Why did some missionary schools in Nigeria want girls to shave their heads?

During the colonial era, Christian mission schools didn’t just teach reading and writing.

They also introduced European ideas about discipline, appearance, modesty, and “proper” behaviour.

For some Nigerian girls, this extended to strict rules around their hair and appearance.

Hair that once carried cultural meaning and was styled according to local traditions could now be treated as something that needed to be controlled, simplified, or removed.

But the story is more complicated than simply “missionaries hated African hair.”

Mission schools were part of a much larger effort to reshape education, family life, religion, and social behaviour according to European Christian values.

And some of those school rules survived long after colonial rule ended.

How much of what we consider “normal” school discipline today actually comes from the colonial era?

Sources:
Cambridge University Press - The Nigerian Military and the Issue of State Control of Mission Schools.

Journal of Philosophy and Culture - Christian Missions and Evolution of the Culture of Mass Education in Western Nigeria.

Oxford Academic - Missionary Legacies of Gender Equality.