Durban - The University of KwaZulu-Natal (UKZN) in partnership with the KZN Department of Health invites the public to stand up for dark skin and participate in a march against harmful skin-lightening creams.
The march on Friday forms a part of a landmark campaign to raise awareness on the dangers of skin-lightening creams. The campaign is inspired and initiated by UKZN academic, Professor Ncoza Dlova, a leading dermatologist and researcher.
Dlova has found in her research that there is an increasing number of Indian and African women, as well as men, who are using and subsequently experiencing the harmful and irreversible side effects of skin-lightening creams.
The #StopSkinBleaching march aims to not only create awareness among the public but to also appeal to government to enforce legislation on the sale of banned skin-lightening creams. The campaigners are appealing for more policing at borders to stop the trade of illegally imported creams, to monitor and ensure that all health care professionals abide by ethical conduct, and to ensure that cosmetic cream packages are clearly and properly labelled.
Dolova’s research reveals that 80% of the creams she looked at contained a number of banned compounds. “Some of these creams are sold by stores, street vendors, at markets and in spice shops and most are illegally imported,” she said.
Dermatologists are also seeing an increasing number of patients who are buying prescription steroid creams from pharmacies without having presented a doctor’s script. Furthermore, some doctors are selling steroid creams from their rooms without consulting with the patients.
Dlova has treated many patients who experienced harsh reactions to their skin. She says she has been able to help some, but for many the damage is irreversible.
Hence she felt compelled to start the campaign and reach out to people who are using these creams for the wrong reasons and are oblivious to their harmful side effects.
Dlova believes the popularity of skin-lightening creams reveals a deeper psycho-social political predicament. She says many people want to look lighter because they don’t value their natural skin colour and this self-hate stems from societal perceptions that there are more opportunities in work and in marriage for people who are lighter skinned. “We want to shake the perception that you have to be light skinned to be beautiful. Our message to the people is for them to embrace and love their natural skin colour and to understand why it is beautiful and beneficial to have melanin, which is the pigment that determines one’s skin colour and is infact protective against the ravaging ultraviolet sun rays which may cause skin cancers and rapid aging in White individuals,” she said.
“We want to reach out to the children and educate them at a young age that the best skin is the one that you are born with and Black is beautiful, as well as instill self love at a younger age. Many young girls and boys want to be ‘yellowbone’ (light-skinned), because they think it is more attractive. So we are saying to them self made or fake ‘yellowbone’ is dangerous and not cool and blackbone is safe and does not crack.”
* Join in the conversation by tweeting @ASBA2016 or posting on the Facebook page: Awareness of the Dangers of Skin Lightening. Post using the hashtag: #StopSkinBleaching.
* March details:
Time: 12-2.30pm
Start: Durban Christian Centre (King Dinuzulu Park)
End: Gugu Dlamini Park (The Workshop, Dr. A.B. Xuma street)