Popular Actress, Lupito Nyong’o has declared that as a child, she wished “her skin was different”. The Back Panther Star said this in an interview with BBC Newsnight Host, Emily Maitlis, on Tuesday night.
According to her, she was a victim of colourism as a child and grew up feeling uncomfortable with her skin colour. She said “I grew up feeling uncomfortable with my skin colour because I felt the world around me rewarded lighter skin”.
The actrews who starred in the mega-grossing movie, Balck Panther, explained that colourism is a huge problem, especially in Africa where Africans still adopt European notions of beauty.
She was speaking ahead of the release of her children’s books Sulwe, which is about a girl with darker skin than the rest of her family.
The Oscar-winning actress further opined that colourism was “very much linked to racism”, even though she experienced in a predominantly black region like Kenya.
When asked if the success of Black Panther which had an all-black cast will affect the casting experience for black actors, she said I think time will tell whether this has been that pivotal shift. It definitely feels that way.
