MARY LOUISE KELLY, HOST:
Skin whitening is a major industry around the world, including in the U.S., but it is endemic in Nigeria, Africa's most populous country. It's rooted in colonial-era beauty standards that see brighter skin tones as more desirable. The effects can be severe, and many people who use these products are unable to stop, as NPR's Emmanuel Akinwotu reports.
SUSAN ANDERSON: I went through hell before I got myself again.
EMMANUEL AKINWOTU, BYLINE: Susan Anderson is a 52-year-old store assistant.
ANDERSON: I was helpless.
AKINWOTU: We met in the waiting room of a dermatology clinic in the capital, Abuja. Parts of her face looked seared with burns. Thick, dark patches of skin surrounded her eyes and covered her cheeks. Anderson started using skin whitening creams as a child, given to her by her stepmother.
ANDERSON: I think at the age of 12. She never explained to me. I just felt it was a normal cream, and I was using them. I was naive, and I was vulnerable.
AKINWOTU: When she was 15, a school friend recommended a stronger product used as a body lotion.
ANDERSON: Within one week, I started seeing changes. I started becoming more fairer than I was.
AKINWOTU: And how did it make you feel?
ANDERSON: I felt happy. I felt I was looking more beautiful.
AKINWOTU: Until it nearly killed her when she became pregnant.
ANDERSON: It was during delivery. I had a terrible cut.
AKINWOTU: She had a vaginal tear that doctors struggled to treat because the whitening creams had eroded layers of her skin.
ANDERSON: They sewed it, but the stitches were not holding. I almost died at that point.
AKINWOTU: And it took over a year for her to recover.
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AKINWOTU: Skin whitening or skin bleaching is a major industry around the world, but especially in Nigeria. More than 77% of Nigerian women have used skin whitening products, according to the U.N. - the highest rate in Africa. One of the major markets in the country is the populous northern city of Kano.
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AKINWOTU: At the Sabon Gari market are several small stores covered in posters and images of white and Arab women, which sell an array of skin whitening products.
Mirror White Whitening Lotion, Skin Beauty White, So White So Beautiful, Quick Action, Rapid White.
One of the store owners is 29-year-old Shafari Mansur.
SHAFARI MANSUR: Some person, they say they want bath salts. Some people, they say they want shower gel. Any one you want, we can do it for you.
AKINWOTU: He says most customers are interested in whitening creams and soaps, but some want other types of products, too.
MANSUR: Injection, like this one.
AKINWOTU: He shows me a box of small, clear capsules of hyaluronic acid and hexapeptide, used for injection. He says he doesn't administer them himself.
MANSUR: But me, I'm not doing it. It's not good.
AKINWOTU: Instead, he says, he uses the serums to mix bespoke creams and soaps for customers. Traders like Shafari mix a cocktail of various whitening products with self-made solutions...
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AKINWOTU: ...Stirring them in plastic bowls in their stores. But there's a catch with all whitening products, he says - they only work if you keep using them.
MANSUR: If you stop using it, you turn back to you are Black. God create you Black. Who can change you? Nobody.
AKINWOTU: He said God created you Black, and no one can change it. So when you stop, your skin reverts back within weeks, but with damage.
ZAINAB BASHIR: People that bleach their skin, it's like an addiction.
AKINWOTU: Zainab Bashir is Susan Anderson's doctor in Abuja. She founded DermaRx, a dermatology clinic. She said there is very little regulation of skin whitening products.
BASHIR: Anyone can literally walk into a pharmacy, buy it without any prescription, and use it for as long as they want.
AKINWOTU: The products have been linked to higher rates of skin cancer, and Nigeria's government said it was considering new regulations on skin whitening products. After her medical scare, Susan Anderson briefly stopped using the whitening creams, but then she started again...
ANDERSON: It was actually very, very hard for me to stop using them.
AKINWOTU: ...And continued for decades, while battling severe reactions and burns. She felt more and more isolated as the side effects worsened.
ANDERSON: I couldn't get a job. And I also lost a man whom I was dating, that I was supposed to get married to, because he said we cannot present me to his family.
AKINWOTU: She eventually found work as a store assistant, and during one of her shifts last year, she met Zainab Bashir, who brought Anderson to her clinic.
ANDERSON: She said I shouldn't worry - that she's going to help me out. And I was really very grateful to her.
AKINWOTU: And after losing hope, she finally found the help she needed. Emmanuel Akinwotu, NPR News, Abuja and Kano. Transcript provided by NPR, Copyright NPR.
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