Immigrant Life in “Jaja’s African Hair Braiding” – Inclusion

“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.