De Kroon (The Crown)

In 2018 racist statements were made about Afro-textured hair on the Bubbles & Glosss how. It goes without saying that this caused a lot of commotion. Kymani Ceder, in collaboration with Robin Ramos, wrote a poem for this as a positive representation by, from and for Afro Dutch people. With this film they wanted to liberate themselves from these chains on the day after Liberation Day. Ceder filmed this poem as a result of a study assignment with the theme family. What does family mean to us? She chose ‘black hairstyles’ as a starting point, because historically it implies a community of several tribes and is a way of being in touch with the ancestors until today. The film works as a time machine in a paradoxical decolonial way that takes you on a journey through the legacy of this tradition of hair and connects the present and the past with each other as through weaving. The film is a re-enactment of history played by Afro-Dutch people of the present: how do Afro-Dutch people experience their identity after a physical alienation has taken place from the continent of Africa? How do they relate to their hair now? And how does Ceder, as an Afro-Dutch filmmaker, relate to this film? ‘De Kroon’ (The Crown) is a poetic narrative about the relationship between Afro-Dutch people and their hair. With this work Ceder builds upon the Natural Hair movement that is even more explicitly visible in the American context.