Well according to the author, it is a comic post but like the popular pidgin English saying "Na when person dey joke naim he dey talk truth". The post have some element of truth, Read below:
”If you feel I’m incorrect, please retire to the good old DUDU-OSUN soap and IMBI-OLO (palm-kernel extract) from now on, because any foreign chemical that “smoothens” the skin has every tendency to lighten it a bit.”
In the 1940s, some Africans made attempts to change their complexion from our default dark skin to a fairer one. Over the years, more women and recently, men, have found it discomforting to have extremely dark skin. It is so funny that the aunt you grew up seeing or referred to as “my dark aunt” is now “my fair aunt”. She probably bleached or “toned” as most people would like to put it (to reduce its scorn). Apparently, everyone these days “was born fair”. Nowadays, you go through a lady’s dresser and you see the container of almost all her toiletries having the word “whitening” on them, yet she claims “I was born fair”… if possible her perfume is a lightening one, even her hair cream; now, does it mean the “fairness” you had when you were smaller ran into the wind? (Who you offend?)
Another case of the ‘bleaching syndrome’ is that some people claim they were light-skinned from birth, lost the colour to adolescence and now they are gaining it back by “toning”. These set of people would never agree if you told them they are bleaching. You are a girl, your boo buys you lightening shower gel? My dear, he likes them fair! You are a guy, your babe gets you a whitening cream? “She wan dey see you from 800miles away” some na una parents dey buy am, because they feel you are getting too dark? #LegalBleaching
Now bleaching, is a strong word (that is why no one agrees to be “bleaching”), so let’s stick with “rubbing”. Now, whether its a lotion, a pill, a soap or a routine that actually lightens your skin, my dear, You are “rubbing”.
Whether na Ghana red and black soap (that our mothers used in the 90s) or TURA that they used in the early 2000s….or Bio-Claire in the mid-2000s or the recent “mixing” of cream craze that starts from the “washing” of skin stage to the actual “change in colour”. The thing is “YOU DEY RUB!”….
Now, Nollywood has made matters worse by putting up the invisible banner “NO RUB, NO SCRIPT”, its so bad that there aren’t any dark skinned actresses anymore. I grew up knowing Kate Henshaw, Uche Jumbo and Genevieve Nnaji as dark skinned actresses, but today what do you see? (No be my mouth una go hear say Queen Elizabeth na Isoko-woman)… Moving on, biko! My friend, Chucks, will say, “if you no rub, camera no go see you”… well that being said, let us all be seen then (insert laugh).
My point is, most of the people who are quick to call others out as “bleachers” are gradually getting fair, or have gotten a couple of shades lighter than their default complexion, theirs is “toning”, right? It’s okay … Just know that from the moment you look at your skin and feel “I’m too dark” or “I could get lighter”, you are on the train already, so whether it’s “I avoid the sun”/”I am always indoors” as long as something is making you lighter, YOU DEY RUB!If you feel I’m incorrect, please retire to the good old DUDU-OSUN soap and IMBI-OLO (palm-kernel extract) from now on, because any foreign chemical that “smoothens” the skin has every tendency to lighten it a bit.
Daniel Boyle is a creative, Nigerian stylist. He tweets from @Teinyeboyle. culled
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