Published on : 23/08/2022 – 06:19
How to fight once morest the scourge of products supposed to lighten the skin? To talk regarding it, Hannelore Ver-Ndoye, teacher and author of the book Discolored, a panorama of voluntary depigmentation of the skin, is our Africa guest this morning. She answers questions from Claire Fages.
A controversy is raging at the moment in Cameroon, regarding a drink supposed to lighten the skin, but banned by the Cameroonian Minister of Health. The offer of products that depigment the skin is constantly renewed despite the risks, how to explain that this sector is so flourishing?
Indeed, there is an offer that is constantly renewed because there is a market, the demand is significant and even growing. This is particularly due to the fact that to maintain a depigmented complexion, you must constantly use products, otherwise the skin will become dark once more. For example, if it is depigmenting cosmetic products that we use, we will apply soap once or twice a day, plus a cream, plus a special knee serum… This represents significant benefits, a financial windfall for people who are or who pretend to be businessman or influencer and who sell dangerous products without any scruple, with deceptive marketing, all to make money by surfing on the prestige of the fair complexion that the there are still many on the continent.
There is obviously a historical and identity dimension to this phenomenon linked to racism, and to colonization, you speak of an ideology, “colorism”, and you remember that it is a global phenomenon…
Absolutely. Colorism is a gradual hierarchization of individuals according to the degree of melanin in the skin, and it is a mechanism that we will find even within populations of color. It is therefore a preferential treatment of the lightest complexions: the lighter you are, the better it is, the more you will be considered as beautiful, attractive, the more you will be privileged in access to employment. This mechanism, of course, originated during colonization, and we unfortunately find it almost everywhere today: in India, Senegal, the Philippines, Jamaica, Morocco… There is still a certain social prestige in having a fair complexion. . I would even add that alongside skin color, there is also the question of hair and facial features, where the closer you get to African phenotypes, the more you are devalued.
Obviously, the consequences of skin bleaching methods can be tragic, from burns to cancer. Legislation is being put in place, are they sufficient and do we not have to go through a real change in mentalities?
Yes, there are laws being put in place, but that’s not enough. Within the European Union, for example, certain products are prohibited, but they are easily found, and there are a large number of products which remain dangerous on the market. In Senegal, is prohibited, but the practice is found in all spheres and is very present. In Rwanda, all products are prohibited, which is a strong and beneficial decision, but these products still manage to cross borders and end up on the market illegally. So there is a lot to be done to regulate depigmenting products on sale more harshly, to strengthen controls, to penalize those who market them and who market poisons with false marketing. Above all, it is important to standardize these laws on an international scale.
We realize that this demand for depigmentation continues, it may also require a change in mentality. Will the “Black Lives Matter” movement and this change in society’s outlook on skin colors, on diversity, which is becoming more and more apparent, will this not allow mentalities to change? in fine ?
I think this is an important impulse. We see it, it has an influence on social networks where we have more and more black beauties who have asserted themselves, and that is something that we saw perhaps less before. So it has an important impulse that must continue to be fed in order to disseminate this reality, in particular through the media: dark skin is beautiful, whether you are in India, in Senegal… There is no There is no final reason for dark complexions to be considered less aesthetic than others, and it is time for mentalities to change at this level, it is part of a shift to be made.
