Growing up, our parents were our ultimate guides, teaching us about the world—even if they had to get a little creative with the truth. From quirky tales to well-meaning fibs, they often fed us lines we never thought to question.
Growing up, I believed that swallowing gum meant it would stay in my stomach for seven years. I panicked every time I accidentally swallowed it. As an adult, I looked it up and laughed—turns out it’s just a myth!
If You Cross Your Eyes, They’ll Stay That Way.
My mom always said crossing my eyes would make them “stick that way.” I spent years terrified of making funny faces, only to find out in adulthood it was just her trick to stop me from doing it.
The Tooth Fairy Knows When You’re Lying.
I believed the Tooth Fairy could sense if I lied. I once “found” an extra tooth to get more money, but then I was so scared of getting caught that I confessed to my mom… who was just trying not to laugh.
Popping Your Knuckles Causes Arthritis.
My grandmother swore that if I popped my knuckles, I’d get arthritis. I’d suppress every urge to crack a knuckle until a doctor later told me it was a harmless myth. Now, I pop them whenever I like!
Swallowed Watermelon Seeds Will Grow in Your Stomach.
I spent years spitting out watermelon seeds, terrified they’d grow into a plant inside me. I felt so betrayed when I found out this was just another fun “lesson” adults liked to tell kids.
Birds Will Abandon Their Babies if You Touch Them.
My mom told me birds would abandon their chicks if I touched them, so I never got near a nest. Years later, I found out birds don’t even have a strong sense of smell, and the lesson was just to keep me from “saving” every baby bird I saw. READ FULL STORY HERE>>>CLICK HERE TO CONTINUE READING>>>
The “Poisonous” Car Battery Acid
My dad told me touching the car battery would “burn a hole in your skin.” I thought the battery was oozing poison and avoided it for years, only to learn that it’s not dangerous if you just leave it alone.
Eating Carrots Improves Night Vision.
I would eat loads of carrots as a kid, believing I’d eventually develop “super” night vision. Later I learned carrots have Vitamin A, but they don’t make you see in the dark. I felt so let down!
“Keep a Diary, or You’ll Forget Who You Are.”
My aunt convinced me to write in a diary every day, saying it was “the only way to remember who you are when you’re older.” I kept journals for years out of fear, only to realize one day that memories don’t vanish that easily.
If You Make a Face Too Long, It’ll Stay That Way.
I spent most of my childhood avoiding any facial expressions that might “stick” and ruin my appearance forever. It wasn’t until adulthood that I realized there was no magical force preventing me from pulling faces.
The Moon Follows You When You Drive.
I was convinced as a kid that the moon followed me everywhere I went in the car. I’d point it out to my family every time we’d turn, and they’d nod along—no one told me the moon’s just really far away!
The Ice Cream Truck Will Only Play Music if It’s Out of Ice Cream.
I used to believe the ice cream truck only played its music when it was out of ice cream to tell kids to go home. I spent so many summers disappointed, waiting for the truck to come back, only to realize the music just meant they were driving around!
On the 23rd of October, 2005, the whole of Nigeria was thrown into a state of grief as the news reported Nigeria’s First Lady, Stella Obasanjo’s death. At first, there were different speculations about the cause of her death one of which was “her husband’s dealings with a secret cult” but it was later revealed that Stella Obasanjo’s death was caused by something else entirely.
Cornrows have become a crowd favorite for women of every culture in the last 10 years. Whereas it used to be worn by children, especially young African and African American girls, the style has become widely popular across women of all ages.
But many do not know the deep and rich history of the hairstyle that saved the lives of many. Moreover, they do not know of its role in the freedom struggles which have led to the liberties we now enjoy.
Cornrows have long been a facet of African beauty and life. In many African societies, braid patterns and hairstyles indicate a person’s community, age, marital status, wealth, power, social position, and religion. In the Caribbean, the style may be referred to as cane rows to represent “slaves planting sugar cane”, and not corn…Click Here To Continue Reading>> …Click Here To Continue Reading>>
The style consists of braiding the “hair very close to the scalp in an underhand, upward motion in order to create a single line of raised row, creating the cornrow”.
Blackdoctor.org writes on the history of cornrows:
“Depictions of women with cornrows have been found in Stone Age paintings in the Tassili Plateau of the Sahara, and have been dated as far back as 3000 B.C. There are also Native American paintings as far back as 1,000 years showing cornrows as a hairstyle. This tradition of female styling in cornrows has remained popular throughout Africa, particularly in the Horn of Africa and West Africa.
Historically, male styling with cornrows can be traced as far back as the early nineteenth century to Ethiopia, where warriors and kings such as Tewodros II and Yohannes IV were depicted wearing cornrows.”
Now to its role during the Transatlantic Slave Trade:
But not all enslaved Africans would not keep their hairs cut. Many would braid their hairs tightly in cornrows and more “to maintain a neat and tidy appearance”.
Enslaved Africans also used cornrows to transfer and create maps to leave plantations and the home of their captors. This act of using hair as a tool for resistance is said to have been evident across South America. READ FULL STORY HERE>>>CLICK HERE TO CONTINUE READING>>>
It is most documented in Colombia where Benkos Bioho, a King captured from Africa by the Portuguese who escaped slavery, built San Basilio de Palenque, a village in Northern Colombia around the 17thcentury. Bioho created his own language as well as intelligence network and also came up with the idea to have women create maps and deliver messages through their cornrows.
The site Edtimes explains,
“Since slaves were rarely given the privilege of writing material or even if they did have it, such kind of messages or maps getting in the wrong hands could create a lot of trouble for the people in question, cornrows were the perfect way to go about such things.
No one would question or think that one could hide entire maps in their hairstyle, so it was easy to circulate them without anyone finding out about it.”
Afro-Colombia, Ziomara Asprilla Garcia, further explained to the Washington Post in the article, Afro-Colombian women braid messages of freedom in hairstyles:
“In the time of slavery in Colombia, hair braiding was used to relay messages. For example, to signal that they wanted to escape, women would braid a hairstyle called departes. “It had thick, tight braids, braided closely to the scalp and was tied into buns on the top.
And another style had curved braids, tightly braided on their heads. The curved braids would represent the roads they would [use to] escape. In the braids, they also kept gold and hid seeds which, in the long run, helped them survive after they escaped.”
Garcia said with satisfaction that there has been a resurgence of braided hairstyles in Colombia in recent years. But this reality is not only evident in Colombia but all around the world.
