Rainbow Nation

No, this is not about everybody getting along and all of the colours of the rainbow standing in Newtown and singing Kumbaya. This is about skin tone.

For white people, it is interesting to note that a deep tan is a sign of good living. The only people who have tans are those who either have just come back from holiday at the seaside or those who have pools in their backyards and loads of time to work on their tans.

This is why tanning salons make so much money. People trying to get that healthy looking tan. And of course, there are those tans in a bottle which make people end up looking orange, rather than a healthy golden brown.

Of course, a few hundred years ago, so many people had outdoor careers, a lighter complexion was the sign of wealth. The Lord of the manner was indoors, while his working class counterparts had to do physical labour in the burning sun.

Now...moving on to the custodians of melanin. Black people have always associated a lighter skin with beauty. Listen to our popular wedding song "Tswang, tswang, tswang, le bone, ngwana o tshwana le lekhalati!" "Come out and see, the bride is so beautiful, she looks coloured" No jokes.

Believe me, I have tried to rationalise this in my head and look at our history. I mean, we come from a period where we were indoctrinated to self loathe and to think black is inferior and white is superior. So much so that coloureds and indians were given more privileges than black people, because they are "closer to being white".

So, yes, being lighter can be seen as a step up in that regard.

And, of course, when I grew up, there were hardly any beautiful and glamorous black women on tv. Internationally! It took MANY years to start seeing beautiful black women on tv.

The bottom line is, though, I know several black women who dream of having a child with another race, so their child has a better chance at a lighter complexion and at being "prettier". How self-loathing is that?

I have heard many light -skinned women tell the story of how every guy they have been with has gone crazy at the sight of their creamy white thighs. Some would even go as far as begging to not use protection with them, because that light skin somehow says they are "healthy" and therefore safe to have sex with "skoen" (without a condom).

Yes, we have been made to hate our black skin and made to feel like lesser beings. But are we not perpetuating it ourselves?

The one thing I know for a fact is; because this black loathing has filtered down to our children, children will always make fun of the dark kids and call them "myamane" (blackie). And as a result, when that child grows up, to avoid having their own kids suffer the same abuse, they will seek out a lighter person to mate with, so their child has the chance of being more balanced.

Sad, really.