When Ghana’s Minister of Education recently declared, “We will not tolerate long hair in our senior high schools as long as we are moulding character”, many praised him for promoting discipline.
However, behind that statement lies a more profound and troubling history, one rooted not in Ghanaian tradition but in the enduring shadows of colonialism and racial dominance.
Before European colonisation, hair in Ghana held sacred and social significance.
For the Akan, the Densinkran hairstyle—a tightly cropped, black-dyed cut—was worn by women in mourning, representing rebirth, dignity and continuity.
The Ewe and Ga-Dangme used intricate hairstyles to signify transitions into adulthood, marriage and clan affiliation.
Hair served a spiritual purpose, linking individuals to ancestors and cosmic forces.
Cutting or shaving hair was a ritual act associated with cleansing, mourning or renewal, and was never meant as a gesture of obedience or conformity. Hair told stories; it was language.
Colonialism, discipline African body
With the arrival of British missionaries and colonial administrators in the 19th century, these meanings were stripped away. Mission schools and churches began enforcing European grooming standards in the name of “civilisation.”
Students were required to cut their hair short, as natural styles were labelled “unkempt”, “pagan”, or “primitive.”
As Jean Allman and Victoria Tashjian (2000) show in I Will Not Eat Stone: A Women’s History of Colonial Asante, colonial education in Ghana was as much about mental subjugation as it was about moral instruction.
The British believed that neatness equalled discipline and discipline equalled moral worth.
That ideology persists today, as we equate short hair with good character and long or styled, unpermed hair with rebellion.
Unfortunately, our schools, which should be spaces of liberation, have, instead, inherited colonial hierarchies disguised as moral codes.
Slavery, transatlantic legacy
The colonial obsession with hair did not stop in Africa; it travelled with enslaved Africans across the Atlantic.
On slave ships bound for the Americas, captors routinely shaved the heads of enslaved men and women.
It was a violent act of dehumanisation that erased tribal markers and broke the spiritual link to their homeland.
In 20th-century U.S., straightened or chemically treated hair became a symbol of respectability in workplaces, with natural textures seen as unprofessional or militant.
This idea that Eurocentric grooming signifies morality echoes in the Education Minister’s statement today.
Historically, in colonial Ghana and Jim Crow America, controlling Black hair was a form of cultural dominance disguised as moral regulation.
Resistance, reclamation: From Accra to California
Fortunately, this story does not end in submission but in resistance. Across Africa and the diaspora, Black people are reclaiming the right to wear their hair naturally, proudly and politically.
In the United States, this movement culminated in the CROWN Act (Creating a Respectful and Open World for Natural Hair), first passed in California in 2019 and now adopted in more than 20 states.
The law explicitly bans discrimination against natural hair textures and protective styles such as braids, locks and twists in workplaces and schools.
The Crown Act is a symbolic victory that acknowledges that natural hair is not a distraction or a moral flaw, but rather it is culture, history and resistance.
Ironically, while African Americans are fighting to restore dignity to Black hair, Ghana, the very land from which so many were enslaved, continues to enforce colonial-era grooming rules.
Instead of teaching our young people pride in their heritage, we are teaching them to conform to outdated European standards.
Decolonising character, education
The key question is simple: How does hair length affect moral character? I am not referring to smooth, straightened or permed hair. Is it possible to truly "shape character” by restricting students from showing their culture?
Genuine character is not about the exact hairstyle, but about ethical behaviour demonstrated through compassion, critical thinking and responsibility.
If Ghana aims to decolonise its education system, it must also rethink what we define as "discipline.”
Schools ought to foster self-respect rather than encourage self-rejection.
Genuine education frees the mind; it should not serve to control or police the body.
Doctoral student,
University of Kentucky.
