Covers of Irish books against a green and blue background.

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Reading lists

10 brilliant books that tell Ireland’s story

Don't Touch My Hair

'Groundbreaking . . . a scintillating, intellectual investigation into black women and the very serious business of our hair, as it pertains to race, gender, social codes, tradition, culture, cosmology, maths, politics, philosophy and history' Bernardine Evaristo 
 
Straightened. Stigmatized. 'Tamed'. Celebrated. Erased. Managed. Appropriated. Forever misunderstood. Black hair is never 'just hair'. 
 
This book is about why black hair matters and how it can be viewed as a blueprint for decolonisation. Over a series of wry, informed essays, Emma Dabiri takes us from pre-colonial Africa, through the Harlem Renaissance, Black Power and on to today's Natural Hair Movement, the Cultural Appropriation Wars and beyond. We look everything from hair capitalists like Madam C.J. Walker in the early 1900s to the rise of Shea Moisture today, from women's solidarity and friendship to 'black people time', forgotten African scholars and the dubious provenance of Kim Kardashian's braids. 
 
The scope of black hairstyling ranges from pop culture to cosmology, from prehistoric times to the (afro)futuristic. Uncovering sophisticated indigenous mathematical systems in black hairstyles, alongside styles that served as secret intelligence networks leading enslaved Africans to freedom, Don't Touch My Hair proves that far from being only hair, black hairstyling culture can be understood as an allegory for black oppression and, ultimately, liberation.

Emma Dabiri's groundbreaking Don't Touch My Hair is a scintillating, intellectual investigation into black women and the very serious business of our hair, as it pertains to race, gender, social codes, tradition, culture, cosmology, maths, politics, philosophy and history, and also the role of hairstyles in pre-colonial Africa

The Times Literary Supplement Books of the Year

FASCINATING, educational, personal, humble and engaging. I urge you to read it!

I've been pleasantly engrossed this autumn in Emma Dabiri's nonfiction debut Don't Touch My Hair. Part memoir, part spiky, thoroughly researched socio-political analysis, it delves deep into the painful realities and history of follicular racism

Both a richly researched cultural history and a voyage to empowerment.

Pulled together with meticulous research, Don't Touch My Hair is an unmissable read by a writer who's set to become a household name

The first book from one of Ireland's brightest literary talents, Don't Touch My Hair brilliantly deconstructs western views of everything from beauty to social value systems, and even to our understanding of time, all through the lens of how African cultures value hair.

Groundbreaking...Her sources are rich, diverse and sometimes heartbreaking. Some books make us feel seen and for me, that is what Don't Touch My Hair does. I would urge everyone to read it

An excellent and far reaching book...a call to arms for black African culture

A powerful and arrestingly relatable account of the rich history of Afro hair that seamlessly interweaves her personal perspective with meticulously researched historical facts

Dabiri's brilliant book recognises that black hair - particularly women's hair - is charged with social and racial significance

Recent years have seen the conversation around black hair reach tipping point, yet detractors still proclaim 'it's only hair!' when it never is. This book is about why black hair matters and how it can be viewed as a blueprint for decolonisation. The author takes us from pre-colonial Africa, through the Harlem Renaissance, Black Power and into today's Natural Hair Movement, the Cultural Appropriation Wars and beyond. We look at the trajectory from hair capitalists like Madam CJ Walker in the early 1900s to the rise of Shea Moisture today, touching on everything from women's solidarity and friendship, to forgotten African scholars, to the dubious provenance of Kim Kardashian's braids. 
 
The scope of black hairstyling ranges from pop culture to cosmology, from prehistoric times to the (afro)futuristic. Uncovering sophisticated indigenous mathematical systems in black hair styles, alongside styles that served as secret intelligence networks leading enslaved Africans to freedom, Don't Touch My Hair proves that far from being only hair, black hairstyling culture can be understood as an allegory for black oppression and, ultimately, liberation.

Emma Dabiri

Essential . . . accessible and yet so full of scholarship. Witty, insightful, a must-read

Fascinating, invigorating . . . this book is for everyone . . . we have an academic like Emma Dabiri writing as if James Connolly and Audre Lorde had a love child

A gamechanging skewering of social-media discourse with a historically grounded analysis of anti-racism, collectivism, neoliberalism, and post-colonialism

Deftly and wittily deconstructs allyship and white saviour tropes to give an unblinkered takedown of what needs to happen next

A thoughtful, nuanced read that is deftly researched and studded with relevant reflections from Dabiri's own life in Ireland, the UK and the US... Dabiri is on top form when applying her razor-sharp analysis to the symbiotic relationship between capitalism and racism, and how it harms us all

Vital, needs to be read by as many people as possible . . . One of those rare books that is completely clarifying and that you find yourself referring back to for years to come

I really loved What White People Can Do Next: so smart, so readable, so helpful. There is so much I hadn't thought about before - 'whiteness' as a confection, the empty performance of online rhetoric, the impossibility of transferring privilege - and so much that I had somewhere in the back of my mind but that I'd struggled to articulate.

Refreshing . . . A nuanced and historical analysis of post-colonialism, anti-racism and collectivism. The sharpest of any book out on 'race' in recent years

Vitally important and written with intelligence and insight, this book is an essential companion for anyone seeking to understand racism, on the journey towards an anti-racist future

Fantastic . . . a wonderfully concise deconstruction of race and racism Emma is challenging the inherent power dynamics in the concept of allyship, arguing instead for coalition when it comes to how people can confront the structures of racism

Concise, sure-footed and complete . . . a battle cry against racism for even the most socially aware . . . Dabiri's reflections have been a very, very long time coming

From Allyship to Coalition

Stop the denial 
Stop the false equivalencies 
Interrogate whiteness 
Interrogate capitalism 
Denounce the white Saviour 
Abandon guilt 
 
We need to talk about racial injustice in a new way: one that builds on the revolutionary ideas of the past and forges new connections. 
 
In this robust and nuanced examination of race, class and capitalism, Emma Dabiri draws on years of academic study and lived experience, as well as personal reflections on a year like no other. With intellectual rigour, wit and clarity, Dabiri articulates a powerful vision for meaningful and lasting change.

Emma Dabiri

Books by Emma Dabiri

Articles featuring Emma Dabiri

10 brilliant books that tell Ireland’s story

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Why black hair is still stigmatised | Emma Dabiri

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