Sometime in late November of 2018, we asked entrepreneurs and full-time employees with a side-hustle following us to comment under one of our posts. The posts asked them to comment with what their business or side-hustle is. Our aim was to put our followers in touch with our followers who may need their services.
The response we got was more than we expected and we were very happy to see people in the comment section talking and booking appointments. Caterers getting orders, photographers meeting clothing designers, make-up artist getting bookings. It was really amazing.
I went through every comment and began to follow a few of these people on social media and I have been honestly intrigued and amazed by a good number of them. But none has amazed me as much as Sandra Borno has.
Sandra produces and sells her own line of natural hair-care products which she markets under the brand name MOLONGA NATURALS.
In our article where I questioned Daphne as a credible ambassador for a flour brand, one of my arguments I advanced was that Daphne did not embody the product. Sandra Borno on the other hand… let's just say if I ever got a call from Procter and Gamble saying that they wanted to invest in a natural hair-care brand, without hesitation I would point in the direction of Sandra.
She EMBODIES her products. She lives, eats, breathes and I daresay sh!ts natural hair.
MOLONGA NATURALS’ Instgm page is simply a masterclass on natural hair treatment and care. I have hardly seen someone so invested in her hustle. At this point it does not look like a hustle, it is basically a passion.
On her page you would find all manner of advice on how to grow, treat, and care for natural hair. Her videos and advice, in a beautiful and well-articulated simplicity is one of the things that really charmed me. You see someone who not only knows what she talks about, but is also really invested in it and is ready to give all secrets freely to anyone that so wishes to hear. Sandra’s Instgm page is about 70% advice and 30% her products.
This fibre of entrepreneurs in Cameroon is rare and just frankly a breath of fresh.
When she talks about her products, it is not to tell you how it would work miracles on you. She picks out each one of the ingredients and tells you (with scientific backing) how exactly it helps your hair specifically. Like I said before, her page is a masterclass in natural hair growth. And not only that, she grows some of the ingredients for her products herself!
Sandra is a single example that shows how passion and hard work come together to produce something magical. Today, the hair of our sisters means something more than just a tuft on the head. With globalisation and the entry into our markets of synthetic hair and the Indian and Peruvian hair, natural hair worn proudly by women of African descent is now a social statement that also speaks volumes to her state of mind and her attachment to what she considers are her roots, her history and her ancestry.
Today more and more women are sporting their natural hair, each one of them for their own reason but with essentially a veiled salute to her black skin like the earth whence she sprung form. My sister just last week took the big chop to her hair and I pointed her to MOLONGA NATURALS.
Sandra Borno’s dedication to natural hair, her passion and her contribution to the movement reminds me a little of the poem “Still I rise” by Maya Angelou. Her sassiness and her knowledge does not offend me nor does it come to me as a surprise that it reaches to form the dark crown on her head.
Her hair is not only a crown which she carries proudly like a true African woman but is also a testament to and a rallying call for every black woman that so chooses to wear her own crown.
- Wandji Wilfred