Yesterday, my flatmates Jess and Sophie bought a new printer. They purchased the printer from Argos which is less than a 10 minute walk from our house. Jess and Sophie were holding each end of the printer box and realised that the pathway was getting too small for the two of them to carry the box. Jess decided to hold the printer and she walked a few metres and got a bit sick of it. So, I said I would carry it on my head! The two of them were freaking out saying that they had just spent a lot of money on the printer and now I was going to carry it on my head and probably drop it. It became a little debacle on the middle of the pathway, but I still took it and placed it on my head. I subconsciously thought that if my Mum, my Aunties, my Grandmothers, and their Grandmothers have been practicing this method for years, then why couldn’t I? After all it is the African way of carrying things and aren’t I African? Sophie and Jess compared the printer on my head to the popular images of African woman carrying buckets of water on their head. I must have walked a good 150-200 metres with the printer box on my head and it felt quite natural. It’s not the first time I have carried something on my head, but it’s not something I normally practice! It got to a point where there was no need for me to carry the printer on my head and Jess said she wanted to try it. Jess probably walked about a metre and said her head/neck was not cut out for it. It got me thinking, what made our heads different? Why, with instinct did I think of carrying it on my head? Is it something in our genes? Are our bones different? So many questions came to mind!
BBC Africa correspondent Andrew Harding asks if the practice is out of convenience, habit or culture? He says he always “assumed it was a mixture of all three, and had something to do with the lack of straps and other alternatives in poorer, rural communities”. I don’t agree with the part where he says lack of straps and other alternatives in rural areas, but I like the idea of convenience, habit and culture as a combination for a theory. I read online somewhere that scientists have proved that the practice is dangerous and causes back and neck pains/problems. Another source states that scientists have proved that African women have good posture because of the practice. On Art Propelled someone writes that “the weight is spread out more evenly” when items are carried on the head.
I am actually quite overwhelmed with all the questions in my mind. I wish I was in Australia right now! I could harass my ex-history teacher Dad with all my questions and interview my Mum on her experience of carrying things. But I am not. So does anyone have any theories or answers they could add?
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