Skin lightening in Ghana

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The practice of skin lightening and bleaching is a lucrative industry in Ghana, where higher value is placed upon being light skinned.[1][2] This practice has been present since the sixteenth century and was influenced by contemporary practices, and it is a very longstanding and controversial topic. Skin bleaching is a practice where women and men use various chemical and cosmetics products to attempt to lighten or whiten the color of the skin. These products often contain one or both of two chemicals: hydroquinone and mercury and can sometimes lead to negative physical effects, such as cancer and can cause rash and flaky skin, as well as uneven light and dark patches on the skin. Because of the health risks involved with skin lightening, Ghana has implemented legislation against the use of skin lightening products. Though the products have recently been banned, Ghanaian women can still acquire them through illegal means or use homemade skin lightening chemicals.[3][4]

Light skinned is frequently marketed via billboards and posters that feature light skinned models, playing on the public perception that looking multiracial or having lighter skin makes one more attractive.[1] Some Ghanaians also believe that if a lighter-skinned person is in a position of power, that they bleached to get into that position and is bleaching to maintain it.[4] Scholars such as Jemima Pierre have theorized that the desire for lighter colored skin in Africa stems from the European colonization of the continent.[1] White skin asserted class privilege and distinct racial privilege, prompting many Ghanaians to bleach their skin to achieve a similar color.[4][1] Over time this also became a major determinant of beauty, especially among Ghanaian women, and by the 1980s skin bleaching had spread throughout all socioeconomic classes of women.[3][5] Despite being a common practice among Ghanaians, lower-class people are often openly ridiculed for skin bleaching. Blacks who bleach their skin (regardless of socioeconomic status) are often ridiculed for aspiring and ultimately failing to become white.[4]

References[]

  1. ^ a b c d Pierre, Jemima (2008). "I Like Your Colour – Skin Bleaching and Geographies of Ghana". Feminist Review (90): 9–29. JSTOR 40663936.
  2. ^ Maswana, Jean-Claude (2009). "A Center-Periphery Perspective on Africa-China's Emerging Economic Links". African and Asian Studies. 8 (1–2): 67–88. doi:10.1163/156921009X413162.
  3. ^ a b Foluo, J.Konadu (2008). "The Lighter Side of Marriage". African and Asian Studies. 8 (1/2): 125. doi:10.1163/156921009X413180.
  4. ^ a b c d Pierre, Jemima (2013). The predicament of blackness postcolonial Ghana and the politics of race. Chicago: The University of Chicago Press. p. 101. ISBN 978-0-226-92304-8.
  5. ^ Lartey, Margaret; Krampa, Francis D.; Abdul-Rahman, Mubarak; Quarcoo, Naa L.; Yamson, Phaedra; Hagan, Paa G.; Tettey, Yao; Gyasi, Richard; Adjei, Andrew A. (2017-01-01). "Use of skin-lightening products among selected urban communities in Accra, Ghana". International Journal of Dermatology. 56 (1): 32–39. doi:10.1111/ijd.13449. ISSN 1365-4632. PMID 27943305.
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