To lighten your skin or not to

The spotlight from the entire world is on Nigerian/Cameroonian star Dencia whose skin whitening cream has had all beauty experts talking. Lupita threw light on the cream during her ground breaking speech during the Essence Magazine luncheon. Dencia later came out to say that Lupita had lied about the letter and it was faked.

This controversy has gotten me rethinking the idea that black African women are comfortable under their skin. Decia says that her cream sold out and so her fans are asking for more. However much this  might be her  marketing strategy to boost sales, many girls have posted online that they are using the product and are very happy with the results. This is really sad. Extremely sad that so many young people are preferring to go that route.

Many Ugandan women whose names I’ll not mention have followed this some what bizarre route too. Most of them are the public figures who stand as inspirations to the young generation. What is going to become of the young generation when they take it in that having a lighter skin tone is  better.

Forget about those days when women recklessly used ‘Jik‘ to enhance their appearances only to turn ugly’ after a few years. These days there are products that will have minimal side effects but take a few shades off your skin. It’s not easy to notice that someone lightened their skin at first instant because this change is gradual.

I beg to ask. Why lighten your skin? Do women do it to fit in? Do they do it to look more beautiful? It’s evident that most Ugandan men love their women light skinned after all.

It might not be as bad as we think simply because everyone has their own reasons of doing it but  our younger generation is going to think it is okay. That is when it will all go wrong.

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