“Being Too Black”

by Asha Jaffar (Kenya)

Making a local connection Kenya

In Kenya, East Africa - these pressure of one’s skin tone have greatly intensified over the past decades, where lightness is favored over darkness, despite the huge percentage of Kenyans who are of dark skin tone. This idea of lightness, speaks directly to the influence of colonial obsession with fair skin, which today has helped to fuel the popularity of skin bleaching products among young people. Most young people in Kenya, like young people all over the world, want to fit it, to be seen as fashionable, stylish, and beautiful to those in their society. For many of these youth, this means having lighter or light skin tone, which has in turn led to a viable marketplace of skin bleaching creams and products. The belief that fairer skin is more appealing than darker skin means that people bleach their skin to enhance their beauty, to be of fair skin, alongside ideas that lightness is not only more appealing, but is also viewed as a symbol of success. The desire to feel and be perceived as beautiful is natural and normal, but for those Kenyans who use these products, educating themselves is almost exclusively left to hearsay, as there are no enforced regulation of these products nor public health campaigns educating those using skin bleaching products about the risks and dangers to one’s health and well-being. Being Too Black will follow a group of 10 young women and men aged between 18-25. These youth have either used bleaching products without the knowledge of its dangers or have harboured negative opinions regarding having a darker skin. The Documentary will chronicle the journey of young men and young men in low income families and middle income families in Kenya. By following their journeys and showing vividly how the bleaching materials are bought, applied and the effects it has on the skin. The Documentary will mainly focus on 3 high school girls who started using the bleaching products because of the peer pressure of looking beautiful which in this context translates to looking light. The 3 main characters are aged between 16-18 and are all in High school a stage in which so many young women in Kenya start facing disrimination and started to be aware of how they look and what other people from around think of them. Documenting these moments through the arc of societal indoctrination, the film brings into focus the global challenges in countries that were former Western colonies and the impact of poverty with challenges of accessing information, and poor health systems that do less to nothing about the bleaching problems in Kenya. Weaving together the stories of youth from diverse location, socio-economic backgrounds and cultures unified by the colour of their skin the film is