African Pride

African Pride is an American hair-care brand built around products for textured, coily and curly hair. It was founded in the United States during the 1980s by hair-care professional Brian K. Marks, who wanted to serve the African hair-care market at a time when, by one account, it had few competitors [6]. The brand is no longer independent: it has changed hands twice and is today operated within Strength of Nature LLC, a US company owned since 2016 by the Indian conglomerate Godrej Consumer Products Limited [5].

Although it sits under a corporate parent, African Pride still trades as a live brand. Its storefront is hosted on the Strength of Nature website rather than a domain of its own, and the range is sold across several markets.

According to editorial coverage, Brian K. Marks established African Pride in the 1980s to target what was then an underserved part of the hair-care market [6]. Marks is described as a serial founder in this category; a Wikipedia entry for his later brand, Dr. Miracle's, credits him with founding several textured-hair lines, with Dr. Miracle's itself launched in 2004 [7].

Sources differ on how to describe the brand's founding. Editorial reporting places it in the 1980s under Marks. The current brand page instead carries the marketing line "Trusted for 30 years," which, read literally in the mid-2020s, would imply a founding around the mid-1990s [1]. No source states an exact founding year, and because the brand was sold to Revlon in 1998, a 1980s origin is the chronologically consistent reading; the "30 years" figure appears to be static marketing copy rather than a dated record.

There is a parallel naming distinction worth noting. The Cuban-American father-and-son team Mario de la Guardia Jr. and Mario de la Guardia Sr. are identified as the founder/president and chairman of Strength of Nature, the parent operation, rather than of African Pride as a brand [5]. The founding of the brand itself is attributed to Marks.

African Pride's ownership has passed through three stages. After its independent start under Marks, it was sold to Revlon in 1998 and placed under the Strength of Nature umbrella [6]. In 2016, Revlon sold the Strength of Nature portfolio, African Pride included, to Godrej Consumer Products Limited, an Indian conglomerate [5]. The deal was announced in April 2016 and framed by Godrej as a way to bring hair-care products to women of African descent in markets where it already operated, particularly Africa [3].

Strength of Nature is based in Savannah, Georgia, where it also runs manufacturing, and the company has described itself as one of the fastest-growing firms in what it called the roughly 700-million-dollar ethnic hair-care industry [4]. The wider Strength of Nature stable includes sister brands such as Soft & Beautiful, Elasta QP, Beautiful Textures, Profectiv, Dream Kids, Just for Me and Motions [3].

African Pride is positioned around natural-hair care for coily and curly textures. The company says its products are "specially crafted with all-natural ingredient blends" intended to help nurture coils and curls, and it directs the range at people with natural hair and protective styles such as braids, locs and twists [1]. The parent operation frames the same mission more broadly, describing Strength of Nature as committed to serving the hair-care needs of people "with textured hair from curly to coily."

The range is organised into named collections rather than standalone products. These include Moisture Miracle, Olive Miracle, Black Castor Miracle, Shea Miracle and the "Feel It" Formula line, alongside a children's range, Dream Kids. The Moisture Miracle collection is the largest and is described as the brand's first major product development under Godrej ownership [6].

Across the collections, African Pride highlights a recurring set of plant-derived ingredients, among them black castor oil, olive oil, shea butter, and peppermint and rosemary, in line with its natural-formulation positioning.

In 2020, during widespread consumer interest in supporting Black-owned brands, African Pride was named in editorial coverage listing hair brands that are not Black-owned [5]. A Godrej spokesperson responded that the brand is "fully black and Indian person of color-operated, with leadership positions filled by powerful, hardworking black women," while acknowledging that it is not classified as Black-owned.

African Pride is an operating brand under acquired ownership rather than an independent company. It is run within Strength of Nature LLC, which has been a part of Godrej Consumer Products Limited since 2016, following a period under Revlon from 1998. As of 2026 the brand remains active in the market: its collections are listed and sold through the Strength of Nature storefront, and it maintains a presence on Instagram and TikTok under the handle @myafricanpride.