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Sudden and rapidly lifted prohibition on wigs, hair extensions and products that fear the skin at the iconic theater in the capital of Senegal, Dakar, ignited a wide public reaction – putting naked tensions around identity, gender policy and cultural nationalism in West Africa.
The internal memo was knocked out by the National Ministry of Culture and issued on Monday by Serinia Folle -Guy, director of the Great Terra de Dakar.
He said the step was to “promote Panophic values” and protect the cultural image of the institution.
But critics have been accused of providing law enforcement under the guise of cultural pride, and the next day the ban was abolished.
Feminist groups and civil society leaders said the memo reflected greater concern about gender inequality in Senegal, especially given the low number of women in the Presidential Administration Basir Diyom – four out of 25 and the removal of the Ministry of Women.
Many social media users criticized the ban on both sexist, invasive and paternalistic.
The controversy was additionally complicated by the own political origin of Serino Fall. Before he was appointed in the Great Tetra in the beginning of 2024, he was a great figure in a pastef-direction party known for his anti-colonial, Panapic rhetoric.
At the time, he headed the party’s art and cultural commission, defending the return to what he called “true African values”.
Critics fear that personal ideology is now bleeding what should be a neutral public.
“It’s not about wigs or skin,” the BBC Palatarium Fatoumata BA tells. “It is a broader game of power – the use of public institutions to bring a certain version of the identity, silent or denying those who do not fit.”
One of the most widely common answers came from Henry Nin Kande, a feminist analyst and public intellectual, which questioned logic and intention for banning a viral message on social media, saying:
“As for (hair) vaccinations and wigs, should it be reminded of this director that this is an aesthetic choice, sometimes economic, often practical? Do we forbid men shave their heads to hide bald capes?”
Proponents of the ban, which is now abolished, albeit in the minority, claim that the director’s intention was introduced in cultural pride, not oppression. He himself has defended the memo as part of a broader mission on “restoration of African dignity and identity”, especially in the art sector, which, in his opinion, excessively affects the Eurocentric norms of beauty.
However, critics say that such a policy reduces the cultural pride – when ignoring deeper systemic issues.
“If you really want to confirm the African identity”, “Sociologist Mom Diarr TIAM tells the BBC:” Start with language, education, economic justice – without banning weavers and skin (lighting) cream. “
By Tuesday, faced with the installation pressure, Serigne Fall Gujee was forced to lift the ban, citing a public misunderstanding and repeating his commitment to the theater mission. But the damage was already caused.
He exposed the growing dissatisfaction with the founder of the Pastef and Prime Minister Usman Sun among the city youth and the progressive civil society, which supported him in the 2024 elections, but now feel betrayed by the perceived government of conservatism and centralization of power.
Essentially, the wig and whitening the prohibition on the Grand -Tetra was not only about the aesthetics – it was about who could determine the cultural authenticity and at what price.
In a country where products that illuminate the skin remain popular, despite the known health risks, and where the appearance of women is often subjected to moral control, the discussion is far from superficial. It affects the postcolonial identity, gender inequality, economic necessity and personal freedom.
As long as the ban has gone – but the broader discussions that it caused remain very alive.
