A new ad campaign has sprung up in response to advertisements that appeared in Dakar last year for a cosmetic cream called “Khess Petch”, or “all white” in the local Wolof language. The posters showed before and after pictures of a young woman who started out black and ended up with fair skin through depigmentation, locally known as “kheessal” or bleaching.
“We were scandalised (by a poster) suggesting that black is not beautiful because it recommends that young women should transform themselves in a fortnight,” said Aisha Deme, who runs the cultural website Agendakar.com.
“In a spontaneous response, we wanted to elevate the black woman and we launched “Nuul Kukk”, which means “all black”, the young woman added.
So the campaigners put up their own posters in the Senegalese capital, this time showing a proud black woman. The work was done for free by fashion photographer Stephane Tourne and advertising professionals.
The Nuul Kukk campaign, which is highly active online and has its own website, Twitter feed and Facebook page, features local stars, including the rapper Keyti, the stylist Dior Lo and women’s rights activist Kine Fatim Diop.
Extracts from a RawStory article (original) by Agence France-Presse. Published 18 February 2013.
