Hot Tingle

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I started thinking about this after a friend (she is blond) asked me whether it is true that dark skin protects one from the sun's rays. After all, she said, every documentation about Africans shows them running around naked in the hot sun. She in turn had been asked the question by her nephew, who had just been taught that at school.

Most people with dark skin originate from Africa, where their dark skin supposedly protects them from the harmful part of the sun's rays. Which may have been true, if all things had remained equal as far as the atmosphere is concerned.

And it is also true that one often sees films of dark-skinned people with little protective clothing on, or alternatively, with long white clothing and turbans. However, in most cases, in really hot parts of Africa, people take a break when it is really hot and rest in a shadow. In traditional societies in Africa, the business of the day was conducted very early in the morning (hunting, agricultural activities like digging) and then later in the evening (milking, fishing). Too much activity was avoided during the hot middle of the day, which reduced the skin's exposure to the strongest sun rays.

In addition, traditional Africans took painstaking care of their skin using traditional skin care products like red ochre mixed with cow fat (the Maasai, the Hima) or simsim oil and shea butter (the Acholi).

Apart from being excellent for sealing the skin's natural moisture into the skin and adding vital nutrients, this thick layer also protected against harmful sun-rays. The afore-mentioned skin care products are also rich in vitamin E, which is integral to many modern skin care and sun protection products.

The question whether African skin gets sun-burnt has not yet been scientifically researched. There has been no known systematic comparison of the effect on different kinds of black skin when exposed to different levels of exposure to harmful sun rays.

In the absence of evidence to the contrary, one can assume that dark skin does offer a measure of protection against the sun's harmful rays. However, the protective ozone layer that keeps out a lot harmful rays has been severely eroded, so it lets in more rays than would be normal. This may be a larger amount of harmful rays than the skin can naturally cope with.

It is therefore wise to undertake sun protection for your skin, however dark it is. Use products with adequate sun protection and vitamin E.

It is not for nothing that ancient Africans stayed out of the fierce midday sun. Continue the tradition, or if you must be out and about, wear a straw hat and sun shades, that do shield the eyes from the sun. A good alternative to a hat is a light shawl over the head.

Strong sunshine combined with water does burn African skin. Once on holiday in Italy, I went swimming on a fine summer day, where temperatures were 30 degrees and above. At the end of the day, my skin felt distinctly burnt, although no one else noticed anything. It only stopped stinging after I applied a lot of cold water and soothing creams.

So African skin can burn. Water (swimming pools and the sea) reflect the hot sun onto the skin, raising temperatures even higher that the reported diurnal ones.

So protect your skin when you go swimming with a strong sun protection. Do not stay out too long swimming in the sun. Do not wait until your skin starts to tingle; it is then probably already too late.

It is clear that the days when dark skin was enough protection against the harmful sun's rays are gone. Protect your (dark) skin actively again the now-aggressive sun's rays.

My name is Lamaro Schoenleber. I am female, African, and live in Germany with my husband. I hold a doctorate in Clinical Psychology and remain active as a therapist and researcher, though currently battling a life-changing and debilitating chronic illness. I am attached to Mbarara university of Science and Technology as a lecturer and researcher into clinical and educational Psychology. I love to write, especially about real life situations mostly related to Psychology, Literature and Language(s). I used to be merely knowledgeable, but due to my own experiences with chronic (and maybe eventually terminal) illness, migration, forced migration due to war, therapy and teaching experiences, I have discovered a depth of experience that adds real life confirmation to knowledge. This has proved to be persuasive to a lot of people, including my patients. In my opinion, knowledge is most persuasive when it gets personal, and this is what I try to do in my writing. I am keen to draw attention to my two pet universities; Mbarara University of Science and Technology and Gulu University, both in Uganda. They do amazing work, and could use all the help they can get. Please stay tuned; an upcoming web-site will provide more information.

Many thanks for reading our Hot Tingle article

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