Actress and musician Folake Olowofoyeku has shared personal reflections on her upbringing in Nigeria, speaking about how colourism influenced perceptions of beauty while she was growing up.
The Bob Hearts Abishola star said lighter skinned girls were often seen as more beautiful and noted that she was not consistently described as beautiful until she moved to the United States.
Folake said, “I think the first few times I heard I was beautiful on a consistent basis was when I moved to America. One of the things, I remember telling my friends shortly after I moved to America and I started getting the compliments that you guys lacked imagination, because I would be made fun of because of my lips. And used to call me Pomo lips or dodo lips. Dodo lips. Plantain. So that’s what I was made fun of most of the time for. It was my lips. And then Angelina Jolie came about and then everyone in my friend was saying is sexy. I’m like, yeah, like Angie’s better. But like, dude, you guys lack imagination because my lips have been here the whole time. There’s like a colorism thing that happens in Nigeria. I don’t know how prevalent it is right now, but I grew up hearing about it. It wasn’t like I was steeped in it, but I definitely knew that it existed. I knew there was a preference for lighter skin people and lighter skin people were considered more beautiful. But at the same time, I was also in a community with a lot of people who looked like me. So it wasn’t too jarring on my person, but I was aware of it. And I didn’t feel like… I found beauty in everything, so I didn’t acquiesce to that thought process.”
During the conversation, comedian Godfrey added cultural context, claiming that some Nigerians even pinch babies’ noses in the belief that it would help them grow up with narrower features similar to Caucasians.
