Afro-ditas
Manuel Almenares
Centro Habana district, Havana, Cuba. 8 June 2021
The story of AFRO-DITAS began with a chance encounter that gradually, from an obsession, developed into a passion. During my regular walks in Havana, I have more than once noticed striking mise-en-scène in which black women, especially Cuban women, gather in some of the city’s streets to comb, braid or decorate each other’s hair.
Centro Habana district, Havana, Cuba. 7 April 2022
This tradition is related to the deep symbolic meaning where hair has in different cultures. They reflect sensuality, beauty, status, strength, joy and sorrow, as well as serving as a marker of geographical origin, ethnicity, age, wealth as well as religious views. For example, African braids in the context of the Americas became not just a hairstyle, but an act of resistance to colonisers in the form of rebellion — a way of maintaining cultural identity. They were used to convey secret messages, maps, roads, asserting one’s rights, plotting routes to freedom, demonstrating the resilience and ingenuity of the ancestors.
Centro Habana district, Havana, Cuba. 7 April 2022
Centro Habana district, Havana, Cuba. 31 March 2023
From a deeper perspective, hair transcends the aesthetic dimension and settles into the psychological plane and life practices of people. It becomes part of personal and collective history, an instrument of self-expression that either binds the individual to social norms or challenges them. In Cuba, African heritage manifests itself in natural hairstyles and braids, not only as a pride of identity but also as a defence of Afro-Cuban culture against assimilation. Such hairstyles are a gesture of resistance: identifying with Afro-aesthetics implies a display of racial pride, instead of imitating beauty canons with long straight hair, they affirm the value of their own roots, reconnecting with their ancestors.
Centro Habana district, Havana, Cuba. 31 March 2023
Centro Habana district, Havana, Cuba. 31 March 2023
The lack of specialised salons and products for Afro hair care paradoxically only reinforces the tradition. Knowledge is passed on between women during these rituals, where magic, power and the true freedom of Afro-Cuban aesthetics are woven together.
Manuel Almenares 2023
