"Jaja's African
Hair Braiding" has come to
Boston. It is
a tragicomedy and once
again, Jocelyn
Bioh brings another thorny
issue to the
stage at a troubling time in
US politics. In
"School Girl; Or, The
African Mean
Girls Play," Bioh tackled
colorism and
Eurocentric concepts of
feminine
beauty. In "Jaja's African Hair
Braiding," Bioh
sheds light on
immigration.
Jaja is the
proprietor of Jaja's African
Hair Branding
in Harlem. Her hair
braiders are
catty, gossipy, fussy, and
shape-tongued
women dealing with their
ebbs and flows
of everyday life. However,
their
sisterhood and compassion for each
other reveal
themselves in a crisis that
befalls Jaja
and, by extension, them all.
Halfway through
the play, Jaja finally
appears. Regally
attired and happy
because it's
her wedding day, Jaja comes
to the shop to
happily share with the
women, "The
next time you see me,
ladies, I'll be
Mrs. Jaja Jacobson."
Jaja is
marrying a white male name
Jacobson to
secure a green card, give
her high school
valedictorian daughter
the status of a
Dreamer, and give her a
shot at the
American Dream. As a
successful
small business owner, Jaja is
revered and
respected among her
braiders, a
group of African women of
mixed
immigration status who don't fully
come to the
fore until ICE picks her up, a
pivotal moment
in the play.
"We can't tell
them she's my mother, and
they might let
her go free. They might
detain me too.
And then what? I go back
to Senegal? I
haven't been there since I
was four years
old! I don't know anyone
there. This is
the only place I know,"
Marie,
distraught, tells the women.
The play is
resonant and timely in this
era of Trump
2.0. While you'll find
yourself
belly-laughing throughout it, it
also sends a
gut-punching message
about
immigrants in this country.
In 2018, Trump
made the now-infamous
comment that
he'd like fewer immigrants
coming from
what he depicted
as "shithole
countries," like Haiti, El
Salvador and
African countries.
‘Why can’t we allow people to
come in
from nice countries,’ I’m
trying to be
nice. Nice countries, you
know like
Denmark, Switzerland? Do we
have any
people coming in from
Denmark? How
about Switzerland? How about
Norway?”
told The New York
Times.
However, to
the contrary, African
immigrants are
the most educated
demographic
group coming to the United
States from
countries like Nigeria,
Ghana, Kenya,
Ethiopia, and South
Africa. They
are better educated than
American-born
citizens. Those who come
here for school
or are born here excel
academically.
On May 13, as
part of an executive order,
Trump granted
refugee status to White
South Africans,
the Dutch-descended
Afrikaners who
instituted apartheid, for
racial
discrimination they claim they now
face
post- apartheid. This grant comes
after Trump's
January suspension of the
U.S. Refugee
Admissions Program,
barring most
refugees from entering
the country and
ignoring thousands of
others who have
been on a waitlist for
years.
"This country
is fine with TAKING. Dirty
Africans! Get
out of our country! Fine, I
will go. But
when do you want me to
leave? Before
or after I raise your
children? Or
clean your house? Or cook
your food? Or
braid your wear? Can you
give me the Bo
Derek hair, please?" Jaja
says to the
woman
While
immigration is the big issue that
gets exposed in
the play, the century-
long thorny
issue of black hair,
surprisingly,
is normalized. At least in
Jaja's shop,
decades before
Massachusetts
passed the CROWN Act
prohibiting
discrimination based on Black
hair texture
and hairstyles in 2022.
The Cook twins
inspired Massachusetts'
CROWN Act. In
2017, Mystic Valley
Regional
Charter School in Malden
banned twins
Deanna and Mya Cook
from playing
after-school sports and
attending their
prom because they wore
hair extensions
to school, violating
school policy.
Massachusetts Attorney
General Maura
Healey stepped in on the
twins'
behalf.
Black
hairstyles are not criticized when
they are
appropriated by white culture.
In 1979,
actress Bo Derek donned
cornrows in her
breakthrough film 10. In
1980, People
Magazine credited Derek
with making the
style a "cross-cultural
craze." In
2018, when Kim Kardashian
posted a video
of herself flaunting braids
to Snapchat,
she credited them as
wearing "Bo
Derek braids."
The culture
within Jaja's African Hair
Braiding will
resonate with many Black
women. Jalynn
Charity, a first-year
student at
Wellesley College, wears mini
braids. "The
play felt similar and
comfortable
because I've been in a place
like that for
long hours while getting my
hair done. "
Like the
customers in Jaja's salon, Jalynn
shared that she
sits in a chair, falls
asleep, reads a
book, and brings snacks,
but never
thinks about the hair branders'
interior
lives. Charity continued, "I have
a transactional
relationship with my hair
braiders." I
say, "How are you?" but I
don't ask about
their day. I don't know
who their kids
are because I don't think
about their
lives."
In
one scene, we see how, after braiding
hair
for long hours on their feet, the
women's
legs are often swollen, and
their
hands blistered. "It makes me want
to
go to my salon the next time I get my
hair
braided, ask the braider how they
are
doing, and have a conversation. I
never
do that, and it's one of the
insights
I take away from the play,"
Charity
stated.
