NewAfricanWoman Issue 49 - Flipbook - Page 61
SKIN BLEACHING
| HAIR & BEAUTY
The beauty myth
that refuses to go away
Skin Bleaching woes. Our Deputy Editor, Khumbo Lane revisits this
never-ending debate and digs out some vexing deep roots that
gave birth to the scourge which has been thriving for millennia.
"As the issue of black beauty has evolved
and changed with times, questions have
been raised including for example: How
did African women view their beauty before
slavery and colonialism?
also deliberately engaged in a socialengineering process where “light”
complexion became ingrained in the
mind of the enslaved as better than dark
complexion and a thing of endearment,
by giving preferential treatment and
privileges to light-skinned African slaves.
The idea sunk into the subconsciousness
of the enslaved so much so that when
emancipation finally came, “the light skin
myth” had firmly become part of the fabric
and the psyche of the former slaves. ▶
Photography:Pexels.com/AbelKayode
Skin bleaching or whitening among
black people is a deeply controversial
topic whose sad tale meanders deep
and wide — from medical side effects,
self-hate and identity crises, to more
controversially, as an offshoot of both
slave and colonial mentality.
Over the years as the issue of black
beauty has evolved and changed with
times, questions have been raised
including for example: How did African
women view their beauty before slavery
and colonialism?
Empirical evidence shows that slavery
and colonialism have had a major say in
how black women (and men) see beauty,
because the enslaved and colonised
saw the master’s “light” complexion as
something to aspire to.
On the plantations in the Americas
and in the Caribbean, the master
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March 2023 New African Woman
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