The African girl dalliance with white complexion is receiving a fair share of contrasting competition in the efforts of a German woman with a Kenyan connection.
Last year, Martina Big, 29, a former blonde and blue-eyed air hostess announced that she was fed up of being white and set out on a journey to become black.
In 2012, she had set out on yet another epic transformation - paying almost six million shillings to get breast implants that earned her the tag ‘the woman with biggest boobies in Europe’. They weigh 12 kilogrammes.
Still, there was something missing in her looks. Her skin colour was bothering her. In a previous interview, she mentioned that she admired the dark skin of Africans, and decided to pursue it using everything it takes.
Life-threatening
Late last year, she went for a life-threatening melanin injection – a procedure outlawed by many countries – and completely changed her complexion. She went from blonde to the deepest shade of black. She also installed a 50-tubed sun bed in her house, to accelerate her blackness, and believes her children will be born black.
She reported that she was happy with the woman she was becoming. She was black, and her new size 32S breasts, at least for her, gave her the physique of an African woman. She then went to a salon that caters for African hair and got a kinky weave. Her journey towards becoming black had taken off.
“I compared my hair with that of other Africans in the salon. Theirs is identical to mine,” she posted on her Instagram page after the weave was sewn in.
Last month, she embarked on her maiden trip to Africa.
A few days after she arrived in Kenya, she posted a video of her baptism in Nyeri.
In the video, a man dressed in pastoral attire is seen laying his hands on her head and telling her: “Malaika Mkubwa, you are now a new creature in Jesus’ name”. The church is empty during the six-minute ceremony, and Martina is dressed in white flowing African regalia, kneeling next to the pastor who the Saturday Standard identifies as Isaac Murage of Gichira Baptist Church.
Pastor Murage says he was introduced to Martina by a member of his congregation. “She told me the lady wanted to be baptised, and I told them to come,” he says.
Even though the church’s doctrines indicate that baptism is done in water, it made an exception for Martina because she had flu.
Murage disputes claims that he chose the name “Malaika Mkubwa” for Martina. “She came with the name written down,” he says, adding that his church does not give baptismal names to its members.
Martina now says she plans to go by her ‘new baptismal’ Kenyan name: Malaika Mkubwa, and has even updated her website to reflect it. She says many people know her in Kenya, and they stop her all the time for selfies. In one of her photos, taken in Masai Mara, she poses with several Kenyans, and identifies some of them as her friends.
Her new look has received attention and backlash. Race Equality Foundation, a European organisation that champions racial equality criticised her attempt to be black.
“She has “limited understanding” of challenges ethnic minority groups face. Her story distracts from problems black people face,” said the group.
But Martina is not yet done with herself. She intends to widen her nose and ultimately, enhance her backside to give it the voluptuous African look.
