The saga that started up in the capital has yet to die down.

After young black learners stood up to defend themselves against the perpetual racist undercurrent at Pretoria High School for Girls, yesterday saw many old girls stand in solidarity, claiming they had let their “young girls” down by “relaxing our hair and bending to please white people.”

It all happened when young learners of the school got sick and tired of being told that their hair was unacceptable. Then, on Saturday at the school’s annual Spring Fair, the girls held a silent protest. They were told to disperse immediately, with parents and teachers threatening to call the cops.

Read all about that HERE.

Malaika Eyoh, a grade 12 learner at the school, penned a letter for The Daily Vox. In it, she said:

Between 2015 and 2016, a now grade 11 student was hissed at by a member of staff outside her office and told to “comb your hair, it looks terrible”. When the student combed her hair, the teacher was further disappointed that only the length of the hair had changed and not the texture. This same student has had her hair referred to as “kaffir hair” by two separate staff members.

Yesterday, Gauteng Education MEC Panyaza Lesufi did visit the school and listened as girls told him what teachers had said and done to the girls. Their stories are heartbreaking:

But these protests don’t only have to do with hair. According to Quartz:

The students also said they were discouraged from speaking African languages. Some said they were compared to monkeys or told they were too concerned with race and politics to achieve the academic excellence the school demands. Some said they were told they belonged in schools in black townships, which are still poorly funded and on the outskirts of the city.

Mmusi Maimane, leader of the DA, had something to add:

If you have followed any of these hair-conduct issues from schools, you’ll know this isn’t the first time hair has been such a contentious issue – according to TimesLive:

On 17 July 2012 the SA Human Rights Commission ruled on a complaint by Vumile Ernest Mokgatla, a Grade 11 pupil at Hodisa Technical Secondary School in the Free State.

He had been suspended for refusing to cut off his dreadlocks.

The commission ruled that the school had discriminated against him on religious grounds because he was a Rastafarian.

The commission said it could not comment on the Pretoria Girls High matter, but said anyone could lay a complaint if they felt there had been a rights violation.

The Basic Education Department said there was no national policy on school dress as each school governing body was empowered to decide on dress code.

Department spokesman Troy Martens said parents were encouraged to raise these issues in governing body meetings and propose changes.

Then, speaking at The Legacy of Apartheid on Black Image conference, Nonhlanhla Khumalo yesterday said that the active ingredient in hair-straightening products was sodium hydroxide. TimesLive continues:

She said the product was extremely damaging and individual case studies, large academic studies of populations and studies in the lab showing what the chemical did, all pointed to the conclusion that relaxers could cause hair loss, irreversible skin scarring and damage.

“There is no hair relaxer that is safe for your skin.”

Although Pretoria High School for Girls only let black learners in after 1994, it is not the only school still grappling with the issue on how to include blackness into their conduct.

But, after all, this is South Africa guys, not some school in the UK.

Speaking of bird nests, here’s the principal of Pretoria High School for Girls…

[source:news24&city-press&theguardian]