The Skin Bleaching Culture In Nigeria Part I: History

Abstract

The geographic space calledNigeria today is inhabited
largely by homogenously dark skinned
indigenous African people. In the South there is an
imperceptible sprinkling of biracial light skinned
people from two different historical events: (i)
products of miscegenation in the coastal regions of
Nigeria's trade routes and (ii) descendants of
Nigerians who travelled to Europe to study. With this
exposure, some of them returned home with
Caucasian wives and, of course, the resultant biracial
offspring. These biracial people ('half-casts' or
'mulattoes' as they are usually called) constitute less
than 1% of the Nigerian population. Interestingly,
there is a high prevalence of inbreeding among them,
probably a strategy to preserve or improve on
whatever level of 'whiteness' they already have rather
than 'risk' the dilutional effect of mating with a 100%
dark skinned Nigerian