30/06/2026
📣 ROLL CALL — MEN & WOMEN 🌍🇬🇩
For centuries, slavery and colonialism did more than exploit African people. They also reshaped ideas about beauty, respectability and identity.
Many of us grew up hearing phrases like “don’t stay too long in the sun or you’ll get too black,” or hearing darker complexions described as “Tar skin,” “Jumbie” or “Black Kongo.” Hair with softer, straighter or looser curl patterns has often been praised, while tightly coiled African hair has been labelled hard, tough, picky or natty. Although some of these words are not always intended as insults, generations of use have often attached negative social meanings to features that are naturally African.
These attitudes did not emerge in isolation. They reflect beauty hierarchies established during slavery and colonialism, where proximity to European features often carried greater social acceptance and privilege. Across parts of African and its diaspora, these ideas have contributed to practices such as hair straightening and skin bleaching, while influencing how some of us perceive our own inherited features.
Yet this is only one side of our story.
Grenada and Carriacou are also home to a deep and enduring appreciation for African aesthetics. Every day, people proudly wear their natural hairstyles and embrace the richness of their skin complexions in schools, workplaces, churches, cultural festivals, weddings, funerals and everyday life. We continue to express ourselves with confidence, creativity and individuality, demonstrating that African aesthetics belong in every sphere of society.
This project exists to document both realities.
Through timeless headshot portraits and personal stories, we seek to preserve not only the historical prejudices and inherited beauty standards that have shaped some of our experiences, but also the pride, resilience, confidence and self-expression that have always existed alongside them. Together, these photographs tell a fuller story of who we are. One that acknowledges our challenges without allowing them to define us.
HWENDO MAN BOU is creating a visual archive documenting the remarkable diversity of African hair, skin complexions, facial features and cultural aesthetics found throughout Grenada and Carriacou today.
This isn’t about modeling or fashion.
📌 It’s about documenting ourselves through our own lens, affirming our own standards of beauty, preserving our cultural heritage, and creating an enduring visual record that future generations can look back on with pride.
