“FAIR IS UNFAIR”

It was 8:07am on Thursday. I was sitting on the porch enjoying a hot coffee, a good morning I thought it was going to be. As I was sitting there, two women passed by and they were talking about something interesting. One of them was actually describing a lady she met at church last week Sunday and what she said about the lady was “ne ho yƐ fƐw papa,ƆyƐ obaa kƆkƆƆ paa”to wit, “she’s very beautiful, she’s really fair”. I must confess that I was actually eavesdropping but that interesting conversation reminded me of a day I met a childhood friend of mine with his pals in town. I was chatting with them when this nice girl came to pass by and one guy was like, yes, “that is what we’re talking about, a fair coloured lady who is going to brighten up our room when there’s darkness and not a dark skinned girl who will be dislocated when there’s darkness!.” Indeed I was amazed at the comment the guy made but maybe what he forgot was that he was dark like me and he will also not be found by the fair girl in darkness, how funny!

I keep asking myself this question; are fair coloured people or the light skinned people the only beautiful people in the world? If so, then what about the dark skinned people, are we ugly or just ok because we are not fair? The truth be told, we as Africans are fond of qualifying the level of beauty of someone with their skin colour, in other words, we consider the skin colour of people as a contributing factor to their beauty. I really get surprised especially when some mothers keep talking about their light skinned children and described them as the most beautiful. Are those mothers trying to say that their other kids are not as pretty because they are dark coloured? Spare us that superstition! If I am to list the number of dark skinned people who are considered as the epitomes of beauty, I bet their level of beauty will surpass that of tens and thousands of light skinned people. Please don’t get me wrong; I’m not trying to demean some people here. Of course, everyone is unique and special in their own way. We all have that special thing that makes us beautiful inside out but I just dislike the fact that people are describing others as pretty based on their skin colour and others are being insulted and demeaned just because they are dark. Seriously, I was really sad when my roommate told me that that is what a particular tribe do to their members who are dark skinned. They don’t regard them and are insulted with their skin colour, “hwƐ ne ho tuntum bi” to wit, “see how dark skinned you are!” Some people actually liken the dark skinned to charcoal, coal tar and whatever dark thing one can think of. I am not surprised there is still racism in some parts of the world. How unfortunate!

“Black is beauty” they say. From my perspective I think this adage means black people or people from the black race are beautiful. The adage never went like “black people who are light skinned are beautiful”, it just said “black is beauty”. What amuses me most is what some ladies and even some gentlemen are doing these days: BLEACHING! Eei, I only thought clothes were bleached with optical brighteners to achieve a desired result but not human beings. I was once chatting with my friends and I kept asking them why they think some people bleach. Some said people bleach to make them beautiful, others said people bleach to make them attractive. Beauty attracts so I believe in general, people bleach for beauty purposes. Indeed, it is a fallacy, a falsehood and a big lie (as our controversial Kweku Baako would say) that bleaching makes one beautiful. I seriously don’t understand why people walk around every day and see the end result of older people who once bleached but still go on to do it. Bleaching, I believe, is like trying to tell the creator of man that He made a mistake by creating you this way. Who said being dark skinned is not beautiful? The nicest thing you could ever think of is to portray the rich African culture and complementing that with the rich dark skinned colour of yours and yes! That makes you that pure African who is proud of their skin and would not want to become who they are not. Remember, bleaching destroys the skin and as you grow older, the skin eventually becomes multicoloured and of cause that bad smell never leaves and recent studies by scientists has also shown that the bleaching products can be cancerous to the skin.

Be proud of who you are, appreciate what the Lord has given you and also remember to eat well, live well and stay healthy!