ACTRESS Dakore Egbuson-Akande says she has never and will never tamper with her skin colour to conform with the society standard.
The mother of two beautiful girls made this known in a recent interview where she said, “As a role model in the film industry, when I started wearing my hair in natural locs, it inadvertently gave others the courage to start their own natural hair journey. Personally, I’m obsessed with being my authentic, African self so it’s a no brainer that using my platform and example I am encouraging people to embrace our natural skin tone. For me, that is my mission because we have been programmed and conditioned through colonialism to accept that anything that connotes beauty has to be white/foreign. But I am saying, this is my God-given natural skin tone and its beautiful and it is enough.”
“I have never bleached my skin and I never will because I have fully embraced who I am. So, I want to encourage other women and men to embrace who they are too. I want this to be part of my legacy. From the beginning of my career in the Nigerian film industry I have been known for being natural, being down to earth and relatable and I want to also extend that to DakoreBeauty. It breaks my heart that it has become the norm to bleach our skin. We aspire to change our hair. We do stuff outside of ourselves, and the rest of the world is capitalising on that. So, for me, it’s not just about the brand, in terms of sales. It is teaching our young girls that are coming up in the world to know that being beautiful is not just enough, you should also care for your skin naturally. You don’t have to bleach your skin to look beautiful.”
When asked to advice young ladies aiming to be in the entertainment industry, Ms Akande said, “They should find what makes them tick, what makes you come alive and do that. Don’t conform too much with what society expects. Don’t be in a hurry, lasting success takes time. Be modest, be kind and ‘Do You’. It’s important because the world needs to see you for what you have to bring to the table.”
