Colonial ideas of beauty: how skin-lightening products are linked to cancer in Black African women

A string of recent cases has highlighted the dangers for women in countries across the continent who use harmful creams and lotions.

Two months after first going to the hospital, a 65-year-old woman was dead—and her doctors are blaming the cosmetic creams she used on her face and body for decades.

The anonymous patient, from Togo, is one of a string of recent cases reported in medical journals of cancers in Black African women linked to skin-lightening creams and lotions, prompting dermatologists to call for better regulation.

The melanin found in darker skin typically offers some protection against sun damage, which can cause cancer.

“Patients with black skin have a natural SPF of about 15, just by having pigmented skin,” says Prof Ncoza Dlova, head of dermatology at the University of KwaZulu-Natal, South Africa. “If they remove that melanin [with skin lightening creams], they’re actually removing the natural protection.”