“African women, don’t lighten your skin. It’s a gift from God.” These lyrics are a line from a song specially commissioned for a beauty competition with a difference in Ivory Coast.
Only women with natural, untreated skin – confirmed by skin experts – can enter the competition which goes by the name, Miss Authentica.
The organisers hope to encourage women to stop using dangerous skin-bleaching products…and instead celebrate the beauty of their natural skin. Skin-bleaching is big business in much of Africa.
Proof of this are the many posters of smiling, fair-skinned women holding up the latest pots and tubes of skin-whitening creams that adorn the continent’s cities…75% of women in Ivory Coast use skin-whitening creams of some sort.
Many continue to use the bleaching products despite being aware of the dangers. One of the most common ingredients is hydroquinone, which has been banned in some countries because of claims that it is carcinogenic.
The color of the skin doesn’t matter anything. If you want to understand nature in its perfect stage, you have to look at the woman’s body, the contour, and the whole essence of a woman’s body is so amazing, especially African women.