The bible
says we are fearfully and wonderfully made and God loves all his children. I
have often heard people make fun of this verse by saying that some people are
more fearfully made than wonderfully made. I cannot say that I have never used
this verse to make fun of someone but lately I have taken time to appreciate
people regardless of their looks. They say that beauty is skin but I often
wonder whether everyone is really keen on understanding the meaning of this
phrase. This is because the sad case today is that most people this days base
other people’s character in accordance to their looks rather than their
personality.
I had the
pleasure of visiting Mombasa at the start of this year and I was so excited. I
was looking forward to visiting the town everyone referred to as “Mombasa raha”.
I had a lot of expectations towards this visit but I did not anticipate the
shock I would get at seeing the number of women who have bleached their skin. I
once came across a woman whose bleaching had gone wrong leaving her face which
was dark in color with patches of lightness. I must admit she wasn’t a pretty
sight to behold. I remember recounting what I had seen to one of my workmates
and all I got was no surprise plus her advice to get used to bleaching cases
gone wrong over there. It not like I had never seen a woman who had bleached
her skin before, I just had never encountered one whose bleaching had gone
wrong before.
This ordeal
and three other more made me ask myself the question of why would someone risk
damaging their skin permanently and looking horrible in order to be
light?? What is so abhorring about the
dark color that many people are bent on changing by bleaching it?? Is there
some privilege that society accords to light skinned people that dark colored
people do not get?? Questions, questions I kept asking myself about this
bleaching trend that is gripping our country. It made me wish that these many
ladies who have bleached their skin can sit down with me and share the
privileges they are now getting in order to give me an insight to the causes
that make them risk damaging their skin.
As an avid
reader of living magazine which is an issue in the daily nation every
Wednesday, I once encountered a story about a woman who struggled with being
taunted about her dark color leading to her having a low self-esteem. She spoke
of how it took her a long time for her to accept herself and embrace her dark
color. Why would fellow Kenyans who most are of dark color torment another
fellow Kenyan due to her dark color. I mean we are all African so we are all
dark according to white people no matter how one is light skinned we are still
black to them and I doubt getting rid of one’s dark color can change this.
Maybe this is one of the reason most ladies are bleaching their skin these
days. I have had guys give compliments to each other due to the fact that the
other guy has a light skinned girlfriend. Apparently being light skinned makes
you automatically beautiful nowadays. May be this is another reason why many
women and even small girls are bleaching their skin in order to be considered
beautiful by society.
Lupita Nyong’o while being honored with the
best breakthrough performance award at the 7th annual black women in
Hollywood luncheon last year she talked about dark beauty. She talked about how
a small girl wrote to her telling her of how she wanted to bleach her skin so
as to change her dark skin color when she was inspired by her not to do so as
she has embraced her dark color. This is a woman who has woman an Oscar award
despite the fact of her dark skin color which she has embraced. This should be
an example to girls out there that you can achieve anything despite of your
skin color and still be regarded beautiful.
Selling of
bleaching products is illegal in Kenya so accessing the bleaching creams,
pills, ointments and lotions is not allowed. Many bleaching products are
obtained in the market still as traders have found a way to have access to
them. According to pressbox.co.uk, every bleaching product contains two main
chemicals, hydroquinone and mercury, both toxic. These products work in the
short term to lighten the skin by stopping the production of melanin in the
body. The more one uses this product the more at risk they have of having skin
cancer. These are the extreme dangers of bleaching ones skin.
I believe that no one should require society’s
validation when it comes to outward appearance. People should base other
people’s character on their personality and not looks. Maybe if this happens we
will have less case of females’ lightening their skin through dangerous means
in order to be considered beautiful. If one has no self-love changing of skin
color cannot change this. So next time your mother, wife, sister, girlfriend,
best friend or anyone in your close relations wants to change their skin color
please remind them they are all beautiful and they should embrace their color
because 20 years down the line they might regret it.
