Consumer culture and 'black is beautiful' in apartheid South Africa and early postcolonial Kenya

Datos Bibliográficos

ID2137883
AutoresLynn M Thomas (University of Washington, autor de correspondencia)
Año2019
Volumen78
Número1
Páginas6-32
Fecha de publicación2019-01-02
Peer ReviewedSí
Open AccessNo
TipoARTICLE
RevistaAfrican Studies (JOURNAL)
Identificadores de la revistaISSN: 0002-0184 • E-ISSN: 1469-2872
EditorialInforma UK Limited (PUBLISHER • GB)
DOI10.1080/00020184.2018.1540530
OpenAlexW2902288405
IdiomaEN
Citas recibidas4
Referencias citadas52

Engaging the 'method of connective comparison', this article examines linkages between consumer culture and political debates in apartheid South Africa and early postcolonial Kenya. It does so by considering the history of skin lighteners, commodities that were both common and controversial. Largely unnoticed by commentators at the time, the growth of a black consumer market for skin lighteners in Kenya was tied to the earlier emergence of such a market in South Africa. This history also reveals how, in both countries, matters of consumer culture and anti-racist politics were often refracted through the prism of the United States

Development economics · Economics · Geography · Political science · Politics · Sociology · African history and culture studies · Gender Studies · Law · Race, History, and American Society · South African History and Culture