Tyla Responds to Culture War Backlash

Tyla has addressed the backlash she received after describing herself as 'coloured'. 

The Water singer, 24, hails from Johannesburg, , and has made history as the youngest African artist in history to win a Award.

However, in 2023 the singer was accused of 'sparking a culture war' when a  video she made three years prior in which she described herself as 'a coloured South African', went viral.

Tyla, whose father is of Indian and Mauritian descent and mother of Irish and Zulu, came under fire for using the term, which is seen as a slur in the States. 

However, in South Africa, 'coloured' is used to describe people of mixed race descent, and was one of the four racial categories engrained in law during apartheid, alongside white, black and Indian. 

Now Tyla has addressed the fallout, saying: 'I mean initially it was very difficult... I started getting backlash and I was like "whoa I don't know what else to say about it" you know because I never had to explain myself.' 

She added in an interview with Apple Music: 'You know I was just always myself and at the time - 22 years of my life - all I knew was that I'm colored and that's what I was told. It's what like I had to tick on boxes back home. 

'And when I was able to travel the world and learn more about the world, I then learned just how big the world is, you know, and how different each country is, how different context is. 

'So when I learned about what it means here, I was like, whoa, this is going to be a difficult conversation to have.

'In South Africa we also have a derogatory term. So I feel like if someone were to come to our country and say they were that I get why it would be triggering.

'I feel just having a lot of conversations and learning more about it -  I know that being colored is like my culture, you know, it exists in my context, but I'm also black. 

'Being colored is something that happened through a lot of pain. Our South African history is very painful. 

'We were separated from each other and given these names and color became our culture. So, it's still something that we're very prideful about. 

'I think it was a very important thing for me to go through and learn and for the conversations to just open up, you know. And I just hope whoever sees this can make their videos on TikTok and maybe we can come to some sort of understanding.' 

Tyla also accepted that it's a conversation that may never be fully resolved, telling The Times: 'Everywhere you go it means something else. 

'It's just a conversation that's never ending. I'm off that train.'

Tyla's 2020 video saw her style her hair into Bantu knots, while donning a traditional beaded necklace, with the words, 'I am a coloured South African' appearing across the clip. 

At the time, American fans vowed to boycott the singer, with the BBC claiming Tyla had sparked 'a culture war' with her comments. 

Tyla's comments went viral on social media, with one X/Twitter user penning: 'We are not gonna call her coloured here and if she personally demands it, her career will end before it begins.

'She's trying to cross over into an American market, she won't be able to use that word here, she can use it somewhere else though.'

In the US, the term harks back to the Jim Crow era, when segregationist laws were in place and enforced by 'whites only' or 'coloured' signs.