Kenyan Oscar-winning actress-cum model Lupita Nyong’o children’s book Sulwe should really be for adult reading.
“Sulwe” (Simon & Schuster Books for Young Readers, 2019) tells how distorted perceptions of beauty affected Lupita while she was a child. She bases the book (reading age put at four to eight years) on her own experiences growing up in a society that places less value on darker skin.
Nyong’o’s take on ways to confront colourism and discrimination is apt. But the target demographic is open to question. Does this sensitive and heavy subject, though tackled in this captivating, lovely picture book, really belongs in the children’s section of bookstores, particularly in Africa.?
“Sulwe” which means star in the Kenyan Dholuo language, is about a young girl by the same name who is the darkest person in her family. She is hurt and confused when she realises that her lighter-skinned sister seems to be hogging attention from the people around and close to them. She appears to be more popular, simply because her skin tone is lighter.
“Sulwe was born the colour of midnight,” and her skin colour, she understands, has dictated how people react to her.
This preferential treatment of her sibling deeply hurts the little girl, making her wish for a lighter skin pigmentation for herself. Sulwe begins to act out on her wishes, but mercifully, our little heroine is able to find the strong-mindedness to shrug off what other people think and appreciate that she is beautifully made.
Lupita, whose first feature film role was in the film 12 Years a Slave, for which she received the Academy Award for Best Supporting Actress as well as multiple accolades says her goal is to provide young children with a path toward seeing their own beauty.
I, however, think it is the hordes of adults tottering under the heavy weight of bias and low self-esteem that need more urgent lessons in issues of acceptance. African women, some brain-washed into elusive search for fair skin and beauty should have been the first target audience of Sulwe. This demographic needs Lupita’s powerful affirmative message the most.
Skin lightening in Africa is an old phenomenon in this European-values obsessed society. It comes at a high price literally and figuratively, including risks of cancer and liver damage. It has been around for decades and the lightening products can be easily obtained.
The World Health Organisation warns that the practice can cause liver and kidney damage, psychosis, brain damage in fetuses and cancer.
Even the more dangerous intravenous application of glutathione—a natural antioxidant produced by the liver has caught on. Intravenous glutathione treatments can lighten skin and the product can now also be obtained in the form of antioxidant supplement tablets.
Despite the perils, unregulated clinics offering backstreet skin-bleaching injections have become increasingly popular with Kenyan and African women in general. They believe lighter skin opens doors to brighter prospects, including jobs.
A number of African countries have made numerous unsuccessful attempts to regulate or totally ban skin-lightening products but demand persists. Some critics of the bid to outlaw the dangerous concoctions even argue that it is futile trying to ban the products without creating a world where dark-skinned women are not discriminated against.
Nairobi’s River Road, a bustling and seedy section of the Kenyan capital city has become a hub for illicit beauticians who provide these injections unfettered.
Some Kenyan celebrities and socialites have even come out to unapologetically speak in the media about spending mind-boggling sums of money on skin-whitening treatments abroad.
While it is important for little black girls to see dark skin in a beautiful light early enough, it is their older sisters who urgently need Sulwe’s magical journey in the night sky to open their eyes to the perils of low self-esteem.
Granted, age specific genre titles are mere guidelines. No one stops adult readers from picking up a copy of Sulwe for their own reading. But there is the danger of passing it over because adults may be ashamed to pick up a book with children’s characters.
Lupita’s publishers can borrow a leaf from ‘Harry Potter’, one of the most popular fictional stories ever written. Author J.K Rowlings goes beyond boundaries between children’s stories and adult books. In the UK, each book is published with two different covers‑one for kids and one for adults. The content is the same except for the cover, helping adults feel less self-conscious about following the boy “wizard’s” antics.
For Sulwe, Vashti Harrison’s illustrations will clearly enhance the message for these older readers.
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