“Grace’s head stops shaking. Her story has the advantage of
being the truth, but who would have thought that her cold-water
wash, the thing of necessity, could pass for a cosmetic secret?”(Wicomb 25)

I find this quote interesting, as it shows that sometimes the simplest solutions are the best. Instead of all these complex treatments, just using cold water helps improve the skin. When you use it, cold water shocks your face with great pain and numbness in the short run but makes you feel refreshed and energetic in the long run. This cold water treatment is a symbol of how to deal with Apartheid. The best way to deal with Apartheid is painful yet straightforward confrontation. It will sting in the short run, but it will lead to a more peaceful nation in the long run. However, women like Fiona will continue to use these complex skin-care rituals to keep their skin healthier, believing them to be more effective than the simple solutions making the skin feel good in the short run but keeping the skin poor in the long run. This complicated treatment method is a symbol of how South Africa acts today, with its confrontation of Apartheid being relatively limited and entangled in bureaucracy. Many of its social and cultural problems are still bubbling beneath the surface, making what was supposed to be a rainbow nation an unstable place today.

-Zachary Rosman