This #BlackHistoryMonth, a thread on the mind-bending history of traditional African style of cornrow braids and chilling escape adventure of enslaved Africans. (1/11) 
Cornrow styled braids are not just a fashion statement, but truly an ancient heritage. Evidences of such braids can be found in many prehistoric artifacts. This clay sculpture from the ancient Nok civilization of Nigeria was dated 500 BCE. (2/11)
When the people of Africa were brought to the New World as slaves, their heads were often shaved to dehumanize them. The helpless slaves, especially women, started to grow braids in a way to demonstrate their heritage as a symbol of strength. (3/11)
As women endured the trauma and suffering of slavery, they needed a hairstyle that could last the entire week as Sunday became the only day when women could treat their hair. The popularity of braids started growing. (4/11)
But the enslaved Africans always yearned to escape from the settlements. It's a pity that they seldom made it to the free world owing to the lack of knowledge of the area. Thus our thrilling story began. (5/11)
Their desire for freedom often pushed them to take insurmountable risks to escape. However, they would be hunted down easily, often with the help of bloodhounds, and put back into the cage for severe punishment. (6/11)
Since slaves were rarely given the privilege of having any kind of writing material they couldn’t even draw a map for safe passage or writing messages for communication or even if they did have it, it was too risky to pass those pieces of paper. (7/11)
With amazing creativity, the slaves devised a unique mechanism of creating maps and passing the information of their escape route. They started to embed and hide the escape route in the form of their unique hairstyle. (8/11)
The number of plaits worn may indicate where to meet someone to escape the plantation or how many streets they must cross before finding the safe passage. This is how a secret and complex language system was developed using the geometric patterns of hair braids. (9/11)
The very famous ‘cornrow hairstyle’, which is a worldwide pop-culture icon now, was once used to pass secret escape route maps of slaves in the Americas. A fashion statement that symbolizes sheer resistance. Just how fascinating is that? (10/11)
Photo sources: ED Times, Culturally Situated Design Tools, The African Exponent, Wikimedia. (11/11)
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