I Am My Hair: A Black Woman Educator’s Autoethnography of Oppression and Liberation Through Schooling, Bantu Knots, Box Braids, Locs, and a Press

Abstract

In this Voices: Reflective Accounts of Education essay, Eghosa Obaizamomwan-Hamilton argues that for her, and for many Black women, hair is integral to her identity. She situates her knowledge and theorizing in her own body and uses her hair as a way to conceptualize her experiences as a secondary teacher in the anti-Black space of education. Employing what she calls the Bantu Knot Theory, she looks at her hair identity across time to weave together and explore the intricacies and nuances of her experiences in education. She contends that this theory is about constructing her interlocking identities and demonstrating how Black hair is a major marker of her intersectionality as a Black woman educator.