Skin-Bleaching: Ghanaians Celebrate “White” Sores

*By Akadu Ntiriwa Mensema, Ph. D.

The color complex
Our collective illusion
Our contagion of beauty
Our chassis of inferiority
Our lingering myth of self
Our victimhood of identities

Our hallucinogen of whiteness
Ma Color
Toxic identity
MA Color
They call it Ma’ COROR
Ah! ME BRONI
They call it ME BLONI
Only your COROR
Only your skin
Oh! Me Broni
Ah! Your aquiline nose
Hmm! Our bulbous nose
Ah! Your thin lips
Hmm! Our thick lips
Ah! Your wavy hair
Hmm! Our knotty hair

Me Broni
Your aquiline nose
Your thin lips
These we can’t buy in Makola
These we can’t buy in Kejetia
These we can’t buy in Kotokroba

Ah! Your supple white skin
Ah! Your supple wavy hair
These we can buy
Creams in gallons
Chemicals in barrels
Horse hair in sacks
In Makola
In Kejetia
In Kotokroba

Bleaching in contours
Forehead bleached
Eye province remains black
Cheeks bleached
Nose protectorate remains black
Neck bleached
Ear polity remains black
Kaleidoscopic skin
Permanently chameleon-ed
Black skin here
White skin there
Layers of confused identities

Ghanaians seek whiteness
Me buroni
Our nursery rhyme
Ah! The best comes from the West
We want whites’ skin tone
So we burn our skin with creams
We want whites’ wavy hair
So we use horse hair
We want whites’ accents
So we break our noses


Hey, I see them trudging to work
Bank tellers
Nurses
Teachers
Lawyers
Actresses
Professors
Bleached and sweating blood
Dry patches of skin
Like a crocodile’s skin
Sweat on a bleached skin
Like vapor from the Korle Lagoon

Maid-servants
They have ma color too
They have Alata-soap color
Their white-stained faces
Faces chapped
Chapped in white-only acidic soaps
White-stained-laundry-creams

Mother Ghana,
I saw them
Your Children
Both men and women
With facial sores
No Mother, it wasn't
Not from war, no,
Not from famine, no,
Not from skin disease, no
No! Not from drought

Mother Ghana, it is, Ma Color
Oh! The COLOR COMPLEX
Ah! Parched skin tones
Ah! Horse hair
Soaking in chemicals
Wearing creams
Besmeared with chemicals
Wearing acidity
Peeling off blackness
Hurray, we celebrate “white” sores

*Akadu N. Mensema, Ph. D., is a nationalist Denkyira beauty. She is a trained
oral historian cum sociologist and Professor in the USA. She lives in
Pennsylvania with her great mentor and teaches Africa-area studies at a college
in Maryland. In her pastime, she writes what critics have called “populist
hyperbolic, satirical” poetry. She can be reached at akadumensema@yahoo.com