Is Having Full African Lips The In 'White' Thing?

One of the most sought after comics to read when I was growing up was, Albert Uderzo and René Goscinny’s Asterix and Obelix. The series follows the adventures of a village of Gauls as they resist Roman occupation in 50 BC. The protagonists, the title character Asterix and his friend Obelix, have various adventures and in many of the stories, they travel to foreign countries.

When it came to the illustrations, Uderzo was good at his craft and certainly knew what the game was about – especially when it came to depicting Africans. He always drew African’s with huge pink or red lips and large ears.

How Black Lips Are Drawn In The Comic Book Asterix and Obelix

Meanwhile at school, I was always asked: “Jeez TB, why do you Africans have huge lips?” And I might add that most of the questions I got asked did not have any racial undertones. It was just that they had no clue about Africa.  Others, asked why African women always have ‘enormous bottoms’. Basically in that era, white England - well at least the ones I was involved with, didn’t embrace African culture.

Is This How African Lips Really Look

In the 90s, they found it hip to be associated with an African cause – ‘Free Nelson Mandela’, ‘End Apartheid’, ‘Live Aid’ and ‘Ending Famine in Africa.’ And of course world music was also breaking – Hugh Masekela, Mory Kante, Youssuf Ndour were all climbing up the charts while, having an African friend – not a West Indian, but a real African friend was en-vogue.

White Man took it a step further by growing dreadlocks and wearing the rastacap or tam and trying to speak in a West Indian accent while, White Girl was seemingly simmering and waiting for her turn to shine, waiting for that one African association that would put her on the map.

And then she found it in the form of having big African lips and a large booty to go with it. So she started Botox and lip implants - something that the British government is launching a campaign to crack down on with women describing being left looking ‘like the Elephant Man’ after lip filler procedures went wrong, describing ‘stinging’ pain and feeling like their lips would split.

Rachael Knappier almost lost Her Top Lip

Rachael Knappier, a 23-year-old nurse from Greater Manchester, was left with hugely swollen lips after her £120 treatment ended in disaster. She said: “My lips swelled that big within half an hour of the beautician leaving, they looked like they were going to pop. My top lip was a lot bigger while my bottom lip was touching my chin. My lips felt really sore from the stretching, I felt like crying as my neck, jaw and throat were hurting too.”

Another woman who had the same procedure, 32-year-old Lora Evans from Swansea, was horrified by what happened to her: “My lips were just increasing in size hour-by-hour and were literally starting to split. I was more worried about the long-term effects of it, thinking, have I completely destroyed my lips out of vanity?”

Ok, so some African women bleach themselves in a bid to look lighter, but White Woman should take heart. God obviously dealt them a wrong hand and didn’t give their booty anything to cheer or crack open a bottle of champagne about – and a booty as flat as golfs 18^th green, is certainly nothing to cheer about.

Life is not fair but, it’s time White Woman accepted that booty will always be an African thing and without big African succulent lips, she will also never be able to delight in sucking out the bone marrow at a Wandegeya kigere joint nor, will she fully be able to comprehend what Col. Sanders is all about with his KFC slogan – it’s finger licking good!