“Na only foolish women and night dey black.” Dis kain old Somali proverb plus di modern beauty talk wey dey social media don make plenty women for Somalia dey use dangerous skin-bleaching cream to make dem skin light, na wetin local dermatologists dey talk.

Plenty Somali beauty influencers dey for Somalia and di diaspora, and some of dem dey promote pale skin and skin-lightening products wey dem claim fit turn dark skin to white.

Skin-whitening products don dey market for Somalia for decades, but experts dey talk say di way influencers dey sell am online don make young women, even teenagers, dey rush dem. For one 2022 survey wey dem do for Mogadishu, dem find say 75.6% of di women wey dem interview dey use skin-whitening products, and dis number high pass di rates for Africa and di world.

Some influencers dey even mix and sell dia own cream. Even though dem no sabi chemistry or dermatology, dem dey add bleaching agents and chemicals for di cream, dey claim say e go work like magic. Dem go post pictures of demself wey dem face white like ghost, lips red like blood. Di popular ones get more than one million followers, and dia posts dey get thousands of likes.

Some influencers dey put dia phone number for dia social media profile so people fit call dem to buy di cream. Others get shop and dem go pin di location make customers sabi where to find dem. Some of dem dey try convince dia followers say light skin better pass dark skin, sometimes using fake photos and videos.

One influencer talk for online Q&A session wey don get almost 360,000 views say she dey make three different face creams, and each one dey do different work. For one of her popular videos wey don get 1.3 million views, she dey show how she dey rub di cream for her pale face. But di influencers no dey ever talk about di wahala wey fit follow di bleaching.

Dr. Mohamed Mude, wey be dermatologist and founder of Bidhaan Beauty and Health Centre for Mogadishu, talk say about 60% of him patients dey suffer skin irritation, redness, and inflammation because of di cream, but many no sabi di risk. E talk say di chemicals like hydroquinone and mercury wey dey di products fit cause irritation, allergic reaction, and long-term damage like skin-thinning and sensitivity to sunlight.

Mercury fit even damage kidney, affect vision, speech, and hearing, and e fit pass to pikin through breastmilk. Countries like South Africa, Kenya, Ivory Coast, and Ghana don ban skin-whitening products, but for Somalia, no regulation dey. Anybody fit buy di products, no matter dem age.

Iman Osman, wey dey run Maariin Skincare Centre for Mogadishu, dey try make women use natural and safer products. She dey talk for social media and with her customers say many Somalis no sabi di danger of bleaching creams. She talk say some sabi but dem still dey use am because dem want light skin and di safer creams dey cost more.

She talk say campaign dey important to teach people about di danger of bleaching products, and na women suppose lead di campaign. For Somali culture, dem don dey praise light skin for centuries, and light-skinned women dey seen as di standard of beauty.

But some women don dey stop di bleaching. Warsan* talk say she bleach her skin for five years but stop when she begin get scars and no fit tolerate sunlight. Now, she dey tell her family and friends say healthy skin better pass pale skin.

Journalist Aisha, wey dey 27 years old, start to use bleaching cream as teenager. She talk say after three years, her skin begin dey sensitive to sunlight, but she continue for over ten years. Na when she land for hospital after she fall for work, she stop. Di doctors tell her say di cream don make her skin thin and e no fit heal well. Na so she stop bleaching.

Many Somali women dey stop bleaching after dem learn di damage e fit cause. Some now dey believe say black is beautiful and e better to celebrate di skin wey dem get instead of to destroy am because dem wan turn white.

*Warsan no be her real name.

Di writers, Kiin Hassan Fakat, Naima Said Salaah and Haliima Mahomad Asair, na reporters for Bilan, Somalia’s first all-women media team, under Dalsan Media Group, Mogadishu.