DEAR COUNSELLOR, I AM DARK-SKINNED

Until recently, I could not have imagined that someone would be disturbed by his or her skin colour to the point of seeking professional help. But then, in utter disbelief, I read a letter addressed to a counsellor by a fellow youth seeking a long-lasting solution to her skin problem. Her skin was dark and she felt uncomfortable about this. I wondered how many more such letters could, unknown to me, have been sent to counsellors? Something must be very wrong. How could an individual wish to change the colour of her skin? We know the saying: “black is beautiful” and most of us believe this. Why then do some people want to replace their skin?

Beautiful things delight the eyes. To say, “You’re beautiful” is something only a fool can forget to say to a woman. Sometimes it pays to say it to her with a bit of exaggeration as Shelley, in his book, The witch of Atlas, said of a woman, “Her beauty made the bright world dim, and everything beside seemed like the fleeting image of a shade.” But today in Africa one might hesitate to say this to someone. A woman who is dark-skinned will hardly believe you if you tell her she is beautiful, because she believes that she is not beautiful. The black woman who used to be proud of her complexion is now haunted by her dark skin colour. The desire to be Western is to blame.

If you want to enslave or dominate a person or a people, the best way is to kill their identity. Concerning the African identity, I am afraid the West is successfully working at the final touches. Many years ago, the white people came to Africa. Their first attack was our systems of government. Our respected chiefs and kings were persuaded to believe that the white man had a superior form of government. Falling for their arguments, our leaders became slaves. Our deities were next in the line of attack. The gods of Mt. Kenya, Lake Victoria and Mt. Kilimanjaro were brought tumbling down and in their place sits a “white” God. Naturally, with a foreign government and a foreign divinity, our African languages were rendered insufficient. Consequently, we had to learn English, French or Portuguese. Next our education, our architecture, and way of dressing had to be done over. Now the attack is on our very skin and with this everything that is African.

It is said that beauty is skin deep but in our case it has gone further: it is psycho-cultural. For some African women black is no longer beautiful. They have been brainwashed to believe that perfect beauty is with the Westerners and therefore many women today are spending thousands of shillings in beauty parlours, trying to get rid of the black pigment in their skin. The many town girls we once knew as the “black beauties” are nowhere to be found. If your own blood sister is one of those obsessed with white skin, you will find it difficult to recognize her if you have been away from home for some time.

Once people reject their own skin colour what is left to determine their identity? Of course, such women will not paint themselves white and then stick to the black people’s culture. In their rejection of the God-given black pigments, they have necessarily rejected everything that is African. With their “white” skin they will not go to fetch firewood in the forest or water from the river. The “white” woman will not find it comfortable to socialize with her black parents and relatives. The result will be an African segregation in terms of colour; between the “whites” and the blacks. Once this happens, I foresee a time when a person will say, “May the African woman stand up,” and to his dismay, he will find no one standing up though he sees plenty of African women around him. When the African woman is gone, where will Africa be?

Africa needs to come to its senses. We must not allow our personality and culture to be swallowed up. We have an identity for which we must demand respect. We are Africans and nothing must change that.
A final word for those who are obsessed with the dark colour of their skin: Love yourself, my dear sister. You are wonderfully made and precious. Accept your condition and people will respect you.