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

Bibliographic Data

ID2137883
AuthorsLynn M Thomas (University of Washington, corresponding author)
Year2019
Volume78
Issue1
Pages6-32
Publication date2019-01-02
Peer ReviewedYes
Open AccessNo
TypeARTICLE
VenueAfrican Studies (JOURNAL)
Journal identifiersISSN: 0002-0184 • E-ISSN: 1469-2872
PublisherInforma UK Limited (PUBLISHER • GB)
DOI10.1080/00020184.2018.1540530
OpenAlexW2902288405
LanguageEN
Citations received4
References cited52

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