Why the scourge of skin lightening needs a pan-African response

Miss Authentica 2009 being crowned in Cote d'Ivoire

 Miss Authentica. 


The name sounds a bit awkward to my Afro-American ear, but its a great concept. A beauty pageant that encourages Ivorian women to avoid skin lightening concoctions. Only women who don't lighten their skin are eligible. Every contestant's eligibility is "confirmed by skin experts." 


Skin lightening is still a major health issue throughout Africa. Its pervasiveness should dispel the myth that Africans are not impacted by race and racism. According to the article, 3 out of 4 Ivorian women lighten their skin with harmful chemicals. You can see more images from Miss Authentica 2009 @ BBC News In pictures: Natural African beauty.


Of course we cannot rely on BBC to connect the dots. 


The desire for lighter skin did not fall out of the sky. Skin lightening and the valorization of white standards generally is a manifestation of psychological warfare. It is a outcome of white oppression. The scourge of skin lightening is a reminder of why continental and diasporan Africans should join hands in pan-African solidarity. Our struggles are overlapping and complementary (but not identical). The same forces that compels African women and men to lighten their skins are the same forces that have destabilized Africa for centuries, that, more recently, has pushed Africans to migrate to Europe and America in record numbers, that subordinates New Africans in the New World. 


Currently our struggles are fragmented. Fragmentation dissipates our energy and confuses our analysis. Fragmentation leads to faulty conclusions like skin lightening is just benign ignorance or Africa's problem is simply poor leadership or that American prisons are overwhelmingly black because black people don't obey the law. 


The root of all of these problems is global white supremacy. But because global African struggle is disconnected (Western governments have actively undermined our pan-African efforts) we often miss the irony of massive migrations (I include here both physical and aesthetic movements away from our center) to the very regions--Western Europe and America--that are the root cause of our collective problems. 


Connecting the dots allows us to see that we have a common challenge that warrants a pan-African response. GI