Photo Illustration by Ezinne Osueke / THE REPUBLIC. Source Ref: UNSPLASH.
THE MINISTRY OF CULTURAL AFFAIRS
The Colonial and Capitalistic Legacies of Nigeria’s Skin Bleaching Epidemic
Photo Illustration by Ezinne Osueke / THE REPUBLIC. Source Ref: UNSPLASH.
THE MINISTRY OF CULTURAL AFFAIRS
The Colonial and Capitalistic Legacies of Nigeria’s Skin Bleaching Epidemic
Nigeria is the capital of skin-bleaching practices in the world with 77 per cent of women using skin-bleaching products. The drive to bleach one’s skin has been articulated by scholars as one influenced by skin-tone discrimination and colorism. Colorism, according to the Black womanist writer, Alice Walker is ‘a prejudicial and preferential treatment of same-race people based solely on their skin colour.’ While Walker speaks to a context overdetermined by whiteness, colorism is however not just an American condition. It is deeply ingrained in African societies, fuelled by historical colonial influences, global beauty standards, and socio-economic structures. I situate my own argument within Nigeria’s sociopolitical and historical contexts as a post-colonial geography, where the practice of skin bleaching exemplifies one of our nation’s historical trajectories. While colorism affects both men and women, Ghanian historian and anthropologist, Jemima Pierre (2024) and American Sociologist Margaret Hunter (2005) have articulated that the impact and damaging effect of colorism is more pronounced on women due to the pervasive beauty and patriarchal standards that place greater emphasis on women’s appearance. The dynamics of power and attractability in many societies ties women’s value to their physical appearance, and lighter-skinned women are idealized as the standard for beauty and desirability.
A ripple effect of this idealistic push is not unconnected to capital. The skin bleaching industry in Nigeria is worth $2.09 billion, thriving on the exploitation of women and profiting off their insecurities. As there is an ingrained ideology that light-skin/whiteness fosters social status, professional advantages and economic opportunities, women who seek to enjoy this white beauty privilege are compelled to alter their skin. However, in this patriarchal and capitalist-driven skin-bleaching industry, corporations obscure the health risks and psychological consequences of bleaching practices. I argue that to speak comprehensively to the skin bleaching epidemic in Nigeria, we must excavate the historical roots of skin-tone discrimination, skin-bleaching practices and their economic, social and psychological impacts on girls and women.
A HISTORY OF COLORISM IN NIGERIA
When I began my academic research on colorism in Nigeria, I was told many times that I was looking for a problem where there was none. ‘You’re studying colour?’ This statement particularly echoing the social media driven wave of anti-intellectualism and vitriol for scholars who dare study smell, colour and other ‘humanistic’ subjects of inquiry. Many people were curious about why I became interested in researching colorism in Nigeria, a nation primarily inhabited by homogenously dark-skinned people. To many people, skin-tone discrimination can exist only in a space governed by racial diversity as opposed to ethnic diversity of which Nigeria boasts. However, despite being populated by dark-skinned indigenous and non-multiracial people, unlike other African countries such as South Africa and Kenya who have visibly multiracial populations, Nigeria not only boasts of a robust and active bleaching culture and industry but it is also our world’s epicentre of the epidemic.
Although there has been contestations that the roots of colorism and skin-tone discrimination in Nigeria can be traced back to the pre-colonial times where some cultural practices indicated an existing, albeit nuanced, preference for lighter skin, however colonialism intensified these biases. The history of colonialism in Nigeria is coeval to the development and progression of skin bleaching practices in Nigeria as the institutions of colonialism and enslavement brought about global white supremacy ideals that solidified previous marginally existing skin tone hierarchies. Ghanaian-American Professor and scholar-activist Yaba Blay explains global white supremacy as a:
Historically based institutionally perpetuated system of exploitation and oppression of continents, nations, and peoples classified as ‘non-White’ by continents, nations, and peoples who, by virtue of their white (light) skin pigmentation and /or ancestral origin from Europe, classify themselves as ‘white’.
This historically structured supremacist ideology is continuously reinforced to maintain and defend a system that assigns exclusive value, power, rights, and privileges to those categorized as white. The colonial system which reinforced these global white supremacy ideologies created a structure that favoured lighter-skinned people, categorized them as more intelligent than their dark-skinned counterparts and granted them more opportunities in employment, representation and social mobility. This preferential treatment established and solidified a socio-economic hierarchy attached to skin tone and continues to shape societal attitudes towards skin tone and color hierarchy in Post-colonial Nigeria. For example, Colorism Studies scholars such as Kimberly Norwood and Ronald E. Hall explain that to participate in this operation of power and institutionalized privileges based on skin color, dark-skinned people turn to the cosmetic practice of skin-bleaching.
Besides the social and economic privileges attached to whiteness and light skin, colonial rule also propagated Western beauty standards that led to a heightened preference for lighter skin. With the need to enjoy the opportunities ascribed to whiteness or the proximity to it, individuals turned to the use of skin-lightening or bleaching products. This period also saw a shift in the indigenous perceptions of beauty and aesthetics. Psychology scholars, Balogun Kolawole, Nwakwo Ekpere, Okehie Uchenna and Aruoture Ezekiel explain that ‘the advent of colonialism introduced new paradigms and societal structures that significantly reshaped indigenous understandings of beauty, gender roles and sexual identities.’ The imposed colonial moral frameworks fostered the suppression of African aesthetics and native beauty practices through the representation of African features as inferior and the elevation of Eurocentric beauty traits such as straight hair, light skin, and slender body types as the standard of beauty. With the association of lighter skin tones and westernized appearances to higher social status, the adherence to western beauty standards became a prerequisite to social advancement and acceptance which many Nigerians internalized.
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CONTEMPORARY MANIFESTATION OF COLORISM
The legacy of colonialism persists in post-colonial Nigeria where Western beauty ideals continue to influence perceptions of attractiveness and societal attitudes towards skin tone. There is a pervasive internalization of Eurocentric beauty ideals highly influenced by how lighter-skinned women are prioritized as beauty icons in advertisement, fashion and Nollywood. Engaging Jamaican-British cultural theorist and scholar of media and identity, Stuart Hall’s framework of Representation, which he explains as an essential circuit through which meaning is produced and circulated, I explore Representations in this essay as a mode of offering meaning to things by depicting them via images, words, etc. Representation does not reflect pre-existing meanings as one would think; instead, they are meaning-makers, either positive or negative, of things. The Western images and ideologies of white skin as superior linger in the representation of light-skin as the ideal standard of beauty in the entertainment industry.
We cannot deny the contribution of the media as an agent in the promotion of Eurocentric beauty standards and ideologies that portray light skin as a necessity for upward mobility. There is the continuous promotion of beauty standards that are intertwined with whiteness across television, film, social media, advertising in Nigeria. These biases are visible through various means such as the casting choices for films and television shows where characters, specifically women in leading roles or in situations where characters need to be portrayed as beautiful, affluent or successful are usually light-skinned actors, while darker-skinned women are stereotyped into supporting characters. While casting choices can indeed be complex, however, this trend of associating light skin with beauty and success subtly conveys and creates a feedback loop that lighter skin is synonymous with higher social standing and desirability. In advertisement for beauty products, light-skinned models are predominantly featured by beauty brands, inferring that lighter skin is the ideal every customer should aspire to.
An example of this is captured in British Nigerian actress and filmmaker Beverly Naya’s 2020 documentary SKIN. Set in Nigeria, this documentary exposes the emotional and psychological effects of colorism and skin bleaching within Nigeria’s entertainment and beauty industries. Exploring colonial legacies, societal beauty standards and media representation, SKIN reveals how Nigerians, especially women recount how the pressure of success and beauty, as well as internalized shame and low self-esteem influenced their decision to alter their skin tones. Naya herself reflects on being a dark-skinned woman who experienced how beauty ideals marginalize certain identities while privileging others. As someone who grew up in a society ingrained with this ideology, I have witnessed how women are subtly and even overtly made to feel invisible unless they conform to Eurocentric beauty standards.
In a study carried out among female students in Ibadan, researchers, Olusola Olatunji, Olusola Ayandele and Olugbenga Popoola found that advertising practices significantly influence how beauty is perceived and individuals’ decision to engage in skin bleaching. The influence of social media in pushing certain biases about beauty through platforms such as Instagram and Facebook are deeply felt, with influencers and celebrities promoting products for overnight lighter skin, with intentionally ambiguous words like ‘skin toning’ or ‘glow’. With these normalization and glamorization of colourist ideals, social media becomes a powerful space that both mirrors and amplifies deeply problematic beauty ideals. As Professor of Economics and Global Studies Program and Colorism Studies scholar, Ramya Vijaya, in her research on Colorism in the Skin Whitening Industry in India and Nigeria argues, ‘marketing strategies have evolved to evoke colorism and emphasize the socioeconomic capital embedded in Whiteness more explicitly.’ With an allusion to whiteness as a social marker for privilege and a method of socioeconomic capital, Nigerian women continuously commodify whiteness for social mobility and economic transition.
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A NIGERIAN PUBLIC HEALTH ISSUE
The skin whitening and beauty industry in Nigeria is booming. It is now integrated into global flows of capital and culture, impacting both the official global economy and various informal, often underground economies. Over the past decade, there has been an immense growth in the Nigeria’s beauty industry, emerging as one of Africa’s leading markets. In 2023, Nigeria’s beauty industry was valued at approximately $7.8 billion, positioning Nigeria as a dominant player in the beauty industry. As of 2025, the market has reached $10.17 billion and is projected to experience an annual growth rate of 7.8 per cent from 2025 to 2030.
However, in January 2025, the Nigerian Ministry of Health announced skin bleaching as a public health problem in Nigeria. Skin lightening products often contain harmful ingredients such as hydroquinone and mercury that can pose danger and cause severe health complications. The prolonged usage of these products can lead to kidney damage, delayed wound healing, skin thinning, mercury poisoning and an increased susceptibility to infections and risk of developing skin cancer. In her research on Ghanaian women who consume bleaching products, sociocultural anthropologist of African and African Diaspora Studies Jemima Pierre, author of The Predicament of Blackness: Postcolonial Ghana and the Politics of Race, explains how skin bleaching practices can lead to incurable body odour, extreme skin irritation, and exogenous ochronosis—a skin condition that causes discoloration and thickening. This persistent body odour, in particular, is the result of prolonged exposure to the harmful chemicals like hydroquinone, corticosteroids and mercury, which thin the skin and disrupt the sweat gland function, leading to bacterial imbalances. With the associated ostracization that comes with body odours, the process, as Pierre argues is, ‘expensive, labour-intensive, often impractical and dangerous.’
Dr Folakemi Cole-Adeife, a renowned consultant physician and dermatologist at LASUTH Lagos, Nigeria has explained that the reduction of melanin diminishes the skin’s natural protection against ultraviolet radiation, which may increase the risk of skin cancer. However, even with the well-documented dangers of skin bleaching, its usage remains prevalent in Nigeria. The Federal Government, through agencies like the National Agency for Food and Drug Administration and Control (NAFDAC), has initiated measures such as the 2019 Cosmetic Products (Prohibition of Bleaching Agents) Regulations to ban harmful substances in cosmetics. Nationwide campaigns have also been launched to raise awareness about the risks associated with skin-lightening products. However, enforcement challenges persist, and many unregulated products continue to be accessible, undermining these efforts. There are still a lot of these harmful products widely available, fostered by corporate influence and corruption such that efforts to curb the production and distribution has been futile. In fact, some bleaching products outlawed by the stringent regulations in Europe and North America are freely and readily available in Nigeria despite their ban by Nigeria regulators like NAFDAC.
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A CALL FOR CHANGE
How do we disrupt an ingrained ideology normalizing whiteness as superior to blackness, lightness as beautiful, and coloristic and skin bleaching practices to attain an illusion of Whiteness? How do we confront and intentionally deviate from these oppressive aesthetic ideal and imposed beauty standards? As a dark-skinned woman, I constantly think about methods for an alternative worldmaking where my skin color will not be a determinant for my success. My own work follows the lineage of African feminists who continuously disrupt, challenge and subvert societal norms that attaches value and power to whiteness. Implicating myself as a dark-skinned Nigerian woman in this conversation, I argue that despite the long-standing upheld ideology of white beauty and aesthetics that has influenced skin-bleaching practices, we are capable of recalibrating and redefining these standards. What if we start with decolonizing and redefining beauty standards by actively challenging and promoting alternative beauty standards. What if we remind ourselves that we do not need to conform to the western ideals of white beauty; instead embrace our natural skin tones and beauty. The need to decolonize our mindset is extremely crucial and this requires a conscious effort to recognize the internalized biases that marginalise dark-skin and dismantle the pervasive influence of Eurocentric ideals.
Although we live in an individualistic world, challenging skin-tone discrimination and eradicating skin bleaching requires all hands-on deck. There is an urgent need to challenge media narratives by promoting diverse representation of beauty and skin tone in films, television, fashion, and advertisements. We need to amplify dark-skinned representation in popular culture because representation matters in shifting societal attitudes. Filmmakers, casting directors, influences, content creators all have critical roles to play in challenging these deep-seated biases and fostering a society that values different shades of skin-tone. To complement government bans, we need more comprehensive community education, as well as community-based healing and resistance movements that raise collective consciousness about the dangers of skin-bleaching. In this fight against bleaching and skin-tone discrimination, we must make accessible mental health support for women who are struggling with the psychological effects of colorism and bleaching. To truly eradicate skin-tone discrimination and skin bleaching practices, we must all work together to dismantle the patriarchal, colonial and capitalist structures that sustain them⎈
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