Beauty is what you make it: A lesson on beauty from the Mangbetu Tribe

Here's the thing, I've come across atleast three exhibitions where body confidence and beauty were the subject matter. Somehow they awakened some of the personal experience of body confidence I encountered in my younger years. This issue of body confidence, is what attracted me to all things imperfect, which I've come to love and led me to my craft.  Now, I deliberately sought out imperfect things in life just to examine its intrinsic beauty  and have discovered some amazing things along the way.

Being 5 ft 10.5 inches tall at a time when being tall wasn't as common as it is today and being slim, when being voluptuous was the order of the day, was no joke. I got my fair share of tall remarks, but being smart-mouthed, I gave as good as I got.

Another thing that got me unwanted attention was the shape of my head, to the point where a friend once remarked that she could find me easily in a crowd because of the special shape of my head. I took her comment as a compliment, but the young me, may have thought otherwise. This is purely because as an adult, I'd experienced so much in life that having a head, any head at all, was a huge blessing!

Despite my body confidence experience, I've never allowed anyone to put me down for how I look, because I know I have no control over the features God chose to give me. Infact, anytime someone made a remark about the shape of my head I often gave them a smart remark saying 'only smart people are blessed with features like mine!'. Little did I know that the Mangbetu people from the Democratic Republic of Congo actually lived by this principle as they practiced the art of skull elongation. To the untrained eye, the elongated skull looks like a major skull deformity but to the Mangbetu people, it represents higher intelligence, beauty and is seen as a status symbol among the ruling class. Imagine that! A head shaped for royalty! Discovering the Mangbetu tribe is a refreshing find.

In today's society, it is fair to say, there is a certain standard which is associated with beauty and if an individual doesn't fall into those standards of beauty, then 'Houston we've got a problem!' So, imagine my joy when I came across a beautiful exhibition on the Mangbetu people by artist Eddy Kamuanga llunga. I first came across his work in 2016 when he exhibited at October gallery in London. Other people may have recently discovered him as he exhibited again at the same gallery a few months ago. You can find his work on my blog post for 04/08/16. Basically his illustrations brought out the beauty of this tribe and made me grateful for every part of my body.

The bottom-line is this, beauty is how you see it and if anyone has a problem with your definition of beauty, that is their problem, not yours. I've posted a picture below of me loving my 'God-given' head. I must stress that like everyone else, I still have the odd days when I wrestle with 'SELF', but who doesn't! The key thing is to accept one's self as no one will do it for you.

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