"My mother... she died from a hard life..."

Five acres of land.

That's all that many who were one step away from the peonage of working on plantation for an "estate man" had to support their family. Many grew cocoa and sold to larger estates for export. It was back breaking work. It was subsistence work. Women worked land as relentlessly as the men did.

And as Silla shares with us here, many paid a price. 

Wealth also came in other forms, however - having lighter skin brought with it many advantages. For women, it meant the possibility of "marrying up" and out of poverty.  This, despite of the disturbing lineage that "lightness" often made visable - When asked about the source of her grandmother's lighter skin and eyes, Silla explained that it was "plantation business" - a euphemism for non-consensual sex. And yet in this clip, its clear that the benefit of having lighter skin is a tangible reality that is not lost on Silla or her on rural community.