Skin bleaching: Ghanaian celebrities who come to mind

Bleaching is no new practice to us in Ghana and to anyone on the globe for that matter. Over the years, the number of brown skin people bleaching to become white has risen unprecedentedly.

In Ghana, the issue of bleaching has become very topical, especially if it has to do public figures.

In this article, we take a look at some of the most famous Ghanaian celebrities who have been caught in the bleaching scandal, after mysteriously having a change in complexion overnight.

Shatta Wale

In July 2017, the controversial dancehall artist was accused by the public of bleaching after images on social media appeared to show a fairer Shatta Wale than we already know.

Shatta Wale later came out to deny the allegations, insisting that he was not bleaching his skin and will never do so.



During the time the allegations were made, Shatta Wale was on an European tour, which made him come out to say that the reason his skin had lightened up a bit was that of the cool European weather and not because he had bleached his skin.

His defense rather attracted more trolling and mockery as social media users continued to accuse him of bleaching his skin.

Meanwhile, there are still people with black complexion in Europe despite staying there for years.

Gifty Osei

The Empress as she is fondly known is one of the most visible and outspoken gospel artistes in Ghana, having being involved in a couple of controversies over the years.



However, no Ghanaian celebrity has come under the sharp criticism than her when it comes to the issue of skin bleaching. For the past three years, Gifty Osei has had to fight off critics who accused her of bleaching her skin.

On all these occasions, Gifty Osei stood her grounds and swore on several occasions that she is not into skin bleaching. But truth be told, anyone who has known Gifty Osei from her early years as a rising gospel artiste, will testify to the fact that she has over the years become more fair and less chocolate in complexion than she was from the beginning.

In fact, the transformation is so massive that people actually began to call her a Lil-Kim look-alike.

Yvonne Nelson

She is the face of the Ghana movie industry and has held up the industry for so long, even in the bad times when the industry was facing so many challenges. For this reason, she has the utmost respect of most Ghanaians but it couldn’t save her from public scrutiny for what appeared to be a skin bleaching practice.



Her beautiful brown complexion had changed to light. Her social media photos also gave her up as they showed her transformation and change in skin complexion. Just like the others, Yvonne Nelson also denied the allegations and came out to defend herself.

According to her, she had not changed colour and the reason why her skin appeared to be fair in complexion in her latest photographs was that the photos were taken under floodlights since they were photoshoot sessions. She also argued that most of the movies are shot under enhanced camera effect which makes her appear a bit lighter than she actually is.

Akosua Vee

The wife of controversial Ghanaian artiste and social media commentator, A Plus was accused of bleaching her skin earlier this year after two photos of her past and present surfaced on the internet.

The photographs sent Ghanaians into frenzy as the transformation from dark skin to a complete light-skin lady was remarkable.



However, unlike the other celebrities who denied the bleaching allegations, there was no place to hide for the fashion designer because it was so clear that she had indeed bleached her skin and it was fruitless trying to deny it.

The mocking and trolling went on for days while her husband, A Plus tried in vain to protect his newly wedded wife from social media trolls.

Bukom Banku

This is the funniest bleaching scandal ever to hit Ghana. While, most of the celebrities accused of bleaching deny the allegations outright, popular Ghanaian boxer and comedian, Bukom Banku was not the type to follow the trend.

In fact, it was Bukom Banku himself who came out to announce to the whole Ghana his intention to bleach his skin and become a ‘white-man’. True to his word, Bukom Banku did the unthinkable as he went on a bizarre journey of changing the colour of his skin.



And within a couple of months, just before the 2016 December elections, the boxer had become completely white and could hardly be recognized.

In a couple of media interviews, the boxer comically hinted that he was bleaching his skin in order to be appointed Ghana’s ambassador to Germany should then president, John Mahama win the 2016 elections.

Rose Mensah (Kyeiwaa)

Kumawod actress, Rose Mensah popularly known as Kyeiwaaa has also had her fair share of bleaching allegations. The veteran actress in March 2017 became the talk of the nation after new images of the actress emerged on social media showing a completely Kyeiwaa who now appeared more ‘white’ than black.

Kyeiwaa was already known to be fair but her new-look in 2017 showed a far more advanced light-skin, closer to that of late America pop sensation, Michael Jackson.



Kyeiwaa however insisted that the advanced lightening up of her skin was as a result of the American weather, where she was now residing and not due to any skin bleaching. I know you wondering why Akon and Idris Elba are still black after enjoying ‘American weather’.

Daddy Lumba

The legendary highlife singer is another name when it comes to celebrity skin bleaching. Over the years, the highlife icon has gradually gone from a fairly brown-skin person to a complete light-skin man. His transformation wasn’t overnight and didn’t take a couple of months like the other celebrities.



Instead, Daddy Lumba’s shocking skin transformation took years to get to its current state. While his has not really been a subject of public scrutiny, a look back at some of his photographs from a decade ago clearly shows a transformed Lumba in terms of skin complexion. In fact, Bukom Banku during his bleaching days, once said that Daddy Lumba was his inspiration for bleaching.

The list goes on and on and some names like Ajos, Nana Acheampong, Ama Boahemaa, Afia Schwarzenegger, Diamond Appiah, Bishop Obinim and Juliet Ibrahim need not to be mentioned.