African Humanities December 6, 2012
Gordon Rule Paper #2: Minutes of Glory Beatrice was a girl that grew up in her mother’s village, full of love and happiness. She fell for a rich young man with a luxurious foreign car and he promised her the world. Shortly after he had sexual relations with her he left. She woke up alone never to see him again. She was heartbroken and felt that she couldn’t return to her mother’s village so she became a prostitute. This was the beginning to Beatrice’s identity and self-worth problems. She didn’t get as much attention as the other prostitutes; she was ignored as if she wasn’t even there. She started using Ambi, a skin lightening cream, to make her skin lighter in an attempt to be more “appealing” to the men. My opinion as an African American woman myself is to love yourself for who you are and not for who you think you are “supposed” to be or look like. You would think African Americans would have the most scrutiny from other races on the outside but actually there is so much hatred within the African American culture it’s unbelievable. I’ve seen girls make fun of each other simply because their skin is darker or their hair is considered to be “nappy”. These perceptions root all the way back the period of colonization in Africa and decades later are still in full effect in America. I still see commercials and advertisements

for Ambi meaning there is still a demand for skin lightening and there are still people not confident and satisfied with their skin tone.
Society’s prospective of skin color has not changed much since the days of slavery. For some reason a darker pigment of skin is undesirable and I don’t understand this ideology but it causes a lot of internal turmoil within an individual because they weren’t born to look a certain way. Even in the Hispanic culture there seems to be a hierarchy of self-worth and identity. The lighter skinned more Caucasian looking Hispanics such as the Argentinians, Brazilians, and Ecuadorians seem to be higher up in society than let’s say the Mexicans or Dominicans. Such racial prejudices are the primary reason for individuals having these feelings of low self-esteem and value. Self-identity should be a proud topic on how people identify themselves with respect and dignity, not worry about what they are supposed to be or look like but embrace themselves and their heritage.
In my opinion, Beatrice used the guy with a fancy Peugeot to validate her self-worth and when he left her the little self-worth she had was shattered. As a result she became a prostitute and her self-worth plummeted even more than before. Her self-worth wasn’t ever based on how she felt about herself rather she based her self-worth on what others thought or perceived of her. She needed validation from men to prove her self-worth. First she needed the guy with the Peugeot, then she needed her regular customer that fell asleep on her the first time she opened up to him. Even when she stole his money and went shopping in Nairobi the guy that she seduced with her “new” beauty validated her self-worth so that she could go back to Treetops bar and prove a point. She didn’t possess her own self-identity so she always relied on her peer’s validation. Self- identity and self-worth depend heavily on how you were raised. Your parents instill values and self-worth as a child. My mother always taught me to be independent and to value myself. She set high standards for me and I always had a high self-esteem. For example I would never work for minimum wage; I personally feel my time is much more valuable than $7 an hour. Unfortunately Beatrice never progressed enough to figure out that her self-worth was much more than being a prostitute and having to put up with rude bar owners and patrons. I believe that’s part of the reason she despised Nyaguthii. Nyaguthii had her own identity and worth and could have cared less what the guys at the bar thought about her. That demeanor is why the guys flocked to her, because Beatrice came off desperate and needy. She needed someone to identify herself with.
There is too much emphasis on appearance and the superficial in society even in Beatrice’s era. Nowadays plastic surgery further erases who individuals are because there is a stereotype of what “beauty” and “perfection” are. No one feels comfortable in their own skin anymore because there’s always something that can be nipped or tucked until you are perceived as beautiful. Society has become so artificial with the Africans trying to look like Europeans with weaves or wigs or the Caucasians trying to look like the Africans with lip injections and boob jobs. Assimilation is very much a part of today’s society in a variety of different ways. I would just like to see in my lifetime the self-identity and self-worth rise and the superficial fade away.