For Ms Ntokozo Gumbo, after successfully achieving her desired complexion following years of investing in skin care to lighten her skin tone, she was disappointed when she gave birth to a baby heavily blessed with melanin. The father of the child was naturally light-skinned, and after she acquired a fair complexion, she was uncomfortable parading a dark baby around.
Tired of people's comments on how her baby looked like neither her nor the father, she took matters into her own hands and ordered baby glow, a heavily advertised baby cream that claims to "brighten and lighten baby skin, ‘with no side effects'".
"My husband is light in complexion, and most people do not know that I used to be dark naturally so a dark baby was starting to present problems as people were questioning paternity since the father and I are both seemingly light. I had to do something and it's not expensive," she said.
Ms Gumbo is not the only woman to succumb to public comments on dark-skinned babies.
It is a growing trend in Zimbabwe for bleaching mothers to want to have children with matching complexions, and the trend is even worse in South Africa, Tanzania, and West Africa.
Surprisingly, most of these products are illegal in the country, however, due to the porous nature of Zimbabwe's borders, they find their way through.

Although Ms Gumbo was reluctant to disclose her supplier, it was not difficult to find the product on the streets of Bulawayo. For as little as $7, one can get the Baby Glow product.
Dr Misheck Ruwende, who runs a campaign to spread free evidence-based health information on social media, says baby bleaching will have its consequences felt in a few years to come as the chemicals start having detrimental effects on the child's health. "It is really sad. It won't happen overnight but these people are slowly killing their children. These creams are heavily laden with chemicals that should never come into contact with human skin, let alone baby skin which is much thinner and more delicate, but the problems go way beyond the skin. Babies could even suffer total organ collapse with some of these chemicals and no matter the type of advertising, none of them are safe," said Dr Ruwende. The World Health Organisation warns that skin bleaching can cause liver and kidney damage, permanent scarring psychosis, brain damage in fetuses, and cancer.

Because of the many harmful chemicals that the products contain such as mercury, phenol, steroids, and hydroquinone, there is a huge risk involved when using them.
Due to a lack of education and awareness around the dangers, 90 percent of skin-lightening product users are unaware of these effects.
In Harare, a popular shop at the Eastgate Mall sells some of the creams used on baby skin and the shopkeeper says they are just to encourage baby skin to glow. Probed further on what glow is, she said the baby's skin will be "fairer and lighter". If the baby is naturally dark, he or she will have brighter, lighter skin.
At a similar shop in Bulawayo at the Highgate Complex, a woman voluntarily showed a catalog of babies who have had their ‘dull skin' transformed by the products she is selling.
A local high-end salon specializing in children's hair care also offers baby skincare ranges that also use euphemisms and claim to brighten baby skin yet in true fact, they bleach skin, owing to the chemicals contained.

The Medicines Control Authority of Zimbabwe (MCAZ) has heightened its enforcement after confiscating unregistered skin-lightening creams, body-altering products, expired drugs, and other illicit medicinal products that were illegally on sale countrywide. In a statement, the regulatory agency said medicines were being sold from flea market tables and car boots among other unauthorized places.

"The MCAZ is concerned about the illicit importation, and illegal sale of medicines on the market, including medicines being sold on the street. The Authority regularly carries out blitzes in conjunction with the Zimbabwe Republic Police (ZRP) and works with the ZRP and National Prosecuting Authority in prosecuting perpetrators," read the statement.

"The raid led to the discovery of unregistered, expired, and even registered medicines being sold unlawfully. Additionally, skin-lightening creams and other body-altering products were recovered. These medicines were being sold from flea market tables and car boot sales among other unauthorized places. The MCAZ remains committed to ensuring the safety and integrity of pharmaceutical products available to the public." Another new skin-bleaching treatment that is catching on is the intravenous application of glutathione — a natural antioxidant produced by the liver. Intravenous glutathione treatments can lighten skin, and the product can now also be obtained in the form of antioxidant supplement tablets.

Local and global campaigns against skin bleaching are gaining momentum, although smuggling syndicates are also quickly gaining entry to previously untouched territories due to social media helping them reach such zones. A local non-profit health information advocacy organization, Centre for Health Communication Zimbabwe (CHCZ), has been using social media to engage young people on colorism and the detrimental effects of skin bleaching. Ms Bongani Khumalo, public health education and promotion officer at CHCZ, says there are information gaps and people use skin-lightening products without the full knowledge of their ingredients.       

"Many individuals widely use skin-lightening creams to achieve lighter skin tones to meet societal standards of beauty and improve the appearance of hyperpigmentation and other skin blemishes. They may, however, pose detrimental health effects to children exposed to them prenatally and in early childhood. Some of these harmful effects include acrodynia, nephrotic syndrome, and glomerulonephritis dermatitis, among others. It is however, unfortunate that most users are not aware of the side effects and we call for stricter enforcement at our ports of entry to restrict the importation of such products, as well as increased public education on the dangers of bleaching. It is becoming a public health crisis," she said. Not only are toddlers at risk, but fetuses whose mothers are bleaching are also at high risk and could even be born blind. "It's very dangerous for pregnant women to take bleaching tablets," warns Ms Catherine Tetteh, founder of the Melanin Foundation, a Geneva-based non-governmental organization that campaigns against skin bleaching.
A Zimbabwean researcher Ms Shingirai Mtero of the Nordic Africa Institute and former lecturer of African Feminist Studies at Rhodes University in Grahamstown, South Africa, says these beauty standards have been inherited from the colonial period. "African countries emerged from colonization. . . But that does not mean that they emancipated themselves from the realities and prejudices that were imposed on them," she said.

"When people say it's about whiteness, it's not necessarily to physically be white, it's about wanting to access things white people have easy access to—privileges, economic and social status," Ms Mtero adds.
It is also becoming increasingly difficult for authorities to test products, and sometimes the dangerous mercury component is added to a product after it has been tested. Then there are also various innovations around the products, like glutathione, which is a chemical compound that can be ingested or injected. Smugglers are now using smaller ports of entry such as Maitengwe in Bulilima District and Mpoengs in Mangwe District, to get their contraband into the country. However, the Zimbabwe Revenue Authority spells out the ports of entry where such products should be cleared.

"Section 5 of the MCAZ Regulations clearly states that the importation of all consignments of medicines should be done through the designated ports of entry, which are: Harare International Airport, Bulawayo Airport, Harare Customs, Bulawayo Customs, Plumtree Border Post, Beitbridge Border Post and Forbes Border Post.
"According to the guidelines, no importations through unregistered Ports of Entry like Kariba, Nyamapanda, and Chirundu shall be sanctioned. The Customs and Excise Act also states, that "Any person who imports goods in contravention of this enactment shall be guilty of an offense."  Therefore, the goods so imported in contravention of the Act will be liable to seizure," reads a statement on the Zimra website.

According to the International Journal of Medical Practitioners, children's exposure to mercurial skin-lightening agents at any time during their development, from intra-uterine to early developmental life, can lead to severe detrimental health effects. This is because skin-lightening agents contain inorganic mercury as their active ingredient at varying concentrations that exceed acceptable levels. Mercury does not confer any physiological benefit to the human body, and as such, it has only been linked to numerous adverse effects on users and may pose a possible health risk for children born to, living with, and in contact with skin-bleaching agent users.
There is a high prevalence of cosmetic skin lightening among women of reproductive age in African countries with a prevalence of 25 percent in Mali and 30 percent in Tanzania, according to recent studies. This has been attributed to the influence of societal portrayal of lighter individuals as beautiful and the perpetuation of this notion by mass media and popular culture in some areas.
--------------Andile Tshuma, andile.tshuma@ztn.co.zw