Win­ter is approach­ing and I am real­ly excit­ed but I know many of my fel­low afro-cana­di­ans are not. One thing I notice is how many of my peers strug­gle to inte­grate their cul­ture into their day to day lives, which is under­stand­able. How do you blend the warmth of your ances­try with the Cana­di­an cold?

Although it took a lot of tri­als and exper­i­men­ta­tion, the authors of afro­cen­trism even­tu­al­ly learned a few ways to use our cul­tures to ampli­fy our win­ter expe­ri­ences.

Les­son One: Shield your­self from the cold

I was in the eighth grade. It was 6 in the morn­ing and I was wait­ing for the bus. The weath­er fore­cast said it was going to be chilly that day, so I was quick to buy a cozy coat and a cute pair of win­ter boots. How­ev­er, after a few min­utes being nice and snug, a frosty feel­ing start­ed creep­ing down my neck.

I for­got to bring a scarf. 

The next day I decid­ed to wear a bor­ing, bland win­ter scarf that kept me warm but lacked style. I don’t know what’s worse, freez­ing to death or wear­ing an ugly scarf? 

If you have ever been in a sim­i­lar dilem­ma to me, don’t fret. David Laate has the solu­tion.

Use tra­di­tion­al scarfs to shield you from the cold. The Ghan­ian kente cloth is a great option. The kente cloth is a tex­tile piece, inspired by the com­plex nature of a spi­der spin­ning a web, is made of hand­wo­ven strips of silk and cot­ton. The cloth’s tight knit weave pat­tern is strong enough to shield you from the cold, while offer­ing col­or as a  form of cul­tur­al expres­sion. 

• Red sig­ni­fies strength or polit­i­cal pas­sion. 
• Blue stands for peace, love and har­mo­ny. 
• Gold sig­ni­fy­ing the wealth and roy­al­ty of the nation as well as its peo­ple. 
• Green to sig­ni­fy our rich ances­tral lands flow­ing with fer­til­i­ty for agri­cul­ture. 
• Black sig­ni­fies spir­i­tu­al strength. 
• White sig­ni­fies puri­ty, cleans­ing rites. 

Hav­ing been reserved for Ashan­ti roy­al­ty through­out Ghana­ian his­to­ry, a hand woven kente cloth is very expen­sive. For­tu­nate­ly, many small busi­ness own­ers and seam­stress­es sell kente cloths at a range of rea­son­able prices. 

Lesson Two: Invest in good music

By the end of junior high I had even­tu­al­ly learned how to style weath­er­proof, African inspired win­ter fits. Although the right clothes keep you warm on the out­side, Daniel San­go would say that “Music warms the soul.”

It wasn’t the hol­i­day sea­son until I heard my mom sing Ben­jamin Dube’s “This joy,”  Mari­ah Cariehs “All I want for Christ­mas” or Nicole kings “My Redeemer.” And I will nev­er for­get the hour of my life I spent lis­ten­ing to Christ­mas  R&B music. Can I even claim it’s the hol­i­day sea­son if my sis­ter hasn’t  played Chris Brown’s “This Christ­mas” or Des­tiny’s Child’s “8 days of christ­mas.”

Unfor­tu­nate­ly, around the hol­i­day sea­son I would get on the bus and hear all the cliche christ­mas songs play over and over and over again. Although these tunes bring me lots of joy on Novem­ber first, by the one-hun­dredth time of lis­ten­ing to jin­gle bells I would start to despise the school bus radio.

But why lis­ten to the same Christ­mas songs on repeat, until your ear starts to bleed, when you can invest in some cute head­phone that drown out the radio. Not only are they cute but they pro­tect your ears from the cold.

From afro-beat to indie melodies, lis­ten to some Christ­mas songs from all sorts of cul­tures and gen­res. 

Les­son Three: Own a pet

But even­tu­al­ly the par­ty­ing will dial down and you’ll have to go home. Most winter’s after cel­e­brat­ing the hol­i­days I would spend the win­ter at home with my fam­i­ly but this year is dif­fer­ent. 

I’m in uni­ver­si­ty. I’ve moved out. I no longer live with my fam­i­ly. So I decid­ed to do what most young peo­ple do when they leave the nest. I have start­ed search­ing for an adorable ani­mal com­pan­ion. My par­ents nev­er bought my sib­ling pets grow­ing up. When I was younger my par­ents used to tell me that I can buy all the pets I want… when I move out.

I wasn’t real­ly sure what pet to buy but Clement Moyo, he simps for dogs, sug­gest­ed that I should buy a Salu­ki, one of the first dog breed. The Salu­ki orig­i­nates from Norhtern african. Not only are these medi­um-sized dogs high­ly affec­tion­ate, but they do not shed a lot. Next win­ter I hope to be snug­gling with an adorable Salu­ki descen­dant.

If you’re strug­gling to find the win­ter, put on a ghan­ian scarf, buy head­phones and find an adorable ani­mal com­pan­ion. These tips will help you con­quer the cold.