Djimon Hounsou from Sierra Leone
Alek Wek from Sudan
they are too dark for whom?
It is hard to define the standard of beauty or decent looks for a continent of people as vastly diverse as far as looks go as Africans. People throughout the continent come in all shapes, sizes and colors, and even more interestingly, the standard of who looks good might have this same complexity within one African country. I can think of how difficult a task that would be even in my home country of Botswana, a country of less than two million people.
But one thing seems to be common throughout the continent’s psyche though – the belief that the lighter your skin, the better you look. Most of the publicized stories about this are about West Africa but I believe this mentality to be all over, like a huge cancer imperceptibly eating away Africa’s integrity.
Colonization may have played a part, yes, and passed the baton to 21st century international media. But those influences are from without Africa. What about the negative messages we send from within the African continent to other Africans on the continent that darker skin is uglier? In my opinion, we as Africans facilitate the duping of our very selves, yes, certainly as an effect of what we have been taught and believed for too long, but is it not about time we put integrity back into having African features? Can we ever separate our views what we've been indoctrinated with? I don’t know how we can put gorgeous back into dark skin in our minds, but time is running out for you, Africa. Too many of your daughters die physically and in the soul using toxic creams to make themselves look lighter. And too many are paying the price in other ways such as at the link below:
http://www.mmegi.bw/2006/October/Tuesday3/298357583761.html
Djimon Hounsou from Sierra Leone
Alek Wek from Sudan