The Fifth Floor: Tackling Nigeria's skin bleaching problem
The Documentary Podcast
BBC
4.3 • 2.6K Ratings
🗓️ 26 April 2025
⏱️ 24 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
According to the World Health Organisation, 77% of Nigerian women have used skin-lightening creams. When BBC Hausa’s Madina Maishanu decided to look into this, she uncovered an even more worrying trend: mothers using potentially harmful products on their babies. Madina spoke to the campaigners trying to stop these practices. Plus, how human activities and climate change are threatening shea trees in Uganda with Njoroge Muigai from BBC Africa.
Presented by Faranak Amidi Produced by Alice Gioia and Hannah Dean
(Photo: Faranak Amidi. Credit: Tricia Yourkevich.)
Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | Welcome to the documentary from the BBC World Service. |
| 0:07.7 | This is the fifth floor. |
| 0:11.5 | The fifth floor, you knowsson. |
| 0:15.6 | This is the fifth floor at Farnak Amidi Sobath. This is the fifth floor at the heart of global storytelling with BBC journalists from all around the world. |
| 0:28.9 | I'm your host, Faranak Amidi. |
| 0:36.4 | Using skin lightning products is a trend in many countries around the world. |
| 0:42.2 | Growing up in Iran, I witnessed that firsthand women with a lighter skin tone are considered |
| 0:48.0 | more beautiful. |
| 0:49.5 | According to the World Health Organization, 77% of Nigerian women have used skin lightening creams. |
| 0:58.2 | When BBC houses Medina Maishanu decided to look into this, she uncovered an even more worrying |
| 1:05.3 | trend. Mothers using harmful products on their babies. Medina is here with me to talk about this story a little more. |
| 1:14.2 | Welcome to the fifth floor, Medina. |
| 1:16.0 | It's great to have you back on the show. |
| 1:18.2 | Hi. |
| 1:19.1 | I know you spoke to a woman. |
| 1:21.1 | She's called Fatima, but that's not her real name. |
| 1:24.6 | Tell us about her. |
| 1:25.8 | What's her story? |
| 1:27.3 | Fatima, she lives in a very rural area |
| 1:30.0 | in northern Nigeria. So her mother wasn't warming up to her six kids because her six kids |
| 1:36.2 | are not light skin, but she has a sister that has light-skinned children and her mother is |
| 1:42.3 | obsessed with them. She goes everywhere with them. So Fatima |
... |
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