‘RANGI YA THAO’

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 7^th 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.