Uganda Colorism “This One is Like Charcoal!” The Black Communities Colorism Hampers All Forms of Pan-Africanism

Saturday, 16 December 2023

By: TB Obwoge

As a Black woman that's lived in Kenya and Ghana, where I'm called mzungu, white, yevu and obroni, all names for a white person. Yevu being the most disgusting, means "tricky, dirty, dog" which was assigned to white people who came to Ghana, I guess to scam them, I don't know.

Being as though Ghanians actively sold other Africans into slavery, I don't know what tricks white people also played on Ghanians, Ewe's particular as this word is from the Ewe tribe in Ghana.

Imagine as a Black person that has faced a lifetime of racism in America, Canada and even South Korea, to go live in Africa and be called white everyday you step outside your door. People have been very rude, yet Ghanians will claim how they love everyone especially white people! Then you ask, well why do you have such creul names for them, they fall silent.

Colorism in huge in Ghana, it's one reason why the country is known for skin bleaching. They lied about outlawing the products in 2016 but everyone that lives in Ghana knows that it's not true. You can but the products easily in Ghana to this day.

Colorism and hatred are often issues that I faced living in Ghana, people calling me "crazy" for "thinking" I'm a Black person. To being mistreated by Ghanians, being told to GTFO of a Bolt drivers care because as he said "I hate you people!" Also having a Bolt food driver throw my food on the ground after threatening to beat me.

When my ex also a Ghanian called the man, he screamed at him and then called me a white woman. He said so much, then hung up and refused to answer his calls. He then lied and said he laid the food on my wall, outside my home. I had to take photos to show how that was next to impossible to do as well as send numbers of people who saw his actions.

Move Over Light-Skin Privilege Black Women Created Brown-Skin Privilege

I know and I believe lighter skin people are preferred by many, however calling it privilege when Blacks no matter what their shade aren’t free from being Black people.

We all still experience racism and being mistreated in America, as well as Africa. I’ve written a million times about how much hatred I’ve gotten in Ghana because many don’t think light-skin people with an American accent are Blacks. The same in many African countries.

Now a TikTok user has built her entire platform on creating more division. She’s created a term called “Brown-skin privilege” and she is dead serious. Her videos almost read as a joke, she even used dark-skin people to claim that they’re brown skin, like Viola Davis is used in the video.

After living in African countries and the United States, it’s fair to say, I truly think Black people hate each other. I don’t think that if the world was all Black that it would be a safe place for anyone, it’s becoming more and more common that Black people just want to hate each other for any reason they can find.

Many of the photos are lightened up that she used by in her video she goes on and on about “Brown-Skinned Privilage”, I’ve included the link and you can watch it for yourself. She has almost 6,000 likes on this video which shows that people think she’s making sense.

Frankly it makes me want to move to Fiji more and more, just stay with people who are just as far away from the rest of the world for a while and just live my life out there.

Source MySelf

Iwas scrolling Facebook reels, I don’t get much time to spend on social media, reading news occupies most of my time. I happened to see a beautiful Black girl, she appeared to me a child, so I watched the video because she appeared to be crying.

She spoke no words, I read the video’s titles. The young lady was sitting in a shop waiting to get her nails done.

Reading the subtitles of the video the girl said they don’t think I can speak Luganda (a language widely spoken in Uganda) Then you find out what the nail technicians said about her, when they thought she couldn’t understand them.

In the above screenshot from the Facebook reel, they said, “this one is like charcoal!” This is what other Ugandans said about a young girl.

I was able to meet a young, South Sudanese man who was attending university in Uganda. He being a Dinka, the Dinka tribe are among the tallest humans on earth and some of the darkest in skin color. The contrast of them also having the whitest, prettiest teeth in Africa, is a beautiful combination.

He being the son a military officer back in South Sudan, was in Uganda for his education. He spoke of the way Ugandans bullied him, the made fun of him for his height and his dark skin. Even though Ugandans are themselves darker in skin color as well, they also choose to bully others.

South Sudan is the immediate northern border of Uganda, some claim that the people on both sides are of the same ethnicity. However colorism is alive and well even within dark skinned Black people in Africa.

I intend to put an end to colorism, I've created shirts to being awareness to this situation, you can see them here by clicking on these words.

Thank you for reading 🙏🏽 Please consider buying a coffee for Lacey’s House efforts in Gender Equality & Children’s Rights as it tries to move international.

©️TB Obwoge 2023 All Rights Reserved