Introduction

“I remember a time when I too felt unbeautiful. I put on the TV and only saw pale skin; I got teased and taunted about my night-shaded skin. And my one prayer to God, the miracle worker, was that I would wake up lighter-skinned.” These two sentences were part of a speech given by Hollywood actress Lupita Nyong’o that went viral after she won the Oscar for best supporting actress in 2014. “A Hollywood star is born” proclaimed The Guardian on the other side of the Atlantic, and a Nigerian-born journalist explained how much Nyong’o’s skin color mattered to Black women around the world. The shared feeling of having passed a milestone was seen as a continuation of the trend of breaking down color barriers that was also and particularly evident with the election of the first Black American president. On an online forum where questions of gender and ‘race’ are discussed, one user, recalling those post-Obama-election days, commented that ‘race’ will be overcome the day that a Black president could be as mediocre as his predecessors. ¹