My name is Ruth Akinwole. I was eight years old when I first noticed the changes on my face. At the time, I did not really understand what was happening. My parents thought it was eczema and believed that, eventually, it would leave my face. So, as a child, I did not have a particular reaction to it. I simply continued with my life.
As I grew older, I began to understand that my skin was changing in a way that made me different from the people around me. The comments started in primary school. One memory that has stayed with me is from Primary 5. One of my classmates started calling me “Coke and Fanta” because of the different colours on my skin. Every time he called me that, I became angry.
I did not understand why something I had never chosen had become something other people could use to make fun of me. One day, out of anger, I told him that what had happened to me would also happen to him. I was simply a child trying to defend myself from words that hurt me.
I did not know how to process what I was experiencing or how to respond to the attention my skin was receiving. Coke and Fanta is not the only name I was called. People also accused me of bleaching my skin. I was referred to as “Ojuju Calabar” and “half-caste.” Though these terms were often used in jest, they affected me deeply. What has developed on my skin is vitiligo.
Vitiligo affected my confidence throughout my primary and secondary education and even into my National Diploma years. There were times when my self-esteem was very low. Whenever I was going out, I would try every possible means to cover my face with