((PKG))  WOMEN HAIR BRAIDER   
((VOA French to Africa)) 
((Banner:  Braids and Society)) 
((Reporter/Camera:  Arzouma Kompaoré)) 
((Additional Camera:  Mariam Traoré)) 
((Adapted by:  Martin Secrest)) 
((Map:  New York City, New York))   
((Main characters:  3 females;  1 male))  
((NATS:  Street))  
((Popup Banner:  Hair braiding is a popular job choice for 
newly-arrived African women in the US)) 
((Pauline Tapsoba, Hair Braider (in French) ))  
All women who come here, who don't have legal papers and 
don't know anyone, regardless if they have a high school 
diploma or even a Ph.D, they start braiding hair until they can 
do something else. 
((NATS:  Street))
((Hassana Zampaligré, Owner, Soraya’s House of 
Beauty)) 
I was a shopkeeper in Burkina Faso.  I used to buy goods 
there and sell them to my African sisters here.  When I would 
come in their hair salons, it was always busy with clients 
waiting.  First, I didn’t know how to weave.  So, they taught 
me how to finish the ends.  At the end of the day, they 
sometimes gave me 100 dollars to 200 U.S. dollars.  I 
thought, ‘There's money to be made here.’ 
((NATS:  Hassana:  You look beautiful!))
((Popup Banner:  In New York, licensing can be an 
impediment for braiders))
((Hassana Zampaligré, Owner, Soraya’s House of 
Beauty)) 
It's not easy for us.  The government is asking us for licenses.   
Many women hide because they do not have the license. 
((Locater:  Waldorf, Maryland))   
((NATS:  Salon))  
((Banner:  In Maryland, braiders organized a town hall to 
convince lawmakers to drop a license bill))  
((Julie, Maryland Hair Braiders Association)) 
It started three years ago, where the African-American salon 
owners decided to go to the Maryland House of Delegates 
and have them (not) pass a law that would make the braider 
go to school for 1500 hours.  Of course, it didn’t make any 
sense to anybody.  We decided to, we walked around and 
mobilized with phone calls everywhere to everybody to show 
we could get.  We presented our case to the delegate.  At the 
end, they were like, ‘Oh, we don’t know what is that.  What is 
braiding?  We don’t know what it is.’  Because I mean, they 
really didn’t have no idea. 
((William C. Smith, Maryland State Senator))  
We decided not to do the bill because it would have 
foreclosed a lot of economic opportunity for immigrants.  We 
were trying to regulate something that we really didn't 
understand.  The cultural, the techniques, the safety 
procedures that are put in, that really make this type of 
regulation unnecessary based on the conversations that I 
had at that town hall, which was tremendously enlightening 
and invigorating, frankly. 
((Julie, Maryland Hair Braiders Association))  
The only place, where we are able to actually come together 
as African- American Africans, is the braiding shop.  And the 
only place where, as Africans, we can actually have the 
opportunity to educate African-Americans about our culture, 
about who we are.  So, by actually doing the braiding, I feel 
like the braiding shop is a place where people, who come 
newly from Africa, is a place where they can come and get 
used to the American culture.  So, because this place here is 
a place where you need somebody to help you. 
((NATS:  Salon))