (1): 1–10.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Walvin, James. 1983. Slavery and the Slave Trade: A Short Illustrated History. London: The Macmillian Press Limited. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Watkins, Boyce. 2016. The History of Black Hair Will Amaze You. Accessed April 16, 2017. [URL]
Mobile Menu Logo with link to supplementary files background Layer 1 prag Twitter_Logo_Blue