How Tyla’s Racial Identity United South Africans Behind Coloured Communities

When Tyla burst onto the global music scene with her smash hit “Water,” it wasn’t just her smooth R&B vocals and viral dance moves that drew attention. The South African singer’s proud self-identification as “Coloured” also sparked controversy, especially in the US, where the term carries a painful and racist history.

The ensuing debates have underscored the complexities of discussing and managing issues of racism and identity in an increasingly globalized world. Words that might be deeply offensive in some places are reclaimed with pride in others.

Many Black and Coloured South Africans have taken to the internet to defend the Grammy-winning artist’s right to define her own identity. At the same time, a younger generation of Coloured South Africans are delving into the intricacies of a classification that was solidified by apartheid but has evolved into a unique culture.

The 1950 Population Registration Act required all South Africans to be categorized as “native,” “Coloured,” or “white,” with “Asian” added later. Those labeled as “Coloured” included the indigenous Khoi and San peoples, descendants of enslaved people from other parts of Africa, Indonesia, and Malaysia, and families with mixed-race heritage.

This was a strategic move to divide and control Coloured and Black South Africans. The apartheid regime offered slightly better jobs, houses, and other benefits to Coloured people. Even today, many Coloured South Africans continue to reject the label Black.

Apartheid policies forced people assigned as Coloured into segregated townships. This identity was determined by bureaucrats through demeaning evaluations of skin color, facial features, hair, language, and cultural practices.

However, from this displacement emerged a rich culture, characterized by unique music, humor, and cuisine. Popular dishes like koe’sisters—syrup-drenched, spiced dough balls rolled in coconut—and the Gatsby sandwich, loaded with chips and meat, are part of this cultural tapestry.

In 2020, Tyla posted a TikTok video where she twisted her hair into a traditional African style, captioned, “I’m a Coloured South African, which means I come from a lot of different cultures… I’m exploring my African heritage by wearing Bantu knots.”

As “Water” climbed the US charts in late 2023, many Black Americans expressed discomfort with referring to Tyla as Coloured. One user described the term as “traumatizing.”

In a radio interview with Charlamagne tha God, Tyla was asked to elaborate on debates about her identity but chose not to respond. Later that day, she posted a statement online: “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 [South Africa]. But to close this conversation, I’m both Coloured in South Africa and a Black woman.”

Lynsey Ebony Chutel, co-author of “Coloured,” a book tracing the history and experiences of the group that makes up over 8% of South Africa’s 62 million population, remarked that Tyla’s experience demonstrates that “there are multiple ways of being Black.”

Chutel added, “There has been a lack of grace from Black communities around the world, where some commentators argue that there’s one way to be Black. And what that does is erase the histories of other people.”

Chutel and co-author Tessa Dooms, both millennials, identify as “ethnically and culturally Coloured and politically Black.” The concept of political blackness gained traction in South Africa through Steve Biko’s Black Consciousness Movement in the late 1960s and 70s, which urged Black, Coloured, and Asian people to reject feelings of inferiority.

However, apartheid coerced Coloured people to distance themselves from Black heritage to gain slight benefits.

Since the end of apartheid, disillusionment has fermented in historically Coloured communities like the Cape Flats townships. Jazz musician Benjamin Jephta highlights high rates of gang crime, incarceration, and school dropouts in these areas.

Jephta’s latest album, “Born Coloured, Not Born-Free,” explores these dynamics. “In many ways, yes, you’re not Black enough, not white enough, but then Coloured people themselves are caught up in this mentality that they struggle to break free from,” said Jephta.

Jamil Khan, researching Coloured identities for a PhD at the University of the Witwatersrand, noted the shared struggle of discussing heritage with older relatives. “A thing that people with enslaved heritage share is shame and silence around that history,” said Khan.

Chutel found hope in seeing Black South Africans defend Tyla amidst the American scrutiny. “There has been historic animosity between the two groups due to apartheid’s divisive policies,” she said. “When Black South Africans stood up for Tyla, it showed we are beginning to form a more unified understanding of who we are as South Africans.”

Source: The Guardian, Reuters