Oral history interview with Ato Ansah
Object Details
- General
- Associated documentation for this interview is available in the Anacostia Community Museum Archives.
- Title created by ACMA staff using text written on sound cassette, contents of audio recording, textual transcript, and/or associated archival documentation.
- Names
- Ansah, Ato
- Collection Creator
- Smithsonian Institution. Anacostia Community Museum
- Place
- Washington (D.C.)
- United States
- Topic
- Barbers
- Barbering
- Barbershops
- Emigration and immigration
- Interviews
- Culture
- Africans
- See more items in
- Black Mosaic: Community, Race, and Ethnicity among Black Immigrants in Washington, D. C. Exhibition Records
- Black Mosaic: Community, Race, and Ethnicity among Black Immigrants in Washington, D. C. Exhibition Records / Series 3: Oral History Interviews
- Sponsor
- Funding for partial processing of the collection was supported by a grant from the Smithsonian Institution's Collections Care and Preservation Fund (CCPF).
- Extent
- 1 Digital file
- 1 Sound cassette
- Date
- circa 1992-1993
- Archival Repository
- Anacostia Community Museum Archives
- Type
- Archival materials
- Digital files
- Sound cassettes
- Citation
- Black Mosaic: Community, Race, and Ethnicity among Black Immigrants in Washington, D. C. exhibition records, Anacostia Community Museum, Smithsonian Institution.
- Collection Rights
- Collection items available for reproduction, but the Archives makes no guarantees concerning copyright restrictions. Other intellectual property rights may apply. Archives cost-recovery and use fees may apply when requesting reproductions.
- Note
- he total playing time of interview recording is approximately 45 minutes.
- Scope and Contents
- Ato Ansah, a barber in Washington, DC, spoke about migrating to the United States in 1974; his path to becoming a barber, including cutting hair when he lived in Africa; his daily work as a barber; challenges as a barber; the barbershop where he worked, including the atmosphere; gaining confidence as a barber; stories; his clientele – white people and Black people, and all different ethnicities with all different types of hair; creating his own hairstyles; his love of cutting hair; the basic tools he used; educating people about the importance of hair grooming; who cuts his hair; and his future goals and dreams. Ansah explained which hairstyles he came across in the United States that related to hairstyles in Africa; Africans, as a whole, complain that both Black and white American barbers are only interested in money; and how Africans perceive his work as a barber. Interview is in English. Digital audio files include minimal white noise and static, and minimal background noise. Interviewee's voice is intelligible.
- Collection Restrictions
- Use of the materials requires an appointment. Please contact the archivist to make an appointment: ACMarchives@si.edu.
- Record ID
- ebl-1712088000981-1712088003345-1
- Metadata Usage
- CC0