Visual platform Nappy Headed Berlin reflects on the Afro-German diaspora and hair as a catalyst for self-expression

Titi Nana Amoako is a Berlin-based hair stylist and founder of Nappy Headed Berlin—a visual digital platform dedicated to celebrating the Afro-German diaspora and self-expression through hair. Speaking to SLEEK, Amoako reflects on media performativity, the importance of language in race discussions and the journey towards loving Black hair, in a discussion addressing the political potency of quotidian aesthetics.

You can read the discussion below:

It’s really refreshing to see the work you’re doing now in Berlin. How do people find and collaborate with you?

Recently I’ve been freelancing a lot; working in production for video shoots, music videos, editorial stuff. Instagram also helps but in general, it’s really by word-of-mouth. People know that I’m politically active and that I know my shit. People are always amazed that hair to me is not just about doing hair, but also about educating and challenging the beauty standards that we have right now. Because it is so whitewashed. It is not at all an accurate representation of what the world looks like.

For Afro-German people, when we were younger, we used to look to the States a lot, but now we are finding our own setting. We are finding ways to express what it means to be Black in Germany and what Germany’s history with racism is-which is really big, let’s not forget.

I did think at first, maybe I should write my stuff in German, but the Black community in Berlin has become very English-speaking. We are very globalised, and there are also so many people moving here because Berlin has become this new hotspot that everyone wants to escape to. In the future, I am going to try to translate and use both languages.

I wish I could speak German well enough to keep up! The linguistic dimension to these discussions are so important; like understanding which terms translate adequately and which don’t.

This was also a barrier for me, because I feel there are so many new words that have emerged even in English, like the term BIPOC, but Germany is so far behind. Even the term ‘Afro-German’ has only recently been reclaimed as an expression. I think another important part of language, is the narrative. I want to draw attention to how we speak about Black people and encourage consideration of the tone-policing of the voices of Black and Brown people. This is rooted in the rhetoric which minimises and dismisses the urgency and feelings of these marginalised groups.

Why do so many people want to escape to Berlin? Do you also feel the need to escape from Berlin, to explore other places?

I get the appeal of wanting to move here. You can come here and reinvent yourself, be a fully new person and people will accept you as that. I was born here and grew up here, the longest I’ve been away from home was for 4 months in Ghana. Experiencing Ghana outside of holiday time made me want to have my everyday life there; to live there, earn my money, and understand more about the history.

At some point I do need to escape this place, but the situation right now with Corona and the States being crazy, I do find myself being grateful to live here. However, I don’t want to minimise the racism and things which happen in this country because it’s here too. It’s institutional, and systemic. It’s both in your face, but also very covert and it is often minimised or dismissed as ignorance.

Is this consciousness or lack-thereof about racism especially noticeable now, in light of heightened engagement with the Black Lives Matter movement?

I feel like at the moment, the biggest insult a white person can get is being called a racist. They don’t even care if they’re actually racist, they just don’t want to be called that. They think, ‘I don’t go around shooting people, so I’m ok!’ It is such a privilege to only be made aware of being racist, than to actually face racism. 

I’m really done with white people saying they don’t see colour—I want you to see colour and you do see colour. It starts in kindergarten—kids know the social differences between being Black and being white. White people can’t say they don’t see all this melanin!

It’s just such a lazy way to avoid taking accountability for what is happening. I talked about this recently on a little rant I had on Instagram. I ask myself who I would have developed into had I not faced racism the way I have? The way I dedicate my life to trying to debunk all these things, to break all these cycles, I feel my whole identity is shaped by it. Society has made us dependent on racism—I have a toxic relationship with racism at this point!

I had to really deep that. You’re right, I feel so much of our identity is shaped by our understanding of racism, and the ways we’ve had to fight it…

I know if I go into white spaces, I will always be the ‘Black person’ at first—you’re singled out already. It makes me feel like I have to prove something, and then also the burden from all my brothers and sisters to not mess up the image of all of us. These are things I did as a young person, and I still find myself doing unconsciously.

…And it isn’t just the emotional and psychological aspects, but also the physical, the way you even move your body as a Black person is political.

See, our whole movement is stigmatised, we’re constantly in a battle with our own bodies. We have to code-switch in order not to seem too threatening, when we are the ones being threatened. It’s like a trap. But now, times are changing; we have the resources. We are getting tired, and with us getting tired we are also getting mad.

It’s great to see you’re sparking some really needed conversations through your work. How has the media been important to you for this?

I feel that now with social media, there has been a resistance, an uncensored way of expressing what’s going on and how we feel. The concept of white people; the benefits they have, how much easier they move in society and how they deliberately decide to criminalise us…It’s deafening!

I don’t want to always bash things, there’s so much beautiful, uplifting and empowering art expressed from all this chaos. We are all healing collectively and sharing our stories. But we shouldn’t be satisfied, this is the bare minimum of change. We are still going through so much generational trauma that even our kids will still have to combat some. Our ancestors wouldn’t have wanted us to be so psychologically and mentally harmed—it’s unfair. We need to keep finding ways to fight that and talk about it, support each other, make our voices vocal to everybody.

It’s great to see so much media pushing diversity and showing allyship, especially for Black people. However, many organisations even SLEEK, have been revealed to have less-than-genuine intentions. How much of this promotion is just performative?

Media has so much power, it is what we consume the most. I know SLEEK and other media outlets benefit a lot from the contributions and consumption from Black and Brown people. Without these people, their media wouldn’t have the range it has at this point. So, it is very problematic when everything that’s not white is labelled as ‘weird stuff’ and they don’t want to show more of it. To me that means—you want things to stay the same way. But you can’t erase a whole part of the world. We’re here, and we’re not going anywhere!

I want to see more ownership, especially in HR terms, through the hiring of more BIPOC people.

However, this is why I feel like we should also create our own platforms with the representation we wish for, so we don’t always have to depend on media outlets that consciously cater to white consumers. We create the change we want to see, within our communities. And that doesn’t mean division, it just means that we reconstruct our beauty standards, so that we can feature platforms that seek out the beauty of African beauty and culture, and for now that means creating them ourselves.

What is the importance of hair as a medium for self-expression for you?

I have had 6 months of free-form locs now, which has been a whole journey for me to actually embrace my hair. Not fixing every hair which sticks out, is me embracing that kinkiness and finding emancipation from that feeling of being boxed in. In pre-colonial Africa, you could see somebody’s hair and know their social ranking, their class, their tribe, if they were a soldier, if they were married. Your hair would say so much about you, and it’s still like that. However, these days where we feel like our beauty standards are different to what the world feeds us, it’s hard to feel like your true self is acceptable and beautiful. We are all still on an ongoing journey and there is still a big chunk of self-hatred which needs to be talked about and reconstructed.

It’s a whole journey as you say that we are all on. It’s scary to think I’ve hated my natural hair for far longer than I’ve loved it.

You’re not alone, we’re all going through it. It is hard, and we actively need to do that work in our heads and in our communities, to give each other that platform to talk about it, but also to rant about it.

So your platform, Nappy Headed Berlin, is creating a much-needed space for highlighting and discussing Afro-centric beauty standards. How are you feeling about where it is now and where it is going?

I’m still at the beginning but, I’m in it deep. To me, it’s a whole journey of me and my hair; what made me become a hairstylist, and all the things that came along with it. My work has given me opportunities to work with so many beautiful, talented people and clients who have now become my friends. Especially as a Black person, growing up with your hair is always a struggle. Finding someone to actually connect with and talk through these struggles is particularly important in predominantly white settings. I feel I have become that person that people are so comfortable to talk to about their hair journeys. Every day I meet people, and when I tell them I’m a hairstylist, or we just get into conversation, they already feel really comfortable. I like asking people about their experiences, and I love just finding ways to make people feel good about themselves and empowered.

I want Nappy Headed Berlin to be a feeling, I know it already is. Putting Afro-centric beauty standards back on the line has become so easy with the people I am surrounded by, because the movement is already happening, we’re just finding different and creative ways to do it.

You can follow the work of Nappy Headed Berlin here.

Credits

Photography by Ibra Wane, Dimitra and Sina Lesnik

Models:

Jamela , Selena Carolyn , Slim Soledad, Liz(a), Noor Andoun, Precious Zion