What is your definition of beauty? “Is it a combination of qualities, such as shape, colour, or form? Obviously, it varies across countries, cultures, religions and language. In an African context, it takes on a more complex meaning, particularly with regard to history, colonialism and slave trade interacting with patriarchy to perpetuate white western standards of beauty. This is known as colourism, ‘Africa’s colonial hangover, “shadism”, skin tone bias, pigmentocracy or the colour complex.