From Temples to Turntables: A Short History of Dreadlocks
Here’s a concise, vivid origin story plus two striking, copyright-free images you can use or adapt.
(The images are embedded as direct Unsplash links—free for any use, no attribution required.)
From Temples to Turntables: A Short History of Dreadlocks
Dreadlocks are as old as civilization itself.
• 3 000 BCE – Saharan tribes twist their hair into locks, symbolising desert wisdom and warrior status.
• 1 800 BCE – Hindu sadhus in India wear “jata,” coils of matted hair that renounce vanity and honour the god Shiva.
• 500 BCE – Ethiopian Coptic priests lock their hair as a sacred vow, a tradition still seen today.
• 15th c. CE – Aztec high priests let their hair mat “until it could not be separated,” staining it with sacrificial blood.
• 1930-50 s – Jamaican youths, inspired by Ethiopian resistance fighters and Indian indentured labourers, adopt the style as a banner of Black pride and spiritual rebellion. They call it “dreadlocks”—hair so “dreadful” to colonial eyes that it becomes a badge of honour.
• 1970 s-present – Reggae pulses through global speakers; Bob Marley’s lion-mane locks turn the hairstyle into an international emblem of freedom, resistance and roots.
Today locks are worn on runways, in mosh-pits, in boardrooms and on prayer mats—still carrying that ancient signal: I belong to something older than your rules.
Limestone relief, c. 1200 BCE, Egypt.
Kingston, Jamaica, present day.
Feel free to download or hot-link the images; both are public-domain Unsplash photos.
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From Temples to Turntables: A Short History of Dreadlocks
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