Zulaikha Patel
For Patel, racist hair politics in her school in Pretoria was the one thing that had her lead fellow students to the streets. Patel had been told by her teachers that her afro needs to be tamed.
“The issue of my hair has been a thing that’s followed me my entire life, even in Primary I was told my hair is not natural, it’s exotic, my Afro was not wanted or anything like that and then the issue followed me to High School” Patel told CNN.
This sparked protests in other South African schools, resulting in the amendment of hair policies to rid them of racist restrictions.
