By Edina Robinson-Atabuh

Beauty they say is in the eyes of the beholder and both science and religion have proved that maintaining one’s natural complexion, be it dark, brown, or white depicts how one appreciates nature. Many of us melanins of this world ought to appreciate God for the immense benefits of being dark in complexion.

 
However, Africans, especially women,  no longer appreciate being dark among the so-called white people. Reports coming from the World Health Organisation, WHO, are disheartening as Nigerian women are at the forefront of heavy users of bleaching or lightening creams to “Look good, attractive, and beautiful” WHO’s report showed 77% of Nigerian women regularly use skin lighteners. For me, it is embarrassing and depicts willful acceptance of slavery to escape racism. 

The reports cut across Africa, the Caribbean, Asian, and European dark-skinned people, unfortunately, that of Nigerian women embracing whitening is unacceptable. You would recall the African-American legendary musician, Michael Jackson who bleached his skin and operated his nose to evade discrimination. How did his life end up? Thousands of celebrities of Nigerian descent have practically changed their skin colour to blend with the Westerners but the question remains; Is there any cogent reason for one to bleach her skin?  

 Recently, I visited cosmetics shops and what I saw corroborated the WHO report. Shelves were sampled with body creams that heavily contained hydroquinone and mercury.

These are laboratory-prepared chemicals that are harmful to the skin, as ladies apply them on their skin, they permeate and gently attack the melanin that nature blessed us with and turn the user to be nearly white-skinned. Also, I discovered that many of the shop managers mixed serum, and concentrated chemicals in the cream to whiten the skin and it is in high demand because if a lady doesn’t tone her skin in this part of the world, she hasn’t arrived yet. 

I have come across ladies taunting fellow fair ladies, labeling them as ” dirty colour”  because such ladies chose to be natural. Isn’t this discrimination among black women worrisome? Every corner in the street of Nigeria is lighted with billboards encouraging us to buy “light and natural” produced with mercury and hydroquinone, chemicals once banned during Dr. Mrs. Dora Akunyili as then NAFDAC DG (may God rest her soul), and any skin product of such were also banned but these creams are back heavily in the country and over 75% of supposed beautiful ladies in our great country patronize and apply bleaching creams on their skins; this ridiculous and a slap on mother Nigeria.

Does it mean that the government is weak or has given approval for something that is an easy road to skin cancer, organ failure, body odor, eye defect,  blood poisoning, nausea, abdominal pain, convulsions, and serious harm to the nervous, digestive, and immune systems? Other negative effects include abnormalities in a newborn baby (if used during pregnancy), visible blood vessels in the skin, skin irritation and discoloration, psychological distress, including low self-esteem, anxiety, depression, and shame, etcetera. 

Skin lightening or skin bleaching is a cosmetic procedure that aims to lighten dark areas of skin or achieve a generally paler skin tone.

 The mentality is that whiteness became identified with all that is civilized, virtuous, and beautiful, after all, Isn’t Satan depicted as Black or Dark and Angels as White” and it has continued unabated even in other aspects of living. That is the Colonia mentality to avert discrimination, so one must change colour. Why can’t the West change its colour? 

According to Wikipedia, a colonial mentality is the ‘internalized attitude of ethnic or cultural inferiority felt by people as a result of colonization. It corresponds with the belief that the cultural values of the colonizer are inherently superior to one’s own. So since the colonizers thought that “white and bright is right” this way of thinking was adopted by many Africans. 
 The racial hierarchy and color ranking within colonized African nations left psychological effects on many of the darker-skinned individuals and this can’t be justified.

 Also, they believe that a lighter skin tone is associated with better economic opportunities for some Nigerians. It is rumored that some businesses will refuse to hire dark-skinned individuals as light skin  “sells the market”. All this contributes to the rotten epidemic that is skin-lightening. 

Lastly, we call on the government and Federal and state agencies to jointly stop this epidemic before it destroys our women. we need to work together to combat the harmful practice of skin lightening in Nigeria. Unsafe products should be banned again and strictly checked at the port of entry, even shop to shop. Let’s save this generation!

We also need to instill a sense of pride in our dark skin and work against colorist beliefs in our society. This will require a concerted effort by government, industry, and civil society, to work together to protect the health and wellbeing of Nigerian consumers.

Edina Robinson-Atabuh writes from the Department of Mass Communication, Veritas University.

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