Black History Month Fact #9
Today, locs have become a Rastafarian symbol. However, locs date back thousands of years in Ancient Africa.
Locs were originally worn in Kemet. It is not worn as a style but rather has a profound spiritual significance.Ancient Egyptians wore them, ancient Asian emperor’s wore them, cavemen wore them, even John the Baptist and Samson wore them. The first writing we have about dreadlocks is in the Veda scriptures of India, the earliest piece is dated to 1800 BC. But many peoples and tribes have worn dreadlocks the Germanic tribes, the Greeks,Samson and other Nazorites, John the Baptist, the Pacific peoples, and the Naga Indians also wore dreadlocks. Bahatowie priests of the Ethiopian Coptic Church had been locking their hair since the fifth century.
King Tut himself had dreadlocks, and they are still intact to this day. The Mau Mau tribe wore dreadlocks to intimidate the colonizers of Kenya in east Africa. Even Caesar claimed that the Celts wore dreadlocks by describing them as having “hair like snakes”.
The actual word dreadlocks comes from Jamaica, made up by British imperialists in the early movement of the Rastamen. Dreadlocks came from the word dread for the meaning of fear and horror because the British imperialists thought that locs were ugly. Locks are now worn in India by Sadhus (holy men), the Somali, the Galla, the Maasai, the Mau Mau, the Kau, the Ashanti, the Fulani, the Aborigines, the New Guineans, and many others.
check out the book DREADS
