Durban - Over the past few weeks the #unfairandlovely campaign started by black photographer Pax Jones and sisters Mirusha and Yanusha Yogarajah from University of Texas.
Their work has set Twitter, Instagram and Facebook abuzz.
The first women featured were Indian. But dark skinned women from across the world quickly took to social media to affirm their beauty against the dominant mantra that fair is lovely. According to Jones, the campaign emerged organically out of a series of photographs she took with a view to combating the “under-representation of dark skinned people of colour in the media”.
Discrimination against people based on the tone of their skin, a phenomenon called “colourism”, is evident across the globe. In places like Angola and Haiti it has taken on a political form. There, lighter skinned people have privileged access to some forms of political and material power.
A photo posted by Offical Page Unfairandlovely (@unfairandlovely) on Apr 3, 2016 at 1:25pm PDT
In South Africa, light skinned African women are sometimes referred to as “yellow-bones”. They often report their experiences as being double-edged. On one hand they are praised as beautiful but at the same time are subject to stereotypes and derogatory remarks. But, in the main, colourism means light skin is desirable and dark undesirable.
Colourism is a complex phenomenon. In India, it is often argued that the preference for light skin pre-dates British colonialism and is evident as far back as the Vedas, a collection of hymns and other religious texts composed centuries before the birth of Christ. But the desire for light skin cannot be divorced from the caste system, its north-south divide, the impact of colonialism, and capitalism which has exploited these prejudices via the beauty industry. The hegemonic desirability of light skin has been challenged by campaigns such as “Dark is Beautiful” spearheaded by actress Nandita Das.
What it means to be Indian is different in different diasporic communities. In places like England or the US, south Asian communities often still retain strong ties with India. As a result, their issues around colourism are similar to those in the Indian context, although local forms and racism are shaped by understandings of the significance accorded to skin tone in other communities.
A photo posted by Ty Harmony♬♪♩ (@melanin_harmony) on Apr 3, 2016 at 11:17pm PDT
The majority of South African Indians, mainly descendants of indentured workers, have little direct connection with India. Social, religious and cultural practices, as well as cuisine, have developed independently. While there are some overlaps in terms of the desirability of light skin tones, there are differences that have developed according to the local political and social context.
In South Africa, for many Indians, including me, growing up at the end of apartheid, colourism was not a significant presence in our families. In my case this was a result of my family’s thinking, and the impact of the Black Consciousness Movement in Durban in the early 1970s. But there are families in which colourism is intensely felt. In some cases it can result in discrimination and, as a result, personal trauma.
Beautiful! Check out @ladiesofsosa, a talk show that @sosahra is a part of! #UnfairAndLovely
A photo posted by Unfair & Lovely (@unfairandlovely_) on Apr 3, 2016 at 10:07pm PDT
Colourism is sometimes evident among the coloured community. It predates apartheid, has endured after the end of apartheid, and extends beyond a concern with skin tone to include hair texture and facial features. In Durban, where some Indian and coloured communities are in close proximity, ideas about skin tone have taken on multiple influences.
Because different black communities have shaped each other’s ideas about beauty and colour in South Africa, our experience cannot be reduced to an offshoot of the Indian or American experiences. And while there are subtle and at times not so subtle issues around skin tone, the situation is not nearly as bad, as in India, Pakistan or Thailand. In fact it could be argued the situation in South Africa is better than in the US and the UK.
As Mail & Guardian editor Verashni Pillay noted in a recent piece: Africa has experienced its own share of colourism and the horrors of skin bleaching. Phrases like “yellowbone” don’t help. But the writing of Steve Biko and a growing sense of black pride makes it easier to embrace darker skin in South Africa.
Here, colourism is not simply a story of the continuance of colonial and apartheid racial practices, or influences from Bollywood and Hollywood. It is how all of these influences coalesce.
South Africa’s colourism is also a story of how the political innovation of the Black Consciousness Movement in the early 1970s - often carried into ANC politics - has freed many people from colourism. But at the same time it is also a story of discrimination within and between black communities that has evolved and survived after oppressive laws have been revoked.
And as the #unfairandlovely campaign has proven, colourism sadly remains a universal slight on humanity.
* Vashna Jagarnath is a senior lecturer, history department, Rhodes University
