Whatever you choose to call it, toning or bleaching, the peeling of skin has come to stay in the Nigerian movie industry.
If you are an ardent viewer of African Magic, once in a while you will be taken back in time to the days when being black and proud was a thing in the Yoruba Nollywood industry. We saw all our actresses baring the color of their birth. Funny fact nowadays is the that we now recognize them only by name and not facially.
Old things indeed have passed and all things have become new. What could be the cause if this disturbing and alarming trend?
Do movie producers favor the fair skinned ones over the dark ones? Are there no more roles for dark skinned ladies in the industry? Are all characters fair in complexion?
Only a few and I mean very few Yoruba actresses have maintained their original skin color. Many however have totally peeled off the first two layers of their skin, leaving the thinnest layer to protect their bones.
Surprisingly, when challenged or accosted with these glaring facts, they vehemently deny and sometimes become aggressive. Some admit to toning but never to bleaching.
Wait!! Can coke ever become Fanta just by adding water? No way! We know toning and we know bleaching.
The question is; will there still be a dark skinned actress in the near future? Some men are not left out either… Their dark knuckles do the trick for us. Now, when there is a serious role that needs a dark skinned character, where does the producer go? “Call for casts?”
Note that we have not mentioned names, but we know you and you know yourselves. Dark knuckles or not, clean bleaching or not, you know yourselves. And tomorrow when Africa Magic throws us back to the early 2000s, do not try to distract us back into 2016.
