Exploiting Nigeria colourism problem: Black Chyna selling bleaching cream "Whitenicious" in Nigeria.

Nigeria Colourism problem

The American model popularly known as Blac Chyna has been called out lately on social media  because she took to her Instagram page to endorse "Whitenicious" bleaching cream. This is in collaboration with skin whitening advocate, Dencia who is a Camerounian singer but does her cream business in Lagos, Nigeria. This beautifully packaged cream in a jar handcrafted with Swarovski crystal goes for 250 USdollars which is equivalent of 91,000 Nigerian naira. Dencia said in an interview with Ebony magazine that the cream does not contain bleaching ingredients which can damage the skin but only treats dark spots and hyperpigmentation but to me this is only to justify her business and does not make sense. When the active ingredients of a cream is not written on the pack does not mean it does not contain such. I think I would prefer her list the active ingredients and go ahead and put up a warning. Though creams containing mercury and other dangerous chemicals have been banned in the Europe Union, whitenizers are sold in Nigeria and many other African countries without restrictions.

Blac Chyna

Nigerians took to social media also to express their displeasure over Blac Chyna's bleaching cream sales in Lagos on 25th November, 2018. They went further to condemn the move saying that Nigeria already has an issue with bleaching. Actually I was not aware of the whole drama on social media until somebody tagged "Blac Chyna" and "Whitenicious" on my YouTube video titled "The Skin Bleaching epidemic in Africa". When I checked out these two instagram pages I found the post for the lunch of "Whitenicious" in Lagos with comments disabled.

I put together this write-up today because it is very important for us as Nigerians to focus on the root cause of skin bleaching which is evidently colourism instead of throwing shades on people exploiting the "Nigerian colourism problem" to enrich themselves. Sadly...targeting Nigerian market is a big strategic move because the cream will sell out within the next 24 hours. And we pretend that colourism does not exist in Nigeria when our society is guilty of this problem. Skin bleaching in Nigeria did not start with Blac Chyna, Dencia has been living in Nigeria and doing her skin bleaching business. World Health Organisation had reported that 77% of Nigerian women use bleaching cream. The likes of Bobrisky, Toke Makinwa and host of others have been at the front lines of profiting from skin bleaching business in Nigeria. Bobrisky aka Oshey Baddest (formerly known as Idris Okuneye) is a Nigerian cross dresser and Internet personality who has an expensive skin bleaching and whitening product line.

Bobrisky

Toke Makinwa

We all know that Nigerian market is a viable ground for selling bleaching products and the society encourages skin bleaching so lets stop throwing shades. Why are we such hypocrites? Living in denial when colourism is everywhere around us. According to Oxford Learner's dictionary, "Colourism is discrimination against individuals with a dark skin tone especially among people of the same ethnic or racial group" and most often we are guilty of this kind of behaviour.

In Nigeria, most corporate organisations prefer to employ a light skin lady than a dark skin lady most especially when it concerns front desk and marketing services. Families are supposed to be supportive and encouraging against colourism but in different Nigerian families; dark girls are ugly while light skin girls are beautiful. For whatever reasons most men prefer to marry light skin girls, it is good to have a preference but stop hating blackness outside when blackness is inside you. What of Nigerian music industry that always features light skin girls in their music, calling "Nigerian names such as Onyinye but are featuring a white girl as the bearer of such names". Nollywood industry is not left out of colourism. Generally, black models complain about favouritism towards lighter skinned models over them all the time. I have also seen on several occasions where really dark-skinned people get shamed for being the way they are while black beauties are under appreciated....we prefer to worship "oyibo" rather than appreciate our own. Some women go as far taking glutathione pills to help bleach their unborn babies' skin which is really sad. And guess what?.. "Whitenicious" has a brand for babies. This is to show how well they know Nigerian skin bleaching market.

I don't know why we prefer European standards of beauty, we need to define our own beauty standards not complying with what media, hip hop world and cosmetic industries are pushing to us. Skin bleaching is synonymous to low self esteem, self hate and mental slavery. Stop fetishizing light skin because no matter the shade you are in, everybody has his/her struggle. Stop perpetuating colourism and colourist divide. Reinforce positive beliefs and behaviours towards your skin colour. Let's be real and embrace our blackness and africanness. No matter how much we blame it on white supremacist and colonialism, we should remember that slavery ended so many years ago. Therefore we need to "unbleach" our minds that are already bleached and find a way to encourage the younger generation so that their mentality will change towards skin bleaching. We do not have chains around our ankles but we are not free yet. 

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