This is a another national image of Hargeisa, right next to the emotionally insane that earn a living on the streets, the qaat huts every few meters and the emergency vehicles that carry the life saving drug ‘qaat’. Yes, Diana is a very popular national mark, not the belated Princess of Wales, Diana. This is something a lot more deviating and alien to Somali society than having a white British Princess around the city.
Somaliland women, especially those in the city of Hargeisa, believe it is fashionable, no a must, in accordance with feminine grooming rituals to bleach- yes bleach!, their skin with a chemical widely known as ‘Diana’ or ‘Fair and lovely’ and many other names. They come in many brands and vary according to the level of whiteness one seeks. Somalis are African, to state an obvious, naturally brown pigmented with some people being a little fairer than others. It would seem we have come to associate ugliness with dark skin and beauty with light/fair skin to the extent that it has driven teenage girls to go begging or doing sexual favours for strange men to acquire this cream (or the means to pay for it) on a regular basis.
It is a common peculiarity at night to see young girls and women walking around the city wearing this cream or glowing un-naturally yellowish (like there is a touch light underneath their skin) and covering during the hot day light hours, with niqaabs nevertheless, a religious symbol. It’s a rare sight to see a dark skinned girl and in many ways a pleasure!
The level of insecurity and inferiority is staggering from my position but a closer look actually proves me wrong. Somalis are not insecure nor do they ever feel inferior to anyone. Pride is worn like clothes and it is clearly visible on every Somali from young to old, from poor to rich. Poor people don’t show any humility or shame when they beg, why should they? It’s their right according to Somali customs! You have money and they are in need. We bring a whole new meaning to the phrase ‘swagger’, an African American urban phrase that explains a false sense of pride and confidence that gives individuals the ability to act in ways the dominating culture does not approve of.
So bleaching the skin is not about appearing white to copy the white man’s claim to superiority.
It’s as simple as this; Somaliland does not control it’s media. There is no cultural and identity awareness. The majority’s understanding of beauty has been depicted by the TV, Arab and American shows. There are no African TV cables in Somaliland. The majority are people with little education if any at all, who streamed into the cities from villages, herding animals, after the civil war, when the majority of the wealthy educated Somalis left to Western and Arab countries escaping the chaos of death and the collapse of the State. In order to measure up to what they see on TV and fill the gaps the war destroyed in our culture and dignity, Somali people started importing a different cultures and alien norms of self-importance, standards of beauty which even extended to food types and language. This has led to a generation of self-loathing. A person speaking English, Arabic or even Swahili is more like to get a job than a fully qualified only Somali speaking individual. We have demeaned our own heritage and self-worth is measured by how westernised you appear. You might argue that this is a form of self-inferiority complexity; however it is ignorance and a lack of an identity and culture. I strongly believe that Somaliland is experiencing an ‘identity crisis’ and it appears on the faces of our young girls. A ghost hallow generation is walking the streets of Hargeisa, that will experience extreme skin conditions if we don’t recognise this epidemic and educate.
‘By three methods we may learn wisdom: first, by reflection, which is the noblest; second, by imitation, which is the easiest; and third, by experience, which is the most bitter’-Confucius
This is just a reflection noble reader, I ask you do the same before you imitate or claim experience and education.
There are reasons why Somalis in general imitate others culture as they see it from the TV as you say, (1) limited mobility as they don’t travel freely as they wish as much as our parents did before the world (2) poverty due to limited availability of money (3) civil wars that still continuing despite Somaliland’s peace (4) we are not a reading community as our parents was, reading refines you and it challenges your mind to think beyond.
The hip-hop generation that is emerging in Somaliland is everywhere in a third world country, where there youth has nothing to do but imitate other cultures that they think it is right, several facts caused that unemployment for instance!
Every cause there is a reason behind it, I am not saying that I am right but we need to deeply analyze what is the real cause for those behaviors.
As bleaching it is not only Somaliland’s problem or even if we think a light person is prettier than a dark person in Mauritania, Sudan, and Comoros and more I guess have the same problem they are Africans and they are dark but somehow cause they think that they are originally Arabs they need to look like them, for them to get an approval from others. I think it is a gross root problem, if you know old Somali poets they used to compliant a woman how light colored she is by saying” Dool hilacay”. Not everyone that can write is right. I guess that we look at the factors that contributing to the cause you will be surprised.
In Somaliland there is a lot of issues is a taboo to be discussed and not only those who are living here but even those who travelled and left us in 80’s, they prefer to be seen as “Pure” nothing bad can be done by them, they will deny that prostitution exists in where they are done by their daughters or by someone they know daughter, she don’t smoke, she don’t drink, I think you are getting me, we are big time denials!!!
I think that the few of us who are educated can use the internet or blogs the same way you are doing but as awareness to those who spent time on the internet, we can use FB as it is becoming widely used by everyone. I enjoyed reading your piece and I really looking forward for more.