Through Facebook my Dutch friend Carl posted a link of YouTube video about an incident that happened in Holland recently (on Saturday the 12th of November) Two activists, wearing a T-shirt with: ‘Zwarte Piet is Racism’ written on it, were kicked and sprayed with pepper spray and  forcefully arrested by the police(http://www.twitvid.com/TW9X6). Why? “Zwarte Piet is Racism” first and foremost stresses that they want to enter a peaceful dialogue. As one of the men arrested by the police in Dordrecht, Quinsy Gairo says in a radio interview: “Do not use force, we want to engage in dialogue, not violence”. They  were protesting against the current style of celebrating of Sinterklaas during the arrival of Sinterklaas in Dordrecht.

Saint Nicholas, or in Dutch Sinterklaas, traditionally arrives by boat in the Netherlands from Spain in the third week of November and brings the presents to children and, often to adults too, by the 5^th  of December. He doesn’t come alone; during his arrival in the Netherlands, a white horse and many Zwarte Pieten (Black Petes) accompany the Saint. The helpers go through chimneys to bring the presents to the children and as a result, their faces are covered in soot. What nobody can clearly explain, is what kind of soot leaves such a evenly spread residue and won’t touch their bright and colorful clothes; and why this doesn’t happen to Santa, why their hair is frizzy/curly, why they have red lips and hooped earrings, or worse, why they speak in a fake accent that parodies the Black population of the Dutch former colony of Suriname.

As a child I didn’t like Sinterklaas nor Black Pete, I was so incredibly scared of them. Sinterklaas has a book in which he reads who is bad and who is good. If you are bad, you don’t get any present. If you are really bad you will get beaten by Black Pete with the ‘roe’ (birch), put in a jute bag and sent away to a Spain, a country Holland fought against for 80 years in the 16th century. This threat was to keep children quiet and docile. During this ordeal at school, I smiled to them, with fear and tears in my eyes. But I loved the presents, poems, at the special family evenings. And I remember ‘our’ Black Pete was the one, who was funny and compared to Sinterklaas, the kindest of the two, the one to fear the least.

I am living in England for 12 years now.  Kate, a friend  from England experienced Black Pete on a trip to Holland, and said to me :”What’s going on over there with the  golliwog?”  It is sort of an odd moment when you realize that one of the traditions you’ve internalized is really fundamentally racist. I was appalled by the reactions by some of his (white) Dutch Facebook friends; some of them read: “There are far worse things happening in the world; stop being so pathetic!” “Are we creating useless discussions about weather ‘negerzoenen’ are politically correct? We won’t moan about ‘blanke vla’ either!” “It’s a children’s holiday and has nothing to do with racism, racism is about hate; we love Pete, stop complaining about this now”. Very dismissive, defensive, arrogant replies that I sense across the board. I feel a lot of anger and frustration amongst the Dutch, also on the current situation. We want to come across as liberal and open minded by claiming to be a tolerant nation, but the Netherlands still has a long way to go, not only regarding the Black Pete issue, but also in terms of racial discrimination, and discrimination based on religion. (I’m a white Dutch woman who is married to a black British man, and has 3 mixed race children.)

The incident in Dordrecht  and the whole issue of Sinterklaas (the little amount of press it got in Holland, nor apologies have been made) unsettled me and I invited my friend  and neighbor Farhana Hogue, to talk about this issue. She is an anthropologist, who lived in Holland for over 10 years before moving back to the UK.

This was her view on Black Pete:

I felt that Black Pete was inappropriate. It seemed as though discussion wasn’t possible. You couldn’t ask questions about why; you’d find out about the story, how it started, but you wouldn’t be able to discuss whether, in this day and age, it was defensible (offensive) or not. People would just dismiss any discussion. “It’s only for the kids and families; it’s about sweets, presents, poems..”  To me, it felt like a national taboo. In anthropological terms, it is a myth-making tool. You start with a story from the past and you adapt it to suit the modern situation; but essentially, the myth reflects an entrenched social value. That value is: white is dominant and black is subservient, because that is the power relationship between Sinterklaas and his helpers. White is good, smart and pure, and black represents mischief, silliness, and punishment. So it’s two sides of the same coin. It’s good and evil, superior and inferior, lots of dichotomies are going on in that symbol. Because it has become so much part of the national psyche, it has to be perpetuated. The result is to unwittingly or otherwise legitimize the sense that deep down, white is superior and black is inferior.    In terms of myths; myths have a function. You cannot challenge them, because they are part of the cultural heritage. It stays in that story making realm, and that serves a purpose of keeping the belief untouchable.

Tisna Westerhof

P.S. Color Foundation is against the racist element of this festive event. It is not wise to abolish this custom, however it deserves adaptation to our modern times.  Compare  Santa Claus (Christmas) celebration, which serves a similar purpose and  is not racist, although he is invariably white.

In April 2011 I visited  an old friend in Perth, Australia and on my way back home to  Amsterdam, the Netherlands, I made a 24 hours stopover in Kuala Lumpur (KL),  Malaysia,  simply because the long flight was too wearisome.  Malaysia has been colonized by subsequently the Portuguese, the Dutch  and  the British. It is now an independent nation since 1957. As one of the “Asian tigers”, it is trying to earn itself at high pace a position in the frontline of the world economy,  in the wake of China, the new economic  giant. The population of 28 million is multiethnic, with 50% Malay, 24% Chinese and 7%  Indian people.  About 60% of the population are practicing Islam, 19% Buddhism, 9% Christianity and 6% Hinduism.

 On arriving at the airport of KL, late in the evening,  my eyes  immediately caught the glittering billboards, promoting the use of skin whitening agents, many produced by  famous Western manufacturers of cosmetic and skin care products.  My amazement grew the next morning during a walk through the center of KL, the vibrant capital of a successful country. In the city you see people with skin tones, from light Chinese type to brown Indian type.  At the cosmetic and skincare departments of supermarkets, in beauty centers,  in drugstores,  and sometimes outside these selling points, I came across  skin whitening advertisements, showing  gorgeous  light skinned Asian women, with a charming smile, persuading the people to apply skin whiteners.  A salesgirl at the cosmetic corner in a supermarket told me that selling of skin whiteners indeed is booming business in KL: “It is the most normal thing in the world to walk in and buy skin whiteners”, and she added: “a light skin is more attractive than a dark skin”.  This in fact was an affirmation of what I already knew for many years: skin whitening is very common in South East Asia and India .  But nevertheless I was surprised  by the wide range of the phenomenon, the openness,  as well as the way Western multinationals are pushing their products.  In addition I was worried,  because although skin whitening can spring from the innocent striving for more beauty, it might on the other hand be driven by  racism and at the same time also encourage and preserve  this abject phenomenon. 

 A glance at the list of ingredients of some of the skin whiteners learned that they do not contain the strong bleaching products like hydroquinone and potent steroids I have seen using by  African and Caribbean immigrants in Europe.  No, the whitening products hold a variety of low potency products of botanical origin, allegedly inhibiting melanogenesis (e.g. glycine, soya and licorice), and furthermore sun blocking agents preventing UV induced tanning.  

 Regional patterns

During my flight from KL to Amsterdam, musing on skin whitening, I realized that the features of this phenomenon in Asia were different from those in Western Europe and that probably each region in the world had its own character. Thus, in addition to the South East Asian situation that I have just outlined, the following picture  emerges for some other regions in the world.

In demographically  and cultural fast changing Western European countries (take the Netherlands, a former colonial power as example) skin bleaching is a phenomenon that is imported and practiced by dark skinned immigrants. Strong and potentially harmful products are used and the people who bleach act secretive about it. One of the potent bleaching agents, hydroquinone (HQ ),  has  been legally banned as an over the counter product in the European common market.

 In Sub Sahara Africa (take as an example South Africa, a country still in the process of  recovering from apartheid),  potent products like HQ, corticosteroids and mercury are regularly used to get a lighter skin, with subsequently sometimes the occurrence of serious dermatological and systemic side effects.  South Africa had the doubtful reputation of being a forerunner in the field of side effects of skin bleaching, with exogenous ochronosis (a serious and irreversible dermatological side effect of HQ) reaching epidemic proportions in the last quarter of the 20^th century.  In the Caribbean, the situation to certain extent looks like that in Africa, with “swinging reggae” Jamaica being in the lead in the region regarding skin bleaching (they name it “browning” over there).

The situation in South America is a different story, taking the emerging economic giant Brazil and its tiny Northern neighbor Suriname as examples. The existence of skin bleaching  practice is formally denied:  “ this is impossible in our ideal rainbow society” is the flow of the comment from medical doctors and other authorities in both countries. But this statement is an attempt to keep up appearances of living in a society without inter-ethnic tensions, because we have the simple proof  that skin whitening/bleaching is practiced in both countries.¹  From the foregoing we may conclude  that skin whitening/bleaching is a worldwide phenomenon, but  with its own characteristics in each and every region, probably  related to specific historical, demographical, cultural and socio-economical factors. So, diverse regional patterns seem to emerge, but the reality is of course much more complicated than I have outlined, with features assigned to one region also occurring  in other areas.

 Skin whitening versus skin bleaching

Is there any difference between skin whitening and skin bleaching? During the past years I have  generally used these words  as synonyms, assuming that they mean the same. However  gradually it became clear that the connotation is different. Skin whitening nowadays generally refers to the use of weaker, less potent products with subsequently less side effects.  The cosmetic industry consequently refers to skin whiteners. The pharmaceutical industry and physicians speak of skin bleaching agents, generally indicating more potent products with potentially serious side effects.

Manipulating one’s skin-color is no doubt a complex psycho-social/biological  phenomenon, which through its elusive character is hard to control. Several ideas, not being mutual exclusive, have been proposed to explain it, including a relation  with  the cast system, a relation with colonialism and post colonial systems, the view that it is part of the ubiquitous system of racial discrimination and finally the suggestion that it is a form of cultural assimilation in order to overcome domination. For further reading on the motives of skin whitening and bleaching I suggest the papers by Hall and by Gomes and Westerhof. ^{2, 3}  Unfortunately  there is a paucity of high quality profound studies regarding this subject. More attention is needed from researchers and governments and it is time now, at the wake of the 21^st century, with probably an increase of the phenomenon, that also the World health organization (WHO) takes a position.

Henk E. Menke

1.See the paper in this weblog by Jack Menke and Rachida Norden entitled: the whitening syndrome in rainbow Suriname” (February 23, 2011)

 2. Ronald Hall (1995) Bleaching  syndrome. African American’s response to cultural domination vis-à-vis skin color. Journal of Black Studies 26 (2): 172-184.

3. Patricia D. Gomes & Wiete Westerhof (2002) het gebruik van chemische huidbleekmiddelen onder Indiase vrouwen in Bangalore; aanzet tot verder onderzoek. Medische antropologie 14(2): 353-374.

Africa is known for its many problems, to mention a few: poverty, corruption, political turmoil, wars and diseases. One should remember that there are strong differences between the countries in Africa, but the majority of the sub Sahara countries  still have a long way to go, in spite of a predicted economic growth of  6% for the continent in the years to come. Especially the burden of HIV in Southern Africa remains a serious problem. Billions and billions of USD are pumped into the AIDS programs. The solution to HIV, we now know, will not be brought by money alone. In Zambia a fascinating initiative was started to increase motivation and awareness. Let’s have a closer look at this country and its HIV/AIDS problem and the interesting way people over there cope with it.

 Zambia and HIV

Zambia a land locked country in Southern Africa is one of the countries most severely affected by HIV/AIDS. The adult HIV prevalence rate at this moment stands at 14,3%.¹ At current levels of HIV prevalence, young  persons in Zambia face a 50% life-time risk of dying of AIDS in the absence of treatment.² This is the setting of the Zambian national anti retroviral treatment or ART programme.³ Since its start in 2004, a total of  310.000 Zambians started with the life saving drugs.⁴ This in itself is an impressive achievement. At the same time there is no time for complacency, the challenges that the program is facing are enormous. 

Approximately 1.7  Million Zambians (of a total population of about 12 million) are estimated to be infected with the HIV virus. The antiretroviral drugs need to be provided over a lifetime and without a cure in time all infected Zambians will need ART. The numbers of people that are infected with HIV are actually increasing at a rate that outpaces treatment: for every two people who receive HIV treatment, five are newly infected.⁵

A large part of the African ART programme is paid for by foreign aid. The US government President’s Emergency Plan for Aids Relief (PEPFAR) has spent USD 25 billion on the fight against HIV/AIDS in Africa between 2003 and 2008.⁶ In Zambia the US government is one of the major contributors to the national ART programme alongside support from other international donors and institutions. The Zambian Ministry of Health at the same time faces many challenges: human resources, supply chain management and not least financial mismanagement; USD 5 million was unaccounted for in May 2010 and  investigations are going on at time of writing.

The apparent lack of political dedication is echoed in the lack of commitment to the ART programme by the Zambian population. Knowing one’s HIV status through testing provides an important link to HIV/AIDS treatment and care and is considered to be a key motivating factor for behaviour change.⁷According to the 2007 Zambian Demographic and Health Survey (ZDHS) only 16% of Zambians have gone for testing and are aware of their HIV status. Research data in Africa show that two years after starting treatment, on average 40% of Africans have defaulted: they are no longer taking treatment.⁸This is confirmed by what is observed in the Zambian ART clinics.⁹

In Lusaka, the capital of Zambia,  the majority of the AIDS awareness campaign adverts have disappeared over the past 10 years. Social life and especially sexual behaviour remains unchanged in spite of millions of USD that have been spent on behaviour change communication initiatives.

The picture described is called normalisation: a determined effort to reconstruct a ”normal” social and moral order in the midst of an epidemic.¹⁰ This can be seen at the family and community level and in the way national politics is managed. Its causes are multiple and complex. The main reasons have to do with stigmatization, the way in which this sexually transmitted epidemic is incompatible with the African and Zambian Christian identity, poor governance and  governments benefitting from the epidemic, in combination with poor understanding of the drivers of the epidemic.

Art4ART

The author of this article is one of the founders of the Zambian NGO art4ART (www.art4art.com). Art4ART is an example of the way in which the visual arts can be used to clarify or promote discussion about social  issues of any sort. Although the name art4ART suggests a focus on issues related to HIV/AIDS and its treatment, we want to use this forum as a platform for engaging in a range of social issues. For example, many of the challenges in addressing the prevention and treatment of HIV/AIDS are linked to underlying problems of stigmatisation, discrimination, empowerment, issues of gender equality and so on. All these challenges have a direct relationship with AIDS and (the acceptance) of Anti Retroviral Treatment. The visual arts can be a strong platform for promoting discussion, involvement, education and interaction on all of the above issues. Art4ART seeks to make use of this powerful approach to social engagement in Zambia.

In February 2010 art4ART organised a Black History Month exhibition in the National Museum of Zambia. Black History Month has its roots in the celebration of important black individuals and events. This was the first time that the Black History Month was celebrated on this scale in Zambia. The exhibition was opened by Zambia’s first President of the Republic and hero of the liberation struggle, his Excellency Doctor Kenneth Kaunda. In December 2010 during World Aids Day, art4ART organized an exhibition on HIV related stigma in the Alliance Francaise, Lusaka. The exhibition comprised of  9 interactive artworks, printed  t-shirts and booklets on the subject, focus-group discussions and performances by theatre groups. The exhibition was opened by the famous Zambian AIDS activist and current director of the Society for Family Health Dr. Menassah Phiri.

Jack Menke jr.

Medical Director Kara ART clinic & Laboratory, Lusaka, Zambia.

References

1. ZDHS 2007 Zambia p. 235.
2. MOH report 2009.
3. ART or Anti retroviral treatment aims at slowing the progression of HIV disease into AIDS. At this moment more than 310.000 Zambians are receiving this treatment.
4. ART update meeting , November 29 –  December 2, 2010 at Intercontinental Lusaka,  Zambia.
5. WHO/UNAIDS/UNICEF, Scaling up Priority HIV/ AIDS Interventions in the Health Sector, Progress Report, 2007.
6. No deed goes unpunished, Foreign Affairs, July august 2010,  p. 74-84.
7. ZDHS 2007 Zambia.
8. Rosen S, Fox MP, Gill CJ (2007) Patient retention in antiretroviral therapy programs in sub-Saharan Africa: A systematic review. PLOS Med 4(10): e298. doi:10. 1371/journal.pmed.0040298.
9. 12 months patient retention percentage in Lusaka urban clinic 2, 76%. Kelly McCoy, Maria Kankondo, Joshua Kasimba, James Lungu, Phil Seidenberg, Victor Mukonka, and Sydney Rosen, Cost of First Line Antiretroviral Therapy Using Tenofovir.
10. Aids and Power, why there is no political crisis-yet, Alex the Waal, 2006, p.9.

This is a detail of the “Modern Family”,  a work exhibited during the Deconstructing Stigma exhibition . It shows the nature of Zambian sexual relationships (multiple concurrent sexual partnership)

The globally widespread promotion and use of skinbleaching cosmetics should be understood within its specific cultural, social and economic context. Illustrative is the advertisement of the bleaching cosmetic Fair and Ageless in a newspaper (De Ware Tijd (04.12.10) in Suriname, a small multi-colored society of half a million people in the north east of South America. In addition to a shining, renovated and spotless skin the advertisement recommends the bleaching cosmetic for its supposed whitening effect. While the whitening of the skin is increasingly promoted throughout the world, users and promoters of skin bleaching cosmetics are often not aware of the sometimes devastating dermatological and psychological side effects.

Suriname, a Caribbean society with a great cultural diversity, is often praised for its ethnic harmony as an ‘ideal world in miniature’. Part of this diversity is the rainbow of skin colors: a spectrum that begins with dark-skinned creoles and Maroons, then different color shades of mixed people, indigenous (American Indian), Indian, Javanese, Chinese and light skin Libanese, Syrians, and Whites at the end.

A cultural walk in January 2011 through Paramaribo, Suriname’s multi-colored capital city, revealed the ‘who’ and ‘why’ of the widespread use of skin bleaching cosmetics. A female owner of a famous beauty saloon commented that most of the users get the bleaching creams from the medical doctor or the supermarket. It is a problem that some get it from the pharmacy with a high percentage of 4% or 6% hydroquinone, which can be devastating for their skin including the possibility of a higher risk for skin cancer. Although the use of bleaching creams may be effective, this is of a short duration, because walking in the sun results in a dark skin color again. ‘That’s why some customers walk with long sleeves and an umbrella from my beauty saloon to their car, because their skin color bothers them. They consider their skin color too dark and have a white color wish. This is due to the influence of media and movie stars.The Indians in particular are focused on Bollywood and the superstars are their role models. Sha Rukh Khan, is an example of a superstar who promotes one of the widely used bleaching cosmetics’.

The observations of the beautician confirm earlier findings of a survey held more than ten years ago in Suriname: overall one out of every 6 women aged 18 or more, used chemical skin bleaching cosmetics. Surprisingly 1 of every 3 Indian women was using these cosmetics, which is a much higher proportion than the other ethnic groups. Most consumers purchased the cosmetics in a supermarket or drugstore, without medical prescription, indicating that Fair and Lovely was the most used brand.

The cultural walk through Paramaribo also shed more light on the historical context and how the skin whitening syndrome evolved among Indians in particular. An Indian beautician observed a steady growth of consumers of bleaching cosmetics in the past ten years, particularly among Indians. The Indians in Suriname use to say “what a beautiful women, what a fair and white skin.” In Surinamese Hindi they say ‘Ketná safá’. Many Indian males admire white women and prefer a light skinned Indian wife. The beautician is convinced that this is part of the cultural heritage that Indian indentured workers took with them when arriving in Suriname since 1873. In the Indian caste system there is a strong positive relationship between caste and skin color: the higher the caste the lighter the skin. The Indians in Suriname still identify with Brahmans while some even declare themselves Brahman. The beautician ironically comments: Do you see many Brahman immigrants in India coming to Suriname by boat in the 19th and 20th Century? So, there are hardly real Brahmans in Suriname. However, many Indians in Suriname declare themselves to be Brahmans, and want their children to marry other Brahmans. I know a young girl of whom the parents refused to attend her wedding, because she married a dark skinned Indian boy , who was not a brahman and in addition had Guyanese blood.
The growing ethnic diversity in Suriname, with new immigrants such as Brazilians, appears to contribute also to the whitening syndrome among Surinamese women. The Indian beautician knows various wealthy Indian business men who are married to a dark skinned Indian wife, and who after a rapid upward mobility, want their children to marry a partner with a light skin. In many families girls start to use whitening creams from the age of 14. Older indian women in the 40s also use creams when they observe that their husband have affairs with Brazilian women who often have a lighter skin color. They want to compete with the beautiful Brazilian women in nightclubs, and want to look attractive and clean like them. The beautician comments: Brazilian women prefer to eat bread with cheese to be able to pay a pedicure, and care for their skin and make-up.

People of all walks of life spend a lot of money on skin bleaching products that range from very expensive to cheap creams. A beautician points to the devastating side effects of various skin bleaching products. Some women bleach their hair three times in a short period of time which may damage the melanine. She comments further that the supposed effects are not achieved:
Illustrative is the Bollywood film “slumdog millionaire’ with a poor street boy who saves his money to buy the bleaching cream Fair and lovely. When he observes a large billboard with an advertisement of Fair and Lovely he excessively lubricates the crème on his skin. The film shows that it does not work at all. However, many Indians in Suriname ‘swear’ that it works well. But it is taboo to talk about using it. Experiences about skin whitening creams are exchanged freely with sisters, but not with outsiders.

Recently new skin bleaching products have been introduced in Suriname, which are increasingly used by Brazilians in Suriname, and these products are gradually becoming popular among Surinamese people. In the Brazilian saloons after having scrubbed the whole the skin, the hair on the skin is bleached: the so-called body bleach composed of different substances, with peroxide as the main ingredient . This treatment is called ‘Baño de Lua’ (‘Bath of the Moon’) and is promoted with a variety of body and whitening packages that are produced in Brazil.
According to Ronald Hall bleaching practices are not only a symptom of “the bleaching or whitening syndrome”, but are manifestations of a complex process that is driven by an attempt to assimilate. In the context of huge global and national inequalities a less powerful group is ‘forced’ to assimilate in a more powerful one. In the 19th Century – in the context of scientific racism and colonialism – skin color has been the most persistent indicator of ‘race’, and still has a profound impact on human relations. Global industries have become part of this complex process driven by an attempt to assimilate and homogenise people of different colors towards the dominant whitening that is not limited to a lighter skin color, but that is also related to other (esthetic) values, culture and the way of living.
Most scientific and popular reports regarding skin bleaching originate from Africa and Asia. This weblog article is meant to draw the attention of policymakers, scientists and others responsible for improving the health and life of the human race, including societies with a rainbow of dark skin colors like Suriname. The government of Suriname in particular should be aware of the identified problem of an increasing use of whitening cosmetics. Its implications need to be assessed carefully in order to take the necessary measures and policies.

Jack Menke & Rachida Norden

Mario Balotelli

He was abandoned at birth by his Ghanaian parents and brought up by his adopted parents in Brescia (Italy). He speaks Italian with the accent of the region, but received far more racist abuse than other black players, because his Italian identity is seen by some as a provocation. Italy’s immigrant population reaches 7%, but the country considers itself white.

This sort of discriminatory behavior is common in many countries of Europe. Embarrassing for  generations of Surinamese football players (many playing in the top-club AJAX, Netherlands), the fans of competing clubs were screaming jungle sounds and throwing bananas. Notably ,the players were born and raised in the Netherlands. This is not only seen in football (soccer), which is considered by many to be  the sport of the under-privileged, but also in other branches of sports.  In some sports however, this public mortification is not encountered, because of balloting, e.g. cricket or golf. It means that people with a dark skin are generally not entitled to membership or not welcome. There is one exception: Tiger Woods. But read his life story and discover his hardship. Boxing on the other hand is dominated by men of color. It is true that they are strong, but their perfect body is not their goal, nor do they see it as a human accomplishment, but as a means of getting freedom. Compare the gladiators during the Roman period.

This discrimination based on skin color is deeply rooted in the western world.  It has to do with feeling superior, with excluding other people from an equal place in the society,  with exploitation.

In the Netherlands there is officially no discrimination based on skin color. The reason is, that the governmental bureau of statistics (CBS) does not categorize their citizens according to color lines. They discern autochthonous (original, white), and allochthonous (foreign) citizens. The last group is broken down into western foreigners (from the rest of Europe, North America and Australia/New Zealand) and non-western citizens. This big group of nearly 2 million people ( on a total of 16 million) is vaguely traceable. They are mostly colored people, whose parents came from our former colonies: Indonesia, Suriname and the Caribbean islands – The Dutch Antilles. There is a rest group which consists of people from other non-western places, whatever that may mean. Obviously, this group consists of people with a dark skin, most likely from Africa. Although there is no official registration here in the Netherlands that keeps records based on discrimination against people with a dark skin, simply because the category officially does not exist, it does not mean that this form of discrimination does not occur. In practice, e.g., daily life, work, sports and recreation, skin color  is certainly by far the most practiced form of discrimination. Skin color is so obvious. Discrimination in sports is clear. It is only the tip of the iceberg!

Wiete Westerhof 

Haiti, a Caribbean country with about 10 million inhabitants, is the poorest country in the Americas and one of the poorest countries in the world, with a per capita income (GDP per capita in 2008 according to the world bank) of 1.000 US dollars ( for comparison: USA: 47.000 US dollars; Jamaica, another Caribbean state: 8000 US dollars). But Haiti has a remarkable and unique history. It is  forerunner in the liberation of suppressed people and the world wide emancipation of people of African descent. The country was a French colony but won its independence in 1804 from France in the world’s first (and only) successful slave revolt, led by the legendary ( ex-) slave named Toussaint  l’Ouverture.

François-Dominique Toussaint Louverture (1743 – 1803)

Henk Menke and Wiete Westerhof

A fictional portrayal entitled The taking of the children on the recently installed (1999) Great Australian Clock, Queen Victoria Building, Sydney, by artist Chris Cook.

They were put into institutions for schooling with the aim to place them in families to work as servants (girls) or farm hands ( boys). It became  known that these children were misused (enslaved and sexually abused) by their caretakers. The aim of the Government was to take away the cultural heritage of the aboriginals and to make them useful for the western society. It is unbelievable that the church missions played such an active part in this brutal policy, by establishing the ‘schooling’ institutions. Since the exhibition, there has been a public debate about the Stolen Generations, but it took until  February 13, 2008 for the Government to say “Sorry”.  However, compensation for the aboriginal citizens or restoration of their culture is not thought of.

On  August 30, 2009 the Australian government took a first step, announcing that the Prime Minister, Kevin Rudd, would formally apologize to former child migrants, in a gesture similar to his acknowledgement last year of the wrongs inflicted on the Aboriginal “Stolen Generations”.  Here, it concerns an estimated 10,000 British children shipped to Australia in the post-war years (1945 to the 1960’s), under a policy aimed at ridding the mother country of its war orphans and populating the former colony with “good white stock”.  Here again it were the church missions both in Great Britain and in Australia, that executed this horrible plan. I wonder how long it will take this time to officially apologize.

It is not unique that religious groups, the ‘bearers of morality’,  are involved in crimes against humanity. Jay Griffits describes in her impressive book ‘Wild, an Elemental Journey’ how missionaries are still paving the ways for modern-days colonialists and capitalists, to replace the adaptive, millennia-old cultures of people, who had the wisdom of living harmoniously in the last and threatened wildernesses of mother Earth.

This disrespect for people with other skin color, with other beliefs, with other culture, is making life miserable. One wonders what can be done to stop this brutal, inhumane and criminal behavior and to restore tolerance and mutual respect.

Wiete Westerhof

Whipped Peter, a man enslaved in Baton Rouge, Louisiana, USA

 Charles Darwin had a strong aversion to slavery, which appears to have deep roots in his family, who was strongly engaged in abolitionism. His two grandfathers, Erasmus Darwin (physician and philosopher, an early believer in evolution and progenitor of many of Charles’s ideas)  and Josiah Wedgwood (industrial potter of the famous China manufacturing factory) were active in the British anti slavery pressure group. So were Charles Darwin’s cousins and also his sister Catherine. The Wedgwoods funded British anti slavery politicians and designed a small oval anti slavery medallion of an enchained black man with the inscription: “Am I not a Man and a Brother?”  (see picture below).

Am I Not a Man and a Brother? (anti-slavery medallion), Josiah Wedgwood, ca. 1787

It was distributed to promote slave-trade abolition.[iv]  Charles Darwin, raised in an anti slavery milieu, had strong sympathy to people of color. He learned bird stuffing in Edinburgh from John, a freed  slave from British Guyana. About this man Darwin wrote: “A negro lived in Edinburgh who… gained his livelihood by stuffing birds, which he did excellently; he gave me lessons for payment, and I used often to sit with him, for he was a very pleasant and intelligent man”. During his voyage around the world with the Beagle, from 1831 till 1836, Darwin lived in South American countries, and directly witnessed the brutality of slave trade and slavery. When he caught the news from England that slavery in the British colonies would end in 1833 he contentedly wrote home: “I have watched how steadily the general feeling, as shown at elections, has been rising against slavery. -What a proud thing for England, if she is  the first Europaean nation which utterly abolishes it. – I was told before leaving England, that after living in slave countries: all my opinions would be altered; the only alteration I am aware of is forming a much higher estimate of the Negros character. – It is impossible to see a negro & not feel kindly towards him…”. According to Desmond and More, Darwin concerned himself with the unity of humankind from the very outset. This notion of brotherhood grounded his evolutionary enterprise. Where slave-masters bestialized blacks, Darwin’s starting point was the abolitionists believe in blood kinship, a ”common descent”.

            The two opposing views regarding  the origin of human “races” are  pluralism and unitarism. The advocates of pluralism – in Darwin’s days outnumbering the unitarists – believed that “races” were created separately and represented separate species. One of the protagonists of pluralism and also one of the strongest opponents of Darwin was the Swiss/American Harvard professor Aggasiz, who defended the pluralists view that there were  eight primordial human species, each created in a different geographic zone. The defenders of slavery clung to pluralism and were moreover convinced of the superiority of whites. Darwin was the Champion of unitarism, in fact he constructed it and defended it with his heart and his mind.  He believed that, far from being separate species, the races belonged to the same human family; slavery could therefore not be tolerated. From Desmond and More’s book the picture arises that Darwin’s unitarism and his abhorrence of slavery were intertwined and that his ideas on slavery pushed  him into the direction of unitarism.

            Unitarism, the concept of common descent of all man, accommodates Color Foundation, because it is the basic link between all people on earth irrespective of their present biological characteristics such as the color of their skin. Wiete Westerhof from Color Foundation has published an absorbing paper on skin color and evolution in a scientific journal and also a note on this subject in this weblogseries.[v] [vi]

Henk Menke                                

[ii]              This issue is published by  the Penguin Group ( 2009, London)

[iii]              This issue is published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt (2009, Boston)

[iv]              At this point it is important to aver that European abolitionism was certainly not the only reason for the abolition of slave trade and slavery. Revolt of slaves including marronage contributed to, or evidently induced (like in Haiti) the collapse of slavery.  But there are opponents to this idea. At the 40^th meeting of the Association of Caribbean Historians in 2008 in Paramaribo (Suriname),  professor P.C.Emmer, Dutch historian, presented the provoking  view that marronage in the Dutch West Indian colony Suriname was  not the result of the dreadful  life of slaves, moreover that it had been of practically no value in inducing emancipation, which, so he argued was merely the outcome  of changing morality in Europe. This view triggered commotion among West Indian delegates, who denounced Emmer’s view as a flagrant violation of historic reality.

[v]     Westerhof, W. (2007) Evolutionary, biologic and social aspects of skin color. Dermatologic clinics, 25, issue 3, 293 -302)

[vi]     Weblog of Colorfoundation, march 2008

            Ronald E. Hall ( Associate Professor in the School of Social Work, Michigan State University USA) places skin bleaching within a broad sociological, psychological and even historical concept which he designates “the bleaching syndrome”. He has first published his ideas in 1995.[1]  A recent outline of his interesting and thought provoking ideas can be found in chapter 2  of a book published in 2008, edited by Hall himself in which he has compiled papers by a diverse group of contributors to examine racism from an interdisciplinary perspective, however with the emphasis on the situation in the USA.[2]     

Getting a lighter skin is – according to Hall- not the only symptom of “the bleaching syndrome”, but just one of the symptoms or manifestations of a complex process. In terms of the driving force behind it, this syndrome can be seen as an attempt to assimilate. It is a self – denigrating process of orientation that requires a disparity of power of people. It is an essential fact of human experience anywhere in the world at any time in history, where a less powerful group must assimilate in a more powerful one, also at present time point in history, in post colonized societies. When applied to people of color, its existence is substantiated in a most dramatic fashion, for it is they who have had to idealize norms, which are often radically inconsistent with outward appearances. “The bleaching syndrome”, as said a wide concept, is regarding its manifestations not limited to (trying to get) a lighter skin color. It may exhibit itself in people of color also in their values, interaction styles, behavioural responses, language use and so forth. So because of its universality the term “the bleaching syndrome” as used by Hall can be seen as a metaphor.

            The scientific gain of the theory of Hall is that it places the whitening of the skin within a broad psychological and sociological framework, which is irrespective of time in history or place on earth. He confines himself to the description of the situation in the United States of America (probably because of the self imposed limitation of the content of his book). But it is indeed interesting to note that whitening of the skin is a common phenomenon nowadays in most if not all parts in the world where people live with a dark,  pigmented skin. This can be illustrated by 2 publications of Gomes and Westerhof (from Colorfoundation)  about the reasons behind the misuse of bleaching creams of women of color in Bangalore (India) and Amsterdam (Netherlands).[3] [4] These interesting papers, also discussing Hall’s view, can be found on the website of  Colorfoundation (see: http://www.colorfoundation.org/;  page: archives)

            Finally it is interesting to note that in his book Hall  also points out that skin color is relevant across the entire lifespan, as is known by all African –American social workers who are informed of issues significant to people of color. He further says that, despite this fact, according to the Social Work Abstracts database 1977- 2007, a minimum of articles has been published on “skin color” in the last thirty years. This statement can be considered no less than a provocative stimulus to enter the field of research on skin color, to fill up this scientific gap, and moreover to suggest practical solutions. But this is not an easy task, because the negative connotation of dark skin has a long history, possibly rooted in pre-historian time.[5]

Henk Menke

 [2] Racism in in the 21^st century, an empirical analysis of skin color. Ronald E. Hall, editor. 2008. Springer, New York. (see page 38 – 42 for “the bleaching syndrome”).

 [3] Gomes, P.D. and Westerhof, W. (2002) het gebruik van huidbleekmiddelen onder Indiase vrouwen in Bangalore.  Medische Anthropologie, 14, 353-374.

[4] Gomes, P.D. and Westerhof, W. (2000)  Het gebruik van chemische huidbleekmiddelen onder Ghanese vrouwen in Amsterdam-Zuidoost. Tijdschrift voor Genderstudies, 4, 20-33.

 [5] Westerhof, W. (2007) Evolutionary, biologic and social aspects of skin color. Dermatologic clinics, 25, issue 3, 293 -302)

In 1975, I started my career in Dermatology in Amsterdam. My chief and spiritual father was Professor Rudi Cormane. He was the great-grandson of a princess from Yogyakarta and a Dutch captain of a sailing ship of the Dutch East Indian Company. I went in 1983 for the first time to Indonesia with Rudi Cormane.I will never forget the event, because a team of American astronomers were studying the gravitational redshift on the Borobudur during the solar eclipse, confirming Einstein’s theory of relativity. Since then I went back to Indonesia at least 20 times, I never felt like a tourist, because I was invited to stay with friends.

With Prof. Rudi Cormane and Brig. Gen. Dr. H.A. Hassan at exhibition

With family Hassan

 Religion was never in the way. Most of the Indonesians, including the inhabitants of Java are Muslim. The people in Celebes (the northern part) are Christian and the Balinese are Hindu. I became under the spell of their numerous temples, wayang plays and mystical artistry. The Indonesians like ceremonies and singing. They always give presents to whoever visits them. I have many treasures in my study, also an ornamental Muslim prayer cap.

Wiebe with prayer cap

My grandson was allowed wearing it when he was playing in my study.

In mid-1988, Obama traveled for five weeks in Kenya, where he met many of his paternal relatives for the first time. He returned in August 2006 in a visit to his father’s birthplace, Kogelo village near Kisumu in rural western Kenya.

In 2004 I retired. Apart from some research tasks I left my medical work behind me. With my colleague and close friend Dr. Henk Menke and his brother Jack, I had established in 1997 a foundation to study medical, but above all the social aspects of human skin color, to further harmonious relations between people world wide. We chose Suriname, the fatherland of Henk and Jack, as the base for Color Foundation, because in this rainbow nation exemplary relations exist between the kaleidoscopically ethnic groups, most of them moved there by the Dutch colonial rulers. We maintain a weblog along our views of equality, regardless of skin color. In this respect we can speak of a more spiritual path followed by me, just like Obama, although we come from different directions. Our paths seem not to cross but to join.

Late last year I decided to go back to Kenya, to see the grandmother of Obama. I contacted my old friend, Prof. Haroun arap Mengech (psychiatrist), whom I know since 1972, when he came with a group of medical students from Kenyatta National Hospital in Nairobi to the Alupe Leprosy Hospital in Western Province to follow a course in public health. Much later, he was asked by the second president of Kenya (Daniel arap Moi) to build the medical faculty of Moi University in Eldoret. He was during 5 years the Dean of the Medical Faculty and is presently the Medical Director of Moi Teaching & Referral Hospital in Eldoret. He smoothened for me the way to go to Kogelo, the birthplace of Obama’s father. On January 9^th, 2009 I reported at the gate of the homestead. It was all fenced and guarded by Kenyan police and it was whispered that there were also black American Marines from the USA present. The grandmother, Mamma Sarah, had just left to the nearest city Kisumu, for passport photographs. She was preparing her trip to Washington, where she was invited to attend the presidential inauguration on January 20^th 2009. After signing the visitors’ book of the police, we were received by Hussein Sidiqui, a great-grandson of Mama Sarah and a young cousin of Obama.  After signing another visitors’ book of the family, we were given a tour around the compound.

Two graves

There were two graves: one of Obama’s grandfather and the other of his father. Before we left I handed over the ornamental Muslim prayer cap  as a present to Hussein Sidiqui. I explained to him that it was in the spirit of Barack Hussein Obama, who is from many backgrounds, and who tries to unite. He was visibly pleased with the gift.

Gift to Hussein Sidiqui

I was told that the new content of the visitors’ book was forwarded daily to President Obama. So, there may be a small chance that my name caught his attention. My hope is to meet him some time in the near future and to have philosophical discussions about how people are meant to live together. Because the economical crises is one thing, but there are more fundamental threats to humanity.

Wiete Westerhof