The desire for a lighter complexion is not a new phenomenon in African countries. The idea of skin lightening is very common among African women, although African men are not an exception. There are still a couple of African men who bleach their skins. This mentality is deeply rooted in a history of slavery and colonialism. African women believe that whatever comes from white women comes from God. It is about following the standard laid down by the ignorant society that the whites are superior to the blacks.

The truth is that African women are never comfortable in their own skins. They see themselves as slaves. They feel they are not beautiful enough in their natural skins. They follow, without thinking twice, everything that is done by white women. They look to the whites for validation. They see almost everything through the white women’s eyes. They feel whatever that is done by the whites is the best. African women rarely think on their own. They worship white women and desire to be like them.

We cannot rule out the fact that low self-esteem and self-hate are some of the reasons black women bleach their skins. Black women need to celebrate who they are and how they look. The beauty of humanity is its variety. A study done by the University of Cape Town in 2014 found that one woman in three in South Africa bleaches her skin. Most of them said they used skin-lighteners because they wanted white skin. They wanted to look more beautiful.

When you bleach your skin because you want to look more beautiful, you are indirectly saying you are not beautiful in your black skin. You are actually saying having a black skin is a bad thing. Black women don’t like themselves. They hate their blackness. They feel blackness is associated with horrible things. They try to run away from their black skins. They feel like peeling their blackness away. They feel black is evil.

Black women need to stop carrying about the mindset of slavery. If you are an African woman and you are still bleaching your skin, you are a slave. The same goes for African men. You are a slave if you think you have to look lighter to be beautiful or handsome. You are a slave if you think people will reject you because of your colour. You are a slave if you follow the white man’s or white woman’s idiosyncrasies because you feel they are more intelligent than you are.

 

Most African women grow up thinking that something is wrong with them because of the colour of their skins. They refer to lighter as beautiful. They see black as ugly. They have come to believe that the darker you are, the more inferior you are. That is why most African women, especially Nigerian women, spend huge sums of money buying products that will make them look lighter. They see themselves as inferior. They are never proud of themselves.

The World Health Organization has reported that Nigerians are the highest users of skin bleaching creams: 77 per cent of Nigerian women use the products on a regular basis. This is followed by Togo with 59 per cent; South Africa with 35 per cent; and Mali at 25 per cent. You see the problem with Africans? I think we need to talk to African women more because they are the ones who are more guilty of these fake lives.

You’ll agree with me that women are the problem of the world. They buy bleaching creams to deceive men into believing that they are more beautiful or lighter. African women run away from their natural identity. They deceive themselves and the world. They fake everything. They fix fake eyelashes. They fix fake buttocks. They fix fake boobs. They pad their breasts and and make them look firm. But when they open up, the breasts are saggy and pendulous.

African women who are fat try to slim down because they are not okay with their fatness. African women and lies. African women and fake lives. Will they ever separate? They will still go on to fix ‘attachments’ or ‘weave ons’ on their hairs. African women want to be like white women by all means. These African monkeys! They want to be on the same pedestal with white women. They glorify white men and women and worship them the way slaves worship their masters.

They never see anything good in themselves. They want to advertise soap on TV, they will look for a lighter lady. They want to advertise cream, they will never bring a black lady. No, they won’t. They believe black won’t sell their products. It is like African women are cursed not to appreciate their naturalness. They will shave away their eyebrows and draw artificial ones. Most of them end up looking like masquerades. They end up looking like what I don’t know. This is why, most times, I see African women as ignorant robots, because they can’t think on their own without white women, because in everything, they must look unto white women for validation.