Sorry, being lightskinned doesn’t make you beautiful!!

There is a certain medicine man who managed to convince all the dark-skinned girls that they are not as beautiful as their light-skinned sisters. After doing the damage of misleading these local girls, the medicine man vanished from the scene. We now have many cases of women with dark complexion dying to be light-skinned.

To the uninitiated, there is this ‘psychological contest’ between dark verses light among the girls. It is evident in every sphere of life. When you get into a matatu, if you are hawk eyed and like to appreciate beauty, like I do, you will notice it.

If you are seated in a matatu next to a dark skinned girl and suddenly a light skinned one comes on board, naturally and out of human curiosity you will look at whoever is coming in, just in case you need to give way or bend your head a bit to avoid being hit.

But to the dark skinned girl, all she sees it competition. If you are keen you will see her seethe in anger, her chest will heave with fury. And if the light-skinned girl accidentally steps on her toe or accidentally touches or pulls her hair as she squeezes in between seats, pure bile erupts from the dark sister’s mouth.

Even at parties, it is the same thing. If you have been to Christmas bashes and wonder why the dark-skinned women are taking to the floor with complete abandon, wonder no more. The girls have learnt to take their fights to the battle front.

Have you ever heard that common phrase by women that to get noticed and recognised, they must work probably two or three times harder than their male counterparts? It is the same forest here. The dark ones have two options to work two or three times harder to get noticed or to take the easier route; bleaching. Or is it skin-lightening? Whatever!

But the easier route is not as easy as it sounds. Skin-lightening is a dangerous undertaking; it involves distorting the skin colour cells. This is done all in the name of beauty. What madness! It is a frightful thing I tell you. Many girls have engaged in skin-lightening with varying degrees of success or if you like havoc.

Strangely, even as some of these chemicals backfire, more girls are still doing skin-lightening in the hope that they will attract more glances from men. The extent some women go to attract the attention of men is mind boggling.

Ladies, let me give you some advice for free, you will thank me later. Men only look at you when you have done skin lightening on face to ascertain the degree of damage on your skin. To make things worse, once you bleach your skin, your natural body cells starts to treat your skin as a ‘foreign agent’ and that is the beginning of the end. You do not want to bear the effects of an altercation between the natural body cells and the ‘remixed’ cells. As you continue to grow, the disharmony is further heightened and a girl that was once dark skinned and beautiful resembles a mannequin.

What happened to the darker the berry, the sweeter the juice? Who said the beautiful ones are the light skinned ones? Singer India Arie sung something to the effect ‘you are not your hair’. And I say,  ‘you’re not your skin complexion’