Tyla has taken to X to defend her Blackness following an interview with “The Breakfast Club.” Host Charlamagne Tha God asked the 22-year-old African singer what she meant when she referred to herself as a “Coloured” person in the past.
Tyla’s rep, who was off-camera, asked “Can we not, por favor?” and that the question from the controversial personality be skipped. Charlamagne agreed, but stated the “awkward” moment would remain in the final interview. Tyla looked at the off-camera rep, who then stated: “Next one, please.”
The moment went viral, prompting Tyla to clear up the confusion with a screenshot of an iPhone note which said: “Yoh guys. Never denied my blackness, idk where that came from…I’m mixed with black/Zulu, irish, Mauritian/Indian and Coloured.”
She continued: “I don’t expect to be identified as Coloured outside of [South Africa] by anyone not comfortable doing so because I understand the weight of that word outside of SA. But, to close this conversation, I’m both Coloured in South Africa and a Black woman. As a woman of the culture, it’s ‘and,’ not ‘or.’”
She ended the note with “Asambe” which is Zulu for “Let’s go!” Back in 2020, Tyla did a TikTok in which she put her hair in Bantu knots and stated that as a “Coloured” woman in South Africa she is proud of her heritage.
Tyla also addressed the controversy in a cover story with Cosmopolitan earlier this year. “When people are like, ‘You’re denying your Blackness,’ it’s not that at all. I never said I am not Black. It’s just that I grew up as a South African knowing myself as Coloured. And now that I’m exposed to more things, it has made me other things too. I’m also mixed-race. I’m also Black.”
Hopefully, this topic can finally be laid to rest.