Every society has defined beauty, it has its own standards and everybody is expected to meet the requirements. People don’t see the damage and the hatred they have created for the younger generation. They have fed the young people with lies that they have to look a certain way to be beautiful.

Dolly lived in a village and the people there had their own beauty standards. She struggled to live up to their expectations and she didn’t understand why she wasn’t accepted by her society: she was one of them, she was born and raised in the same community. Before we go into her story, let me introduce myself. I am Mrs SC Ndlovu, I was born and raised in Limpopo. I am a psychologist and I volunteer at village schools. I talk to kids who were raped, abused or traumatised. I make them feel safe and resolve their issues, and in the 13 years of my career I have never failed to do my job, but in the case of Dolly Hamilton, I feel like I have failed her. I mean we have failed her, we could have done more.

Let’s go back to Dolly’s story. I hope it reaches every ear out there and makes a difference.

One summer I went to Groblersdal, it’s a small village in Bochum and it is not very popular. As always I went there to help kids at Malesedi Primary School. The people there are very kind, I was welcomed with warm hands and I felt like I was at home. As I mentioned, the community is very small and it seemed like they knew each other, so they were able to tell if you were an outsider. When I arrived at Groblersdal they could tell I wasn’t one of them, but like I said, they were kind.

On Monday morning the sound of birds woke me up; for the first time in a long time nature woke me up. I’m used to waking up to loud noises of the city: taxis, people walking in the streets and obviously the loud lady next door selling fat cakes. This time around all I could hear was nature calling me. I took a shower and made my favorite breakfast, bread spread with peanut butter and jam, which make my day.

I went to the school in the afternoon and started my classes. During the class I realised one kid wasn’t paying attention, she was lost in her own world. I asked her a question and she didn’t reply, she just looked at me with her big white eyes.

I asked her name and she said, “I’m Dolly.” The other children laughed at her. She sat down angrily and bowed her head. I scolded them, they kept quiet. Dolly went to her little world again and I just ignored her and continued talking to the others.

After class when everyone was leaving, I told Dolly to remain in the class. We had our session, I tried to understand what was wrong with her but she wasn’t really opening up. She just said I wouldn’t understand. She looked me in the eyes and said, “No one understands, I’ll never change.” She left the class and went home.

I didn’t sleep that night, I kept wondering what could be wrong with her. When I closed my eyes I saw hers filled with pain and a lot of questions. The next morning I found a letter on my doorstep. It read as follows…

“Dear Mrs Ndlovu

You are very beautiful and looks like you have a lot of money. I like your necklace, it’s gorgeous, I wish had a similar one. Yesterday I wanted to answer your question but I couldn’t as I am not used to being listened to. You must have realised that I’m black or as my classmates call me “midnight dark”. Others say I’m Dolly the night queen and they don’t talk to me. The community doesn’t think I’ll get married one day because I’m too dark for marriage. No one wants to get married to the black queen.

Thando’s mom got her a lotion that makes her skin fair but my mom can’t afford one so I think when I finish school I’ll have a lot of money and I’ll buy one. I will also be beautiful and I’ll get married and have kids of my own. Should it happen that they are dark skinned then I’ll get them the lotion.

I’ll give my children a better life, they will have friends, play hide and seek, and they will get a chance to be normal kids. You see this community has no space for dark people, everyone here believes that you should be white or fair skinned to be beautiful.

I’m always quiet in class because the other kids don’t talk to me, they just laugh at me. I wish I was born with fair skin. Only then people would learn to see me for who I am, not what I look like. You reading this letter means that I’m gone and I hope heaven accepts black people because if they do I’ll like it over there.”

I was shocked, my heart pumped so fast and hard I literally could hear my heart beating in my chest. That day I couldn’t hear the birds or the breeze hitting my skin. My mind only thought of those big white eyes.

Dolly was found in a nearby lake. Her body was floating, her eyes where closed, her little black face was pale and she was quiet as always. I attended her funeral the following week; I gave her my necklace since I couldn’t give her a chance in life.

I blamed myself. If I knew, I would have told her she was beautiful. I would have told her melanin is beauty, it’s a gift from the heavens.

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Tell us: Why is discrimination because of one’s skin colour so detrimental to society?