Afro Love: counter-literacies in Brazilian natural hair communities

ABSTRACT

This study explores afro hair as a central component of transnational anti-Black and Black-empowering literacy construction. It argues that Black women in São Paulo City, Brazil, constructed Afro Love Counter-Literacies that were Black-empowering by embracing afro hair. Scholarship on Black feminism, racial literacies, and critical literacies guided the narrative analysis. The findings highlight two interworking mechanisms of Afro-Love Counter-Literacies: (1) alfabetização afro, which refers to languaging, caring for, and styling afro hair; and (2) letramento afro, which describes the development of affirmative beliefs about afro hair. Participants drew upon these literacies to (re)read and (re)write the world through an afro-affirming Black feminist lens.

KEYWORDS:

• Counter-literacies
• racial literacies
• natural hair movement
• Transnational Black Feminism
• Brazil

Ethical approval

Prior to starting the study, ethical approval was obtained for all protocols from the Ohio State University institutional review board (IRB).

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Notes

1 In this study, Black is capitalized and understood as ‘ … a self-determined name of a racialized social group that shares a specific set of histories, cultural processes, and imagined and performed kinships’ (Dumas, 2015, pp. 12–13). Blackness is also capitalized and understood as the self-determined qualities of Black people.

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Marla R. Goins

Marla R. Goins is an Assistant Professor of Cultural Studies, International Education, and Multicultural Education, in the Department of Teaching and Learning, at the University of Nevada, Las Vegas. Her research explores liberatory epistemologies, pedagogies, ontologies, and literacies throughout the African diaspora, with a focus on Brazil.