A critical analysis of phenomenological narratives of coloured females about their hair, race and identity in Polokwane, Limpopo Province, South Africa

Abstract

During apartheid South Africa, one of the imperatives of the Coloured identity was to be White in mind, spirit, and appearance to benefit from the socio-economic privileges associated with Whiteness. This included having Coloured women alter their hair's natural texture to align with Whiteness. However, in post-apartheid South Africa, where regnant Blackness is evident and apartheid injustices and policies no longer exist, how has the Coloured identity in terms of race, hair, and identity changed among people born during apartheid and those born after 1994? Hence, the aim of this study is to investigate the phenomenological narratives of ‗colonial born‘ and ‗born-free‘ Coloured females regarding identity, race, and hair. Post colonial Theory and Critical Race Theory guided the study. Semi-structured interviews were conducted with five colonial-born and five born-free Coloured female participants between the ages of 18 and 70. The study's findings showed that both colonial-born and born-free participants are proud of their diverse Coloured identity in post-apartheid South Africa. Another finding is that both colonial-born and born free participants revealed that straight hair texture is important to them as Coloured females. This implies that if both the colonial-born and born-free Coloured continue to emphasize the importance of straight hair, they still hold onto Eurocentric standards of beauty regarding hair, race, and identity