Meet Vera Sidika — Kenya’s own Kim Kardashian — a socialite and model with a big rear view and a knack for stirring up controversy.
Known for flaunting her huge backside on Instagram, the Mombasa native ignited a cultural firestorm Friday when she told a talk show host she spent hundreds of thousands of dollars on skin-lightening treatments.
Until her appearance on Kenya’s “#TheTrend,” she’d been adored for her curves. The news of her shallow quest for beauty threw many of her fans into an uproar.
Even though it’s dangerous, skin lightening is gaining popularity in Africa, with women flocking to makeshift clinics for the procedure. Sidika, 24, is just one of the women who chose to come forward about her desire for lighter skin.
“Looking good is my business,” she said on the talk show. “My body is my business, nobody else’s but mine.”
An aspiring singer, she says her idols inspired her to lighten up. “Nicki Minaj and Rihanna did it,” she claimed. “You just have to do it the right way.”
The social media backlash hit hours after her disclosure. Viewers took to Twitter, calling her out for low self-esteem.
Another suggests Sidika put herself at risk, since bleaching is neither tested nor regulated.
Ironically, Oscar winner Lupita Nyong’o, also from Kenya, has been celebrated around the world for her natural hair and deep cocoa skin. But many Kenyan women adhere to another, more European style of beauty — using hair extensions and bleaching creams.
According to the BBC, Kenyan men prefer their women lighter or “yellow, yellow,” as opposed to darker or “tinted” women.
So far, Sidika says, she’s shelled out $170,000 for her much lighter skin tone.
Good thing her boyfriend’s an oil tycoon.
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