The young handsome preacher at the wedding I attended in Lagos over the weekend spotted a beard; and so did the others who mounted the gospel band stand that provided music for the occasion. My son and look alike who sat next to me equally wore a beard. Indeed, wearing beards by youngmen in their 30s or 20s or even teenage age has become fashionable since Osama bin Laden shot himself into global limelight by the multiple aircraft attack on the WTC in New York in the 9/11 of 2001. Curiously, this tradition was first initiated in America, the very first victims of the 9/11 attack of the bearded Bin Laden.
The young preacher in the story delivered a sermon with the eloquence of a fundamentalist preacher, although he cut the image of a 2Face Baba comeliness on account of his premature bald-headedness. His message was downright combative of patriarchy and old fashioned values of marriage, which I did not mind, until I noticed that he himself seemed to be in trouble with assigning overall leadership in a union of equal participants. Well, but that’s a discussion for another day.
For a while I concentrated my thoughts on the various perspectives of the politics of the human hair, since I also noticed that the female folks in the church also lavishly displayed manes of human or synthetic hairs that were not theirs. I wondered whether this was merely the effect of globalization or there were some spiritual implications uNderpinning fashion trends in the world.
I do know that Christianity is one of the 3 Abrahamic religions, the other two being Judaism and Islam, which fundamental teachings direct men to wear beards. Father Abraham himself is drawn in pictures wearing a lion – like mane of beards.
The same impressionistic pictures depict our Lord Jesus Christ as a 30 – year old youth a trademark beard. I think I have the same impression about the irrepressible apostle Saint Paul. With his bookish radicalism, his kind of beard may even have looked like that of Karl Marx. However, at what point in history did Christianity stop parading bearded leaders? My guess is that it must have been about the 18th century, probably at the aftermath of the French Revolution when Western Europe and America, discovered the efficacy of fundamental human rights and imposed them on the Christian faith. With the benefit of liberty, male Christians may have yanked off their beards to enable them have fresh air.
Female Christians at that time may have wished to express the same level of liberty by removing their veils or hijabs while sitting in church but patriarchy could not grant them the right to do so until the benevolent gusty wind of pentecostalism blew in their direction. Now ladies have learnt to exercise their freedom to expose their hair with a certain degree of vengeance, probably acquired after several centuries of patriarchal dominance. Or what could explain the renewed zeal to buy Brazilian or hairs of other nationalities to reinforce the contravention of the biblical order on hair coverage.
The Muslims on the other hand have always proved to be the unchanged descendants of the bearded father Abraham. When the Talibans took over the government of Afghanistan in 1983, one of the first decrees they passed directed all men to grow beards within a two months grace period. Women were to completely hide their hairs in hijabs. This same tradition pervades in Judaism as Rabis are equally identified by their generous display of gyemu.
If the new trend of spotting beards by our youths is inspired by the notorious portrait of Osama bin Laden then it appears something spiritual is in the offing. The religious fundamentalism and terrorism of the 21st century might be assuming a certain signifance that can only be explained in the paradox of American and British teenagers leaving the comfort of their homes and becoming radicalized in the deserts of Syria, Iran, Iraq and Yemen.
That is where I see the ambivalence of the Western world and its culture being excitedly copied in Nigeria
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