Grand Popo (Benin) (AFP)

For Mounia Youssef, a photographer and Togolese artist living and working in Benin, the hair "is the reflection of the soul", and especially a claim of femininity and black identity, which she made her fight.

Thus, his drawings, illustrations and portraits, photographed between Benin, Togo and Ghana from 2016 to 2019, honor and give pride to Afro hair, in all its forms.

They are exposed until the end of the year in Grand Popo, in southwestern Benin, a small coastal town where the emancipation of women is far from a won bet.

In the aisles of the Villa Karo Cultural Center, highly stylized and minimalist drawings feature portraits of women, all firmly holding the famous Afro comb, which has become over time the symbol of the civil rights movement in the United States and Black Power.

On other canvases, feminist slogans, some borrowed from the American black community ("More power to Women all over the world", "Emancipate Yourself from Beauty Slavery", or "Do not free us, we take care ") are printed and reworked.

- Change behaviors and mentalities -

For Mounia, art, "from photography to graphic design", is above all a "claim".

And for her, glorifying Afro's natural hair tends to "create interrogations" which, she hopes, will "change attitudes and mentalities".

"Art has a great impact on people in the society we live in. Things change through art, mindsets change," she argues.

In the showroom, many women, but also men, students and young children.

Ghislain Tomedé invited his students to a training center in sport and art.

"It's good for us to bring the kids here," he says. "Through these photographs and impressions, they discover the beauty of the natural, they will understand that to be desired and beautiful, we do not need additives".

This exhibition can "help young girls to understand why we must stay natural and keep their identity," says curator Georgette Ablavi.

And the discourse takes shape. Océane Francisco, 14, is already a follower. "When I see African women with their natural hair, I am very proud," says the teenager.

By meeting dozens of students, mostly girls, for a workshop on nature beauty, Mounia wants "to sow seeds so that children can bloom and give good fruits".

"I'm not in a position of judgment, everyone is free to do what he wants," she says however.

© 2019 AFP