From Black Consciousness to Black Lives Matter: Confronting the colonial legacy of colourism in South Africa

abstract

The systems of oppression that plagued South Africa’s recent history worked on two distinct yet intertwined levels – race and colour – and as a result, colourism, or intra-racial discrimination, remains a complex phenomenon in the country. Colonial rule and racial segregation established a problematic relationship between skin colour and access to socio-economic opportunities and this not only encouraged a yearning for white skin (or light skin) among many Black, Coloured, and Indian South Africans, it also led to the emergence of a local, highly profitable skin-lightening industry. However, colourism and skin-lightening practices have been met with significant resistance: the Black Consciousness Movement raised public awareness on the dangers of skin-lightening practices and successfully pressured the South African Government to regulate the manufacturing and retailing of skin-lightening products in the country. More recently, the Black Lives Matter movement sparked global conversations on racism and other inequalities faced by Black people and other communities of colour. This article employs a Black feminist lens to trace the history of colourism and skin-lightening practices in South Africa and to highlight the importance of Black national and transnational activism in the fight against colourism and skin-lightening.

keywords:

• colourism
• skin-lightening
• colonial aesthetics
• online activism

Acknowledgements

This work is based on research supported by the National Research Foundation of South Africa (grant number 99188, and SARChI Chair in Identities and Social Cohesion in Africa, Nelson Mandela University). Opinions, findings, conclusions and recommendations expressed in this work are those of the author alone and the NRF accepts no liability whatsoever in this regard. A portion of this article was written at the writing retreat hosted by the NRF-DSI-SARChI Chair in African Feminist Imagination and the Centre for Women and Gender Studies at Nelson Mandela University.

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Simran Anjari

SIMRAN ANJARI is a researcher at the Centre for Women and Gender Studies at Nelson Mandela University (NMU) in Gqeberha, South Africa. She holds a Master of Arts degree in Media Studies (Research) from NMU, and her research interests include gender studies and cultural studies with a specific focus on Indian diaspora studies and Indo-African relations. Simran also works as a ghostwriter at The Urban Writers. Email: [email protected] or [email protected]