Love and Justice

A Journey of Empowerment, Activism, and Embracing Black Beauty

Laetitia Ky

• Publisher: Princeton Architectural Press
• Year: 2022
• ISBN:
  9781648961335
• Topic: Ciencias sociales
• Subtopic: Biografías de ciencias sociales

The deeply personal story of artist, activist, and influencer Laetitia Ky, told through the powerful sculptures she creates with her own hair that embrace Black culture and beauty, the fight for social justice, and the journey toward self-love. Laetitia Ky is a one-of-a-kind artist, activist, and creative voice based in Ivory Coast, West Africa. With the help of extensions, wool, wire, and thread, Ky sculpts her hair into unique and compelling art pieces that shine a light on, and ignite conversation around, social justice. Her bold and intimate storytelling, which she openly shares with her extensive social media audience, covers issues like: • Sexism and internalized misogyny
• Racial oppression
• Reproductive rights and consent
• Harmful beauty standards
• Shame and its corrosive effect on mental health
• And more Love and Justice is equal parts memoir, artwork, and feminist manifesto. Ky's striking words, combined with 135 remarkable photographs, offer empowerment and inspiration. She emerges from her exploration of justice and equality with a message of self-love, showing readers the path to loving themselves and their bodies, expressing their voices, and feeling more confident. Through this celebration of women's empowerment, Ky extends a generous invitation to love ourselves, embrace our unique beauty, and to work toward a more just world.

My Childhood in Ivory Coast

I was born and grew up in Ivory Coast, a diverse West African country that is full of warmth and joy, and that made me the person I am today. I had a happy childhood, full of long hours spent playing BICICI (the Ivorian equivalent of Chinese jump rope), singing, dancing in the sand with my friends, and eating delicious gbofloto (a donut-like delicacy that is also known as puff puff, mitake, or botokoin, depending on the country) every morning on my way to school.

I soaked in the infinite love and joy all around me. I have many beautiful memories of my childhood: eating my delicious millet porridge every morning…playing with my friends in the sand and rocks every afternoon…singing and dancing beneath the warm rain…relishing the feeling of complete freedom that seemed so easily within reach.

In contrast to these happy memories are painful moments of discrimination and alienation that I felt as a dark-skinned child, not to mention the sexism I experienced as a young girl. Despite Ivorians’ notions of our country’s modernization and progress, our society is still deeply impacted by the traces of French colonization. There is a pattern of collective trauma that is still evident today; Ivorians’ self-esteem has been weakened by years of conditioning based on the internalized belief that being Black and African is inferior.

Africa is a continent with a rich history—including glorious accomplishments and innovations. Sadly, our history also reflects the harmful effects of colonialism on all fifty-four of Africa’s present-day countries; these effects are felt today on many levels, both obvious and not so obvious.

The Inferiority Complex

Ivorian society has its own specific codes and cultural legacies, but our relationship to our traditions continues to transform, especially in the aftermath of colonialism and under the effects of globalization. While many people speak of the progress that has graced our society due to these outside influences, fewer talk about the deeply instilled inferiority complex that has informed Africans’ ideas about who we are.

Our skin, our hair, and our culture have been devalued to such an extent that despite the movement toward African pride and re-clamation of who we are, we still unconsciously believe we are not enough. We constantly try to emulate Western culture, aesthetics, lifestyles, and trends. Most of the beauty and fashion references I had growing up were entirely influenced by Western culture. At school, we learned more about Western history than our own! Even though certain characters on television and in film, as well as pop culture icons and fashion standards, were particular to our own traditions and histories, they weren’t enough to teach me what it means to be African. I had to come to that understanding on my own.

There is a great deal of pressure to imitate Europeans, in everything from language to clothing to education to the ways we design our societies. If we don’t do this, we don’t feel “civilized” enough. In and out of Africa, there is an unspoken belief that “European” denotes high class, whereas “African” indicates all things low class, savage, and archaic. This is embedded in everything: how we do our hair or perceive our skin, as well as the ways we eat, talk, and dress. No matter our class or social position, there is a constant pressure to change our behavior and our looks to appear more European than African. The perception is that the more light-skinned you are, the more beautiful you look, and that the more straight and silky your hair is, the more European your appearance, and therefore, the more distinguished and worthy you are.

The people we are taught to look up to, such as teachers and other educated people, may inadvertently perpetuate the stereotypes and beliefs that maintain this collective inferiority complex and the idea that “Black” is inherently bad or evil. Without our conscious awareness, we are often indirectly taught to hate the very things that make us beautiful and unique. This miseducation has far-reaching consequences for our connection to our past, our present, and our future.

Even as we Africans do our very best to restore a sense of beauty and accomplishment to our continent—by returning to the very best parts of our culture, promoting them, and making them visible—the road to true independence remains long. But little by little, Africa’s people are building our future by drawing inspiration and strength from the culture and habits our colonizers tried, and failed, to erase.

Our Disappearing Culture and Lifestyle

The African inferiority complex extends beyond how we view ourselves physically and touches how we live. Sadly, African spirituality is generally derided as “demonic” or “witchcraft.” While traditional African religions are still practiced, this occurs with great secrecy. Only the religions that came with colonization are accepted today, and anyone who uses traditional medicine instead of “modern” Western medicine is perceived as crazy and irresponsible.

Unfortunately, the mother tongue (and there are more than sixty mother tongues in Ivory Coast) is not widely perceived as important or a source of national pride. Speaking it simply means that one is a “villager,” whereas being able to express oneself in French establishes a person as being educated. And if a person talks without an Ivorian accent, they are viewed as proper and eloquent for speaking like a White person. Even if your syntax and vocabulary are perfect, having an Ivorian accent that is too strong means you are “low class.”

Although Ivorians have gorgeous traditional fabrics that can be used to create stunning garments, it’s rare to see people reveling in the beauty of our textiles. Many people prefer to wear Western-style clothing at work, at home, and for big occasions.

If you love to eat Ivorian food, you are not viewed as refined. Some people even brag when they eat things like pizza and burgers instead of traditional Ivorian soups and other dishes. The preference for Western food, even fast food, signifies that you have money. I used to lie when people would ask me what I liked to eat, since it was embarrassing to admit that I loved foutou, gombo, and other traditional Ivorian dishes.

The traditional cuisines of Africa are based around fruits, vegetables, and grains and also include dairy products and meat. These dishes are composed of locally available ingredients and do not usually include nonnative, imported foods.

The great variety of recipes and ways of eating are dependent on each country and its customs. In Ivory Coast, one of my favorite meals is called foutou. It is a mix of plantains and cassava that have been boiled, pounded, and formed into balls. You can eat the dish with a variety of local soups (groundnut, gombo, palm soup, etc.). The process of making foutou is arduous—you need lots of strength to manually grind the ingredients using a mortar and pestle.

The art of African...

Table of contents

• Cover
• Title Page
• Contents
• Introduction
• Part 1: Celebrating My African Heritage
• Part 2: The Fight for Justice and the Equality of Sexes
• Part 3: Self-Love
• Afterword
• Acknowledgments
• Copyright