One standout scene in West Africa is the dress(es) of the local women. It’s rare to see a grown women wearing anything besides brightly decorative, multi-colored dresses. Everywhere for all kinds of daily outings. With most hems reaching to the ankles. Hardly ever shorts, jeans, or pants – only worn by the men.
Their other standout feature is the effort given to their detailed hairstyles of thick braids, afros tied back with colorful headbands, spiral/frizzy curls, zig-zag cornrows, and cornrows ending in colored beads or colored extensions. Likely a lot of the hairstyles we’re used to seeing African-American women proudly wear.
It all goes to show you how universal matters of apparel, hair, and appearance are to women. That even in the most economically impoverished regions of the world, poverty is no obstacle to the amount of time and resources women will invest into flattering clothing and stylish hair. As an innate personal dignity of theirs.
Their faces are pretty, but “pretty” isn’t quite the word that captures it in West Africa. Striking is a better word for the formalness expressed in their faces; there’s a striking seriousness to their facial expression that exudes elegance over the more relaxed friendliness that’s more often emanated by a quicker-to-smile Western face.
The below picture is a good example of women in their daily dress(es). This is a picture not that I took but rather from an internet search. It’s too difficult to take unsuspecting pictures of the locals given just how much immediate attention our group draws in streets. More on that in another post.
