IMPORTANT

IMPORTANT

Okay, I may be a white South African, but I am still African nonetheless. The new cards look pretty and colourful at first glance, and don’t get me wrong I love my boys.

BUT.

It’s clear that no real thought or respect was put on towards the authenticity of the outfits. It honestly looks like someone just google searched ‘traditional African clothing’ and slapped it all together with out considering the nuance behind anything. Honestly, the outfits don’t even LOOK African. I can see the suggestion of it, but the execution of it is just really quite awful. Not to mention certain styles tend to be unique to their respective tribes, and that’s clearly been ignored here. It’s giving cultural appropriation for the sake of fashion and glamour.

The only times I’ve seen people wear clothing even remotely similar to this is when attending more westernised formal events, but even then, their styles are made to fit in more closely with western culture, tending to include the same materials and little details but ultimately these outfits aren’t made to be accurately reflective of their culture.

Honestly, I love TWST but Toboso has made so many problematic decisions for it that I’m honestly kind of fed up. Does she not listen to criticism? Does the team not think to research properly, and double check anything Yana puts forward??

Just putting this out there so ya’ll can be aware.

(Images taken from @chenyann , Yako talks about the topic as well in this post if you’d like to check that out too.)