Yoruba Afrique: Happy New Year & believe this

It's a new year, let’s celebrate and embrace the year ahead!

Thanks to the ever glowing Zimbini Mpangele she inspired this post - she looked so stunning on New Year’s Eve that I wanted to remind the whole world that Black is indeed Beautiful!

Did you know:
“Black is beautiful is a cultural movement that began in the United States of America in the 1960s by African Americans. It later spread to much of the black world, most prominently in the writings of the Black Consciousness Movement of Steve Biko in South Africa. It aims to dispel the notion in many world cultures that black people's natural features such as skin color, facial features and hair are inherently ugly. John Sweat Rock was long thought to be the first to coin the phrase "black is beautiful"–during a speech in 1858–but historical records indicate he never actually used the specific phrase on that day. The movement also encouraged men and women to stop trying to eliminate African-identified traits by straightening their hair and attempting to lighten or bleach their skin.

This movement began in an effort to counteract the prevailing idea in American culture that features typical of "Blacks" were less attractive or desirable than those of "Whites". Research indicates that the idea of "blackness" being ugly is highly damaging to the psyche of African Americans, manifesting itself as internalized racism. This idea made its way into Black communities themselves and lead to practices such as paper bag parties: social events which discriminated against dark-skinned African-Americans by only admitting lighter-skinned individuals.” [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Black_is_beautiful]