"This practice seems to have stemmed from long back during the colonialism or the slavery era. So, it seems as if the colonialists or the slave masters reinforced this idea that light skin is superior. It is believed that during that time, they would show favoritism to light-skinned individuals compared to the darker skinned ones. For instance, they would give lighter chores or simpler chores to the light-skinned slaves compared to the darker ones whom they would maybe assign harder, strenuous tasks. As a result, they created an impression that light skin was better. Unfortunately, this perception has been passed on up to today. So, you can see it now that in many African societies, light skin is usually now synonymous with beauty. It is associated with prosperity, high status. This basically stemmed from colorism," Nyoni-Kachambwa expressed.
"The crux of the matter is in the society, and especially in African setup, where the wide use of skin lightening products have led to a lot of health conditions and complications for individuals and of course on public health. Long-term use of skin lightening creams, or products can make the skin fragile, and when the skin is fragile, of course it is prone to injuries and infections [...]. Then, the other thing is poisonings from mercury that can cause neurological problems, like memory loss and tremors. They can equally affect the function of the kidney and can also lead to liver toxicity problems. And of course, psychological and mental health effects that cannot be ruled out at all," Dr. Adama-Ajonye said.