South Africa has seen a series of protests at a girls' school prompted by enforcement of the dress code, which impacted students who wanted to be able to wear afro hairstyles. In a piece for the BBC, Nigerian novelist and writer Adaobi Tricia Nwaubani questions whether a South African school's hair rules really were racist.

She recalled her days as a student at one of Nigeria's most prestigious boarding schools for girls where rules were rigidly enforced and falling foul of them could result in a shaven head. 

Her school - a Unity school - was created after the Biafran war and school rules were designed to support a national identity, rather than ethnic differences. Were the rules really racist, she asks, or is it necessary to look deeper than accusations of racism to see if other intentions exist, even in societies where race relations are known to be charged.

The full article is at the BBC Africa.