Prominent writer and film director Tsitsi Dangarembga sparked comtroversy following her comments about popular Zimbabwe Dancehall artist Winky D. The award-winning author of “Nervous Conditions” suggested that Winky D has “white girl fixation” following the release of his latest song “Happy Again.”
“Happy Again” was released on Friday and garnered more than 287,000 views just 11 hours after being released. In the visuals for the song, Winky D falls in love with a princess, and the two eventually run off together.
According to Dangarembga the Gaffa, as Winky D is affectionately known by his legion of fans, has a fixation with white girls is becoming problematic. Writing on social media platform Twitter, Dangarembga said
Just had a look at Wink D’s “Happy Again”. While I love Winky D’s music and his charisma, in my opinion, the white girl fixation is becoming problematic.
The award-winning author was referring to the latest video as well as Winky D’s collaboration with Gemma Griffiths’ “MuGarden.”
While she later conceded that two videos do not rise to the level of “fixation”, she clarified that she had an issue with the storyline because it presented white women as the pinnacle of desirability.
That whole storyline is really problematic to me. Making the white woman the pinnacle of desirability that is out of reach. I agree that two videos don’t make a fixation, but they are close together and seem to get the most traction as they appeared on my time line.
Yes, Gemma was a feature, so that is different. Nevertheless, it was a lead. Now we have another white woman lead in a relatively short space of time. True, it does not yet merit being called a fixation, but it stereotypical casting of white desirability.
Problematic in that it casts white women as more desirable than black women, which is one of the ways white supremacy has worked to make us look at ourselves.
Dangarembga also suggested that Winky D could have produced a great video if he used black people and slightly adjusted the storyline to make it more Afrocentric.
Unsurprisingly, some people did not agree with Tsitsi Dambaregba’s views on Winky D’s videos and made their feelings known. Some said the author was generalising and argued that the data did not support her position. They said that only 2 of Winky D’s videos featured white women out of close to 20 videos.
Others also accused Tsitsi of being a hypocrite, alleging that she married a white person. Some went on an all-out attack and claimed that Tsitsi’s sentiments were fueled by racism.
However, some social media users also agreed with Tsitsi and accused the people who disagreed with her of being lazy thinkers.
Below are some of the reactions from social media to Tsitsi Dangarembga’s comments on Winky D,
