Afrosartorialism

I’m happy to share that my article in Italian, co-authored with dr Floriana Bernardi and entitled “Emma Dabiri: dall’Atlantico nero all’attivismo della bellezza,” is out in the pilot issue of Krill Magazine.

The theme of the issue is water. Our article contributes a reflection on hair politics and the threads of Atlantic memories enmeshed in Emma Dabiri’s work and beauty practice. Dabiri is a Irish-Nigerian scholar, broadcaster, an activist, who explores beauty politics in contemporary culture. Her first book, Don’t Touch My Hair (2019), interprets her painful experience of alienation as a “mixed race” child in 1980s Dublin, through a historical lens. Dabiri reveals that phenotypic categorisation is a bedrock of racism and contemporary inequality and that hair discrimination is a powerful form of social control.

Her latest book, Disobedient Bodies: Reclaim Your Unruly Beauty (2023) is a cultural critique of the beauty economy. Dabiri highlights the capitalist goals that inform our contemporary obsession with perfect looks, embracing a holistic view that finds beauty in communing with the world.

And yet, she is a stylish author who is passionate about fashion and self-care. In the article, we look at her Instagram activity, discussing how she uses selfies to both show self-love and reject the objectification of social media culture.

Dabiri’s work invites us to rethink beauty as a political act rooted in history, nature, and community.