African Origins
Cornrow braids are not only widespread in Africa, but they are also quite ancient. Cornrow hairstyles in
Africa cover a wide social terrain: religion, kinship, status, age, ethnicity, and other attributes of
identity can all be expressed in hairstyle. Just as important is the act of braiding; it transmits cultural
values between generations, expresses bonds between friends, and establishes the role of professional
practitioner. It might seem tempting to look at the original African styles as more "natural," and our
computer geometry models as more artificial, but stylized geometric models of cornrows are quite traditional
to Africa.
This clay sculpture with cornrows is from the ancient Nok civilization of Nigeria. It may be as old as 500
BCE. As Peters (1990) notes in her essay on black hairstyle history: "Hieroglyphs and sculptures dating back
thousands of years illustrate the attention Africans have paid to their hair. Braids were etched into the
back of the head of the majestic sphinx."
A Mende woman wearing traditional African braids. Rebecca Busselle, who took this photo in the 1970s, notes:
"As westerners, it is difficult for us to appreciate the communicative power that Mende attribute to women’s
hair."
As we can see in this traditional Mende sculpture, mathematics is also a traditional part of African
hairstyles.