Skin Lighteners, Black Consumers and Jewish Entrepreneurs in South Africa

This article considers the rise and decline of South Africa's lucrative and controversial skin-lighteners market through examination of the business history of the largest manufacturers, Abraham and Solomon Krok, and their evolving personas as millionaires and philanthropists. Such examination...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:History workshop journal 2012-04, Vol.73 (73), p.259-283
Main Author: Thomas, Lynn M.
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
African Americans
Apartheid
Business
Businesspeople
Cosmetic Techniques - history
Cosmetics - history
Cream
Economics - history
Entrepreneurs
FEATURE: RACE, BODIES AND BEAUTY
History of medicine
History, 20th Century
Humans
Hydroquinones
Jewish peoples
Population Groups - education
Population Groups - ethnology
Population Groups - history
Population Groups - legislation & jurisprudence
Population Groups - psychology
Race Relations - history
Race Relations - legislation & jurisprudence
Race Relations - psychology
Skin
Skin Pigmentation
South Africa - ethnology
White people
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Summary:This article considers the rise and decline of South Africa's lucrative and controversial skin-lighteners market through examination of the business history of the largest manufacturers, Abraham and Solomon Krok, and their evolving personas as millionaires and philanthropists. Such examination reveals how the country's skin-lighteners trade emerged as part of the broader growth of a black consumer market after the Second World War and how elements of that market became the target of anti-apartheid protests in subsequent decades. It also demonstrates how the Kroks' experiences as second-generation Jewish immigrants shaped their involvement in the trade and how, later, their self-identification as Jewish philanthropists informed their efforts to rehabilitate their reputations following South Africa's 1990 ban on all skin lighteners. Such efforts include the building of Johannesburg's highly acclaimed Apartheid Museum, modelled after the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum. This article explores the profound ironies that some South Africans see in the fact that a museum dedicated to commemorating those who suffered under and, ultimately, triumphed against state racism was financed by a family fortune generated through the sale of skin lighteners to black consumers.
ISSN:1363-3554
1477-4569
DOI:10.1093/hwj/dbr017