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The Black Disease of the Second Half of theTwentieth Century


                   Has the serum for skin whitening finally been discovered? In some circles a link has been made between some products and complexion.
                       Soaps and creams are available, which enable black people to whiten their skin. These seem originally only to have been used for the treatment of acne and other skin diseases. Thus for example, the product Asepso is known to have curative qualities. But although from a medical point of view these creams and soaps may be very effective against skin rashes, they have the disadvantage that they lighten black skin. Black women use them regularly, even when they don’t suffer from acne or other skin conditions. Their sole purpose is to lighten their complexions, thinking that this will make them more desirable as sex objects in the black man’s eyes. In fact, a myth has been current for a long time, and still prevails, according to which a light-skinned black woman is more beautiful than a dark-skinned one. Nothing could be further from the truth.
            A woman, the colour of ebony may of course be of a great beauty. Women don’t have to play men’s game! What is the origin of this myth? Myths are myths, but we are living in a world of reality which has nothing to do with myths. Whitening the skin has become a ‘’black’’ disease in black African society. As I write, there must be millions of women, black women, using these skin-lightening creams and scaps on their faces and bodies. The black woman is denying herself. The black man too. And every thing is encouraging this denial: radio, newspapers, the mass media. In newspapers or magazines designed for black women, it is not unusual to find products. For example, there is Ambi, the trade name of a skin whitening cream that has covered the African market and which for some years now, has been manufactured in  Côte d’Ivoire. We see photographs of happy couples who have clearly used pounds and pounds of lightening creams and scaps, accompanied by the ludicrous slogan, “ They go … they come… they are noticed. They have the Ambi chic!” Brainwashing! The influence of the show-business world, the consumer society.
            What must people in the colonized or neo-colonized and underdeveloped countries do in order to be ‘’noticed’’? Whiten their skin with bleaching agents, instead of arming themselves to develop their countries and find a way out? Measures should be taken against newspapers, which publish advertisements for these bleaching agents. They should be boycotted or banned by black countries. Let Black women and black men wear their black colour with dignity and pride. The colour black is not ugly. The colour black is just as good as yellow or white. Criteria for beauty differ from one civilization to another, from one society to another. Everything is relative.
            For the majority of black women, hair straightening has also been injurious, causing loss of hair and in particular burning of the scalp and ears. When a black woman wears a smooth straight wig, she is expressing a strong desire-even if an unconscious one-to conform to European aesthetics.