Skin lighteners, black consumers and Jewish entrepreneurs in South Africa

History Workshop Journal

Volumn 73, Issue 1, 2012, Pages 259-283

  Thomas, Lynn M ^a  

^a UNIVERSITY OF WASHINGTON   (United States)

Author keywords

[No Author keywords available]

Indexed keywords

COSMETIC;

ARTICLE; ECONOMICS; EDUCATION; ESTHETIC SURGERY; ETHNIC AND RACIAL GROUPS; ETHNOLOGY; HISTORY; HUMAN; LEGAL ASPECT; PSYCHOLOGICAL ASPECT; SKIN PIGMENTATION; SOCIAL PROBLEM; SOUTH AFRICA;

COSMETIC TECHNIQUES; COSMETICS; ECONOMICS; HISTORY, 20TH CENTURY; HUMANS; POPULATION GROUPS; RACE RELATIONS; SKIN PIGMENTATION; SOUTH AFRICA;

EID: 84859322058     PISSN: 13633554     EISSN: 14774569     Source Type: Journal    
DOI: 10.1093/hwj/dbr017     Document Type: Article

References (156)

1. John Battersby, 'Apartheid Museum a Testament to Triumph Over Adversity', Sunday Independent, 28 Oct. 2001.
2. Paul Olivier, 'White Parties Back Apartheid Museum', Citizen, 29 Nov. 2001.
3. Rachel L. Swarns, 'South African Museum Recreates Apartheid', New York Times, 10 Dec. 2001.
4. Sean O'Toole, 'The Structure of Memory: Johannesburg's Apartheid Museum', Artthrob 55, March 2002, www.arthrob.co.za/02mar/reviews/apartheid.html.
5. Deborah Graham, 'Apartheid Museum Voted No 1', Citizen 3 Oct. 2005.
6. Charlotte Bauer, 'Speaking for Itself, and For All of Us', Sunday Times, 2 Dec. 2001.
7. Anne Simmons, 'Shame on Show at Apartheid Museum', Cape Times, 7 Dec. 2001.
8. Robyn Sassen, 'Apartheid: Now in Museum Form', 1 May 2002, on blog 'Just Another Day in Africa' at PopMatters, www.popmatters.com/columns/sassen/020501.shtml.
9. Nicoli Nattrass, 'Economic Aspects of the Construction of Apartheid', in Apartheid's Genesis, 1935-1962, ed. Philip Bonner, Peter Delius and Deborah Posel, Johannesburg, 1993.
10. Mark Hunter, Love in the Time of AIDS: Inequality, Gender, and Rights in South Africa, Bloomington, 2010, chap. 4.
11. Anne Kelk Mager, Beer, Sociability, and Masculinity in South Africa, Bloomington, 2010
12. For the expansion after the Second World War of a black consumer market in southern Africa more generally, see Timothy Burke, Lifebuoy Men, Lux Women: Commodification, Consumption, and Cleanliness in Modern Zimbabwe, Durham, 1996.
13. Shula Marks, 'Review Article: Apartheid and the Jewish Question', Journal of Southern African Studies 30: 4, 2004, p. 891.
14. Charles Van Onselen, The Seed is Mine: the Life of Kas Maine, a South African Sharecropper 1894-1985, New York, 1996, pp. 113, 363.
15. Also see Milton Shain, ' "Vant to Puy a Vaatch": the Smous and Pioneer Trader in South African Jewish Historiography', Jewish Affairs, September 1987
16. 'Krok Brothers Buy Big in Oz: Mansion to be Knocked Down', Citizen, 22 Nov. 2007.
17. Wiseman Khuzwayo, 'SA's Super-Rich Krok Trio Stir Up Sydney', Sunday Independent, 16 March 2008
18. Kim Hawkey, 'Krok Family Ripped Apart', Sunday Times, 7 Feb. 2010.
19. 'Kroks Honoured for a Lifetime of Giving', Jewish Achievers Awards (magazine distributed at gala dinner), 2006, p. 8.
20. Interview with Solomon Krok by author, 8 Aug. 2008, Summer Place, Johannesburg. Due to illness, Abraham was unable to join these interviews.
21. [5'] Krok: R668,7', Financial Mail, 7 Jan. 1994.
22. Interview with S. Krok, 8 Aug. 2008.
23. 'Table 24. Economically Active Jews, By Occupation, 1936-1980', in Sergio Della Pergola and Allie A. Dubb, 'South African Jewry: a Sociodemographic Profile', in American Jewish Year Book, 1988, ed. David Singer, New York, 1988, p. 127.
24. Mendel Kaplan and Marian Robertson, 'Introduction', in Founders and Followers: Johannesburg Jewry, 1887-1915, ed. Mendel Kaplan and Marian Robertson, Johannesburg, 1991, p. 14.
25. Interviews with S. Krok, 8 Aug. 2008 and (at Milpark Hospital café, Johannesburg) 12 Aug. 2008.
26. Charles H. Feinstein, An Economic History of South Africa: Conquest, Discrimination and Development, Cambridge, 2005, pp. 116-9.
27. Hannah Arendt, 'Part Two: Imperialism', in The Origins of Totalitarianism (1951), new edn, New York, 1979, pp. 204-6.
28. Milton Shain, The Roots of Antisemitism in South Africa, Charlottesville, 1994, pp. 118-42.
29. Keith Beavon, Johannesburg: the Making and Shaping of the City, Pretoria, 2004, chap. 5.
30. Interviews with S. Krok, 8 and 12 Aug. 2008.
31. As previous note.
32. Interview with Francis Roux by author and Sarah Espis-Sanchis, Middelburg, 14 July 2008.
33. Kathy Peiss, Hope in a Jar: the Making of America's Beauty Culture, New York, 1998, pp. 26-32, 40-43, 226.
34. Nina G. Jablonski, Skin: a Natural History, Berkeley, 2006, pp. 158-9.
35. Modern Girl Around the World Research Group (Alys Eve Weinbaum, Lynn M. Thomas, Priti Ramamurthy, Uta G. Poiger, Madeleine Y. Dong and Tani E. Barlow), 'The Modern Girl Around the World: Cosmetics Advertising and the Politics of Race and Style', in The Modern Girl Around the World: Consumption, Modernity, and Globalization, ed. Modern Girl Research Group, Durham, 2008.
36. Byron Fenner, Fenner's Twentieth Century Formulary and International Dispensatory, Westfield NY, 1904, p. 1,385.
37. Francis Chilson, Modern Cosmetics, 1st edn, New York, 1934, p. 113.
38. Cleveland R. Denton, Aaron Bunsen Lerner and Thomas B. Fitzpatrick, 'Inhibition of Melanin Formation by Chemical Agents', Journal of Investigative Dermatology 18: 2, 1952.
39. Peiss, Hope in a Jar.
40. Modern Girl Research Group, 'The Modern Girl Around the World'
41. Noliwe Rooks, Hair Raising: Beauty, Culture, and African American Women, New Brunswick, 1996.
42. Peiss, Hope in a Jar, chap. 7.
43. Susannah Walker, Style and Status: Selling Beauty to African American Women, 1920-1975, Lexington, 2007, chap. 1.
44. Lynn M. Thomas, 'Skin Lighteners in South Africa: Transnational Entanglements and Technologies of the Self', in Shades of Difference: Why Skin Color Matters, ed. Evelyn Nakano Glenn, Palo Alto, 2009.
45. As previous note.
46. Carolyn McGibbon, 'Blooming Trade May Be Nipped in Bud', c. May 1987, TimesMedia clippings files, TimesMedia House, Johannesburg.
47. Farieda Khan, 'Creams that are Destroying Black Beauty', Weekend Argus, 25 Aug. 1990.
48. The Urban Bantu Market: Understanding its Complexities and Developing its Potential - Proceedings of a 2-Day Seminar held in February 1969, Durban, Natal, National Development and Management Foundation, Johannesburg, 1969, p. 21.
49. D. F. Nealon, 'Ammoniated Mercury and the Skin', Drug and Cosmetic Industry 52: 2, 1943.
50. Denton and others, 'Inhibition of Melanin Formation'
51. Edward A. Oliver, Louis Schwartz and Leon H. Warren, 'Occupational Leukoderma', Journal of American Medical Association 113: 10, 1939, pp. 927-8.
52. Oliver, Schwartz and Warren, 'Occupational Leukoderma', Archives of Dermatology and Syphilology 42: 6, 1940.
53. Interviews with S. Krok, 8 and 12 Aug. 2008.
54. 'Business Achievers of the Month', Herald Times, 31 July 1987, p. 6.
55. Interviews with S. Krok, 8 and 12 Aug. 2008.
56. Cheryl Y. Levin and Howard Maibach, 'Exogenous Ochronosis: an Update on Clinical Features, Causative Agents and Treatment Options', American Journal of Clinical Dermatology 2: 4, 2001.
57. L.M. Guthrie, 'Successes and Failures in Marketing - the Lessons to be Learned', in National Development and Management Foundation, The Urban Bantu Market, p. 68.
58. Interviews with S. Krok, 8 and 12 Aug. 2008; interview with Lorato Mosweu (pseudonym) by author and M. Mpho, Tembisa, Gautang Province, South Africa, 18 May 2009.
59. Interviews with S. Krok, 8 and 12 Aug. 2008. From Krok's description it is unclear what he actually did at the pass offices. Other historical accounts suggest that while black employees spent much time at such offices securing necessary documentation, white employers did not.
60. SuperRose ad, Zonk!, June 1959.
61. Nimrod Mkele, 'Advertising to the Bantu', in Second Advertising Convention in South Africa, sponsored by The Society of Advertisers Ltd., Durban, 21st-24th September, 1959, Johannesburg, 1959.
62. Interview with S. Krok, 8 Aug. 2008.
63. Hollywood Curl (PTY) Limited and The International Hollywood Curl Hairdressers Suppliers and Training Centre v. Twins Products (PTY) Limited, Judgment Supreme Court of South Africa (Appellate Division) case no. 281 of 1987, vol. III, BB1, pp. 388-416.
64. Interviews with S. Krok, 8 and 12 Aug. 2008.
65. B. Bentley-Phillips and Margaret A. H. Bayles, 'Cutaneous Reactions to Topical Application of Hydroquinone: Results of a 6-year Investigation', South African Medical Journal 49: 34, 9 Aug. 1975, p. 1,391.
66. D. Saffer, H. Tayob, and P.L.A. Bill, 'Correspondence: Continued Marketing of Skin-Lightening Preparations Containing Mercury', South African Medical Journal 50: 39, 11 Sept. 1976, p. 1,499.
67. 'Krok Brothers: Mixing a New Brew', Financial Mail, 3 April 1987, pp. 31-2.
68. Interview with S. Krok, 12 Aug. 2008.
69. Dr Leonard J. Trilling, Asst Director for Medical Review, Division of Cosmetics Technology, Department of Health, Education, and Welfare to H. Wulffhart, Twins Products (PTY) Limited, Johannesburg, South Africa, 6 March 1974: Records of Food and Drug Administration, RG 88, General Subject Files, 1974, 581.1, National Archives and Record Administration, College Park, Maryland.
70. In 1988 a general manager for Twins Products stated that their products contained up to five percent hydroquinone into the early 1980s. Yvonne Grimbeek, 'Postponing of Skin Lighteners' Ban Slammed by City Pharmacists', Natal Witness, 15 July 1988.
71. George H. Findlay, J. G. L. Morrison, and I. W. Simson, 'Exogenous Ochronosis and Pigmented Colloid Milium from Hydroquinone Bleaching Creams', British Journal of Dermatology 93, 1975.
72. G. H. Findlay and H. A. De Beer, 'Chronic Hydroquinone Poisoning of the Skin from Skin-Lightening Cosmetics: a South African Epidemic of Ochronosis of the Face in Dark-Skinned Individuals', South African Medical Journal 57: 6, 9 Feb. 1980, p. 187.
73. Steve Biko, 'What is Black Consciousness?', in Steve Biko - I Write What I Like: a Selection of His Writings, ed. Aelred Stubbs, San Francisco, 1978, p. 104.
74. Interviews with Malusi Mpumlwana, Thoko Mbanjwa, and Mamphela Ramphele, Cape Town; and with Malusi Mpumlwana, 7 Aug. 1989, Uitenhage: Karis and Gerhart Collection, Historical Papers, University of Witwatersrand.
75. Emma Mashinini, Strikes Have Followed Me All My Life: a South African Autobiography, London, 1989, p. 9.
76. 'If the Health Department Keeps Its Promise. .. Say Goodbye to Skin Lightening Cream', Learn and Teach 2: 3, 1982.
77. 'Regulations Governing the Sale of Cosmetics Containing Hydroquinone, Mercury, and Lead', South African Government Gazette 210, 1982
78. 'Regulations Governing the Sale of Cosmetics Containing Hydroquinone, Mercury, and Lead', South African Government Gazette 219, 1983
79. Interview with Dr Hilary Carman by author, 15 Aug. 2004, Johannesburg.
80. 'Skin Lightening Creams a Danger', Star, 24 Sept. 1982.
81. Ruth Bhengu, 'The Facts About Skin Lighteners', Drum, April 1990.
82. Findlay and De Beer, 'Chronic Hydroquinone Poisoning'.
83. George H. Findlay, 'Ochronosis Following Skin Bleaching with Hydroquinone', American Academy of Dermatology Journal 6: 6, 1982.
84. Dr C. Isaacson, Department of Anatomical Pathology, University of Witwatersrand, to Dr Stevens, National Health and Population Development, Pretoria, 25 May 1987: Personal Papers of Dr Hilary Carman (hereafter PPHC).
85. 'Cosmetics: Skin Lightener Sales Still Strong', Finance Week, 6 April 1989.
86. Quotes from Shimoni, Community and Conscience, pp. 17, 16.
87. James Campbell, 'Beyond the Pale: Jewish Immigration and the South African Left', in Memories, Realities and Dreams: Aspects of the South African Jewish Experience, ed. Milton Shain and Richard Mendelsohn, Johannesburg, 2002.
88. Phone conversation with Geoff Budlender, 25 July 2008, Cape Town. On Budlender and other Jewish lawyers at LRC, see Shimoni, Community and Conscience, pp. 190-1.
89. Immanuel Suttner, Cutting Through the Mountain: Interviews with South African Jewish Activists, London, 1997, pp. 325-40.
90. 'If the Health Department Keeps Its Promise'
91. 'Skin Lightening Creams: a Big New Problem', Learn and Teach 2: 5, 1982, pp. 1-3.
92. Interview with Marc Suttner by author, 22 May 2009, Johannesburg.
93. 'The Learn and Teach Challenge', Learn and Teach 2: 5, 1982.
94. Martin Feinstein, 'Drum to Ban All Ads for Skin Lightening Creams', Rand Daily Mail, 8 Sept. 1982.
95. Quotes from Murphy Morobe, 'Towards a People's Democracy: The UDF View', Review of African Political Economy 40, December 1987.
96. Bhengu, 'The Facts About Skin Lighteners'.
97. Vita Palestrant, Consumer Affairs Manager, Checkers South Africa Ltd, Johannesburg to Ellen Kuzwayo, President, National Black Consumers Association, Johannesburg, 30 March 1987: PPHC
98. ' "White Skin" Creams Under Fire', Sowetan, 18 May 1987.
99. 'Two Firms Ban Sale of Skin Lighteners', The Citizen, 25 June 1987.
100. Government Gazette no. R2892; a draft of the regulation was introduced the previous May. McGibbon, 'Blooming Trade'.
101. Press Statement by Dr E. Kuzwayo and Dr Hilary Carman, 'Ban of Hydroquinone and Other Harmful Ingredients in Skin Lighteners', 9 March 1988: PPHC.
102. J. Tatham, Vice President, Housewives' League of South Africa to Director General, Foodstuffs, Cosmetics and Disinfectants Act, 'Banning of Skin Lighteners', 16 March 1988: PPHC.
103. 'Press Announcement: The Skin Lightening Industry', 26 June 1988: PPHC.
104. Simpiwe Ncwana, 'Red Faces Over Skin Lighteners', City Press, 31 July 1988.
105. Mokgadi Pela, 'Skin Lighteners Do Damage', Sowetan, 27 April 1989
106. Grimbeek, 'Postponing of Skin Lighteners' Ban'.
107. Tania Levy, 'Ban on Hydroquinone Surprises Twins', Business Day, 24 April 1990.
108. 'Lipworth Profit Warning', The Citizen, 24 June 1987.
109. McGibbon, 'Blooming Trade'.
110. On Tony Bloom as a member of the delegation of liberal businessmen who met with African National Congress leaders in 1983, Shimoni, Community and Conscience, pp. 194-5.
111. 'Press Announcement: The Skin Lightening Industry', 24 June 1988.
112. Mokgadi Pela, 'Skin Lighteners Do Damage', Sowetan, 27 April 1989.
113. 'Cosmetics: Skin Lightener Sales Still Strong', 1989 (see n. 53).
114. Grimbeek, 'Postponing of Skin Lighteners' Ban'.
115. Dr David Presbury, President of the Dermatological Society of South Africa, 'Hydroquinones: a National Disgrace!', Diseases of the Skin 2: 2, 1988: p. 1.
116. 'Banning of Hydroquinone': PPHC.
117. Bhengu, 'The Facts About Skin Lighteners'.
118. Asha Singh, 'Skin Creams Face Ban', Sowetan, 24 April 1990.
119. Anthony Barker, 'End of a 10-Year Battle to Ban Skin Lighteners', Business Day, 30 Aug. 1990.
120. Republic of South Africa, 'Government Notice No. R. 1227 of 24 June 1988', Government Gazette, Pretoria, 1988; Republic of South Africa, 'Government Notice No. R. 1861 of 10 August 1990', Government Gazette, Pretoria, 1990.
121. 'Venter Cracks Down on Skin-Lightening', Daily Mail, 14 Aug. 1990.
122. Barker, 'End of a 10-year Battle'.
123. 'Battle Against Skin Lighteners Ends', Sowetan, 30 Aug. 1990.
124. 'No Skin Lightener Sales', The Daily Mail, 23 Aug. 1990.
125. 'Pharmacists Slam Reports', Pretoria News, 25 Aug. 1990.
126. Babalwa Shota and Dina Seeger, 'Smugglers Cash In on an Illicit Market,' Sunday Times, 12 Dec. 1999.
127. Sam Mathe, 'Curse of the Cosmetic Creams', Drum, 10 Feb. 2000.
128. Interviews with S. Krok, 8 and 12 Aug. 2008.
129. [5'] Krok' (see n. 9 above).
130. On the Kroks' contributions to black charities, see photo of S. Krok at TEACH event, Star, 27 July 1973.
131. 'Money for the Needy', Sowetan, 10 Dec. 1991.
132. Marian Robertson and Mendel Kaplan, 'The Chevra Kadisha - Jewish Helping Hand and Burial Society: Johannesburg's First Organised Social Welfare Work', in Founders and Followers, ed. Kaplan and Robertson.
133. Joseph Sherman, 'Serving the Natives: Whiteness as the Price of Hospitality in South African Yiddish Literature', Journal of Southern African Studies 26: 3, 2000, p. 518.
134. Julia Cook, 'Aish Hatorah Raises Money at a Gala Dinner', SA Jewish Report, 13-20 Nov. 2009.
135. 'Kroks Honoured for a Lifetime of Giving'
136. 'Winners All at Jewish Achievers Awards', SA Jewish Report, 1-8 Sept. 2006.
137. Peter Alegi, Laduma!: Soccer, Politics, and Society in South Africa, Scottsville, 2004
138. Beatrix Payne, 'Abe, the Semi-Retired Millionaire Who Loves Soccer', Financial Mail, 4 Aug. 1995.
139. Stuart Graham, 'For Solly and Abe, Gambling with Business is Twice the Fun', [South African] Sunday Times, 13 Oct. 2002.
140. Graham, 'For Solly and Abe'
141. Heather Formby, 'Godfather Krok knuckles down', Business Times, 27 Feb. 2005.
142. Martin Hall and Pia Bombardella, 'Las Vegas in Africa', Journal of Social Archaeology 5: 1, 2005, p. 13.
143. Philip Bonner, 'History Teaching and the Apartheid Museum', in Toward New Histories for South Africa: On the Place of the Past in Our Present, ed. Shamil Jeppie, Cape Town, 2004.
144. Apartheid Museum official webpage www.apartheidmuseum.org.
145. Bauer, 'Speaking for Itself'
146. Sassen, 'Apartheid'
147. Graham, 'For Solly and Abe'
148. Bauer, 'Speaking for Itself'. Interestingly, Mda in one novel condemned the Kroks by name for selling skin lighteners and earning huge profits (The Madonna of Excelsior, Oxford. 2002, pp. 80-2).
149. Bauer, "Speaking for Itself'
150. Sassen, 'Apartheid'
151. Shimoni, Community and Conscience, pp. 168 and 265-6.
152. Annie E. Coombes, History After Apartheid: Visual Culture and Public Memory in a Democratic South Africa, Durham, 2003, pp. 83-95.
153. Shimoni, Community and Conscience, pp. 261-3.
154. JTA, 'South Africa and Australia Battle Over Jewish Immigration', The Jewish Daily Forward, 6 Feb. 2008.
155. Sergio Della Pergola, World Jewish Population, 2010, Storrs, 2010, p. 55.
156. Interview with S. Krok, 12 Aug. 2008.