Sudan: Christians lightening their skin to protect themselves from Muslim attacks

"Resisting Jihad Is Racism" Alert: in Sudan, the Muslims are generally light-skinned, and the Christians generally darker. So there is a huge run on skin-lightening products, as Sudanese Christians view them as a matter of life and death. "In Sudan, pale is beautiful but price is high," from Reuters, with thanks to Nick:

KHARTOUM (Reuters) - At the crowded Beauty Queen parlor in Sudan's capital Khartoum, beautician Selma Awa says she just cannot understand why so many of her clients want to get their skin lightened.

"One hundred percent of women who come here have it done," she said. "People think it's prettier to look white. In my opinion, dark is prettier. I don't know who they want to look like."

[...]

In Sudan, Africa's biggest country, over two decades of civil war between lighter-skinned northerners and darker southerners has given skin tone more sinister connotations, and the meaning of the various shades is nuanced.

Northerners, who are mainly Muslims and claim Arab lineage, have traditionally held power. A north-south coalition government now shares power after a peace deal last year.

During civil strife, skin tone often meant the difference between life and death. Southerners, traditionally Christian or animist, complain of prejudice against them in everyday life, and some northerners privately claim superiority over their darker and non-Arab countrymen.

Posted by Robert at August 8, 2006 7:23 AM
Print this entry | Email this entry | Digg this | del.icio.us