new thread
ok i posted a few of these pictures in another thread, but i figured everybody should see them so that people don't follow the stereotype that africans and black people alike all have afro-textured hair (kinky hair). but first a little explanation of the hair types of "pure" africans and african descendants:
many of the african slaves brought to america were from west africa where little mixing occured. some slaves came from as north and east africa where they had been mixed. probably 25% of all african-americans have hair that is not kinky. The africans from north and east africa are mixed with Asians making up somewhat newer races.
I would say most AA's today are not mixed with much aside from whatever their african ancestors mixed with. the few of us who are mixed, are mixed with Native Americans in addition to whatever our ancestors mixed with.
Berbers - indeginous people to the land of africa as far as we know. they live all across North Africa but they are settled primarily in the mountain regions of Morocco. but remember nobody is entirely sure where they come from
http://www.afropop.org/img/na/berber/Berber-11-twogirls.JPG
http://lexicorient.com/e.o/ill/berbers02.jpg (that girls hair is not an illusion)
Ethiopians - not exactly afro-textured but their hair can sometimes become big and afro-like. Many Ethiopians are mixed with Indians. some are mixed with Arabs while others are Hebrews. They can sometimes pass as being Indians.
http://www.sln.org.uk/english/images/Afar%20market%20in%20Assayita.jpg
http://chora.virtualave.net/ethiopian-girl.jpg
Arabs - Yemen used to be a part of Africa. and it is the birthplace of Arab tribes. it connected Africa with Asia through trading. So some arabs do develop some afro-textured hair while others develop perfectly straight or curly hair (but that is due mostly to the continuous mixing with Caucasoids rather than Asians)
http://mishuna.image.pbase.com/u25/bmcmorrow/upload/40702090.yem2_035.JPG
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v240/leo17/ye_s24_std.jpg
Somalis - Somalis are cousins with the Yemenites and so they took on similar "transformations" as the Yemenites. The majority of Somalis have loose curly hair, while few have tighter curls (though not kinky), and even fewer have perfectly straight hair. Somalis and Ethiopians can sometimes pass as being Indians.
http://img75.exs.cx/img75/9776/cuz.jpg
http://img53.exs.cx/img53/8348/somaligurl.jpg
Egyptians - Egyptians are cousins with the Greeks. They are mixed with the Arabs and maybe even some Indians. ironically, only a small percentage of people are born with straight/wavy hair, while the rest are born with curly hair, or even kinky hair.
http://www.nicolepeyrafitte.com/Egypt.jpg
http://www.kirikou.com/egipto/familia/familia14.jpg
i hope this has given everybody some insight to what types of hair blacks and africans alike can grow and i hope i didn't talk too much lol
lol
That was pretty cool/informative. Thanks
I have some African relatives: an aunt who lives in Kenya, and some cousins in Chicago who are 1/4th Afro-Trinidadian (sp?). They aren't related by blood though. I've never met the aunt, but my cousins all have hair almost as straight as mine.
My cousins aren't related to the aunt I mentioned (except through marriage); they >are< related to me though.
cool. i have an aunt from morocco by marriage. but she and my uncle just had their first child so now we're related by blood lol but my family is multiracial as well. we're descendants of east africans, arab, native american, and caucasoids.
Thanks for posting your knowledge about this topic, "Frizzy Hair".
I am always open to learn about these things and i like to expand my knowledge so i don't stereotype or be percieved as ignorant by others.
I myself can relate to the Arabs. I have predomoninately arabic blood in me and some caucasion(about 25% or so) even if i don't look it or whatever. My father's hair is very 'afroish' and thick. He has short hair these days because he is in the post stages of MPB but i have seen old photos of him from the 1970's and he had a big afro hair. My mum has straight, almost wavy hair type. I have curly hair, not kinky tight curls like others but 'loose' curls, almost wavy at times.
hehe cool. i have some arabic roots too--from yemen/east africa actually lol but it's not quite as much as your caucasian roots. there was a LOT of mixing going on in my family, especially my mom's side. her father is a descendant of african slaves (who happened to be arabs), they married some african americans who had naturally red hair. and her mother is a descendant of african americans as well as the chickasaw and choctaw indians. she has nice curly semi-heavy hair that turns red when she's been in the sun but she can also make it into a semi-afro lol
but you know, i would say you do look like an arab. from the northern countries (Lebanon, Syria, Palestine, and Jordan). Alot of them can pass as caucasian people, especially Nancy Ajram lol
Spot on. Lebanon it is indeed. I think that i look pretty caucasion but most people think i'm Italian or French, lol.
You sure do know alot about different cultures/races/ethnocity. I'm pretty ignorant when it comes to subjects like this.
thanks. i attended a Muslim school here in the states and they taught us alot about the different types of people in Africa and their relation to the arabs. i was surprised when i saw their different variations of hair too. i have friends from ethiopia, somalia, and other parts of africa so i already knew some africans didn't look completely similar but for some reason i never noticed the hair lol but it wasn't until i started getting mistaken for other races that i decided to start checking out the way people looked. just monday, a group of somalis i chat at college thought i was a somali lol
ha ! ha !
what i have read is some kind of confusion cause what i know is "being african" is when you have characteristics of african people, cause i myself i am an african with black curled hair and what i know is i am a descendent of bantu people. it has been believed that bantu people are the real inhabitants of africa, i used to call myself african, black man, even if a coloured though a word negro is considered offensive cause what i 've observed from my research from encyclopodia of human races is that africans with black curled hair are the coloured. i am talking about those with pure dark complection like myself. i find it confusing because what i use to know is that being african u should have characteristics of blacks cauze we know that afrrica belongs to the blacks.
please! help me improve my knowledge.do reply
from:gaorakwe molatane a.k.a africa
the people from the places that i posted come from black families that have been mixed like mine. some of us just turn out lighter than others. nobody in my family has nappy nappy nappy hair but it can get nappy when we don't take care of it lol likewise most of us have brown skin while the rest have a lighter tanned color and none of us are the actual color "black" as you would find some people in africa.
most africans nowadays have been mixed with at least one other race or sub race with a different hair type:
north africans - mixed with mediterenean caucasoids (they turn a light-brownish color after being in the sun for a while), as well as arab
east africans - mixed with arab, indian, and central-asian
south africans - mixed with caucasoids
i'm not sure about west africans. but the majority of the africans from the other areas have been mixed constantly with other people.
A lot of people from the caribbean and some parts of africa look a lot like Indians because of the substantial amount of indian genes in them. Caribbean has a lot of indian population. So a lot of people there are indian mix. Thats one reason.
Cheers!
Kumar
oh yeah i heard that too :) it's pretty interesting. i'm part indian too..although american indian and it tends to show up on my face more than my hair lol
The term 'caucasians' can apply to Europeans, North Africans such as Arabs and Berbers (many of which have some black heritage), Middle Eastern peoples and Indians (as in people from India).
The Australian Aborigines are interesting in that they tend to have wavy hair, which is often blond. The African Bushmen are interesting also because of the amount of genetic variation among them, giving more evidence to the 'Out Of Africa' theory of evolution.
i have heard the same of the aborigines though i have never met any of them. but i'm not surprised because my brother has some blonde hair as well lol and my mom's hair is naturally dark brown and is pretty curly but it turns red when she's been in the sun for a few hours--it's the same for my 3rd sister. my hair is also dark brown and as curly as my mom and sister's hair, but i find that it gets straight as i brush it and it's very silky yet somewhat dry. my 4th sister has the heaviest hair out of all of us and it's oily and she has looser curls like that of the somali people.
No, I'm not shocked. You should check out this month's National Geographic. It has a very good article about just these sorts of things, and goes on to say that ALL people in the world share 99.9% of the same genes. How different groups living in different latitudes and so on are accountable for external differences in appearance, hair, eyes, skin color, etc.
You know alot about these different things, very informative.
http://www.pg.com/science/haircare/hair_twh_51/hair_twh_51.jpg
http://www.pg.com/science/haircare/hair_twh_56/hair_twh_56_01.jpg
once again. this is their natural hair.
when i have reached my 1 year mark, i might post my own progress picture so you can see how my hair grows as well. i'm in the middle of the 7th month and my hair isn't worth seeing at it's current short stage lol
