The Battle for the Light Skin – A Deadly Classification

Naledi Comet Mokgwathi

Growing up in Botswana, I’ve always known that white people were better than black people. And just below them, on the world scale of the “better and more beautiful people”, were the light-skinned black people.  

Then within that there was talk, or insinuation, that people from the southern part of Botswana were better than those from the northern part of Botswana. But the light-skinned people in the North were even better than the dark-skinned people in the South. And so much better than the dark-skinned people in the North. I’ve heard things like, “Wow! You are from the North? You don’t look like you are from the North at all.” And there was a tone of “You should be grateful you don’t look like those people.” I could almost hear it without the person actually saying it, to a friend or cousin. I was not one of the “fortunate” light-skinned people of the North. Most of my cousins were. I grew up despising myself because I believed I was ugly; society didn’t help, so I wanted to get married to a light-skinned person or, better yet, a white man, to ensure that my kids would not suffer the consequences of the dark skin life like me. The mixed-raced people were and still are always held in high regard in our society of two million people. 

Botswana is a small landlocked country in Southern Africa. We are mostly quiet and never disturb the peace of the world with drama like war, or anything. We only have a lot of HIV and AIDS. That is our biggest struggle. Maybe one day we will also acknowledge that we have alcohol problems as a country. 

We also have diamonds, therefore a lot of money as a country, but the money hasn’t really trickled down to everyone. We have a lot of poor people and a government that has been ruling the country since the 30th of September 1966. I love our government, even though they have left some of us destitute after squandering a lot of money on tenders that they award only to friends; and then when they’ve made a fortune they marry light-skinned women. Anyway, that’s a topic for another day. I mean the one about the misuse of government money. 

We still have a lot of it left. And diamonds to last us a few more years. 

We are supposed to be grateful because the government offers free antiretroviral meds for HIV and AIDS. A pandemic in our country. A pandemic light-skinned people are once again sailing through. If you are a light-skinned person, chances are that you won’t be judged or gossiped about in hushed tones by your neighbours for “having HIV or AIDS”. In Botswana, AIDS and HIV belong to the darker-skinned and skinnier people. People can diagnose you on the street. By sight, without any test at all. Based on skin colour. 

Growing up in Botswana, we were told to be respectful to our elders. We are a small country and everyone is somehow interrelated. A child who is not respectful is a shame to the family name. And falling under the category “Elders” can be someone holding the position of a leader. So our parents and their parents saw the White Man as their Leader. And to them he was so sophisticated with his fancy language, fancy clothes, fancy cars, and of course fancy food, that they worshipped him. They grew up wanting to be like the white man, and that trickled down to their children, grandchildren and great-grandchildren. We have sayings in our native language that praise local people who behave like or have some characteristics of a white person. Sometimes we call our line managers/bosses these things, or just someone who has money. With the recent years’ talks of Black is Beautiful, we are trying hard to move away from that. But that “moving away” only happens amongst the “woke” people of the country. As for the rest of us, we still use the phrases. 

After years of knowing or being conditioned to think white or light-skinned is beautiful, it’s understandable that we still struggle with seeing black as beautiful. Even the “woke” generation somewhat still gets wowed by the whiter/lighter-skinned people, and, of course, I still want to marry a white man or light-skinned man to neutralise the skin colour of my children. It is a long road to actually realising that we are all beautiful in our own skin, White, Black or Brown. It took centuries for people to be conditioned to think white and light-skinned is better. It will take far more years to change that view. We need to do a lot more than post outraged remarks on Twitter and Facebook when someone says racist things or does racist things. Because, in the privacy of their homes, people still talk racism, tribalism, hate towards another group of people they feel they are better than or vice versa. We are just too smart to post it online.

“I have been writing for newspapers for over 14 years with a journalism award under my belt. I have written fiction and non-fiction that has reached different corners of the world over time, thanks to the internet. I hope this submission exposes me to a whole new different market.”