Share FacebookTwitterPinterestLinkedinWhatsappTelegramEmail 2.4K Ahead of the upcoming concert that will see the likes of Akon, WizKid, Sarkodie, and more in Ghana, controversy sparks! In a recent video shoot for an up-and-coming Akon and WizKid video, some Ghanaian models were called upon to participate by the directors a few days ahead of the shoot. The call was made presumably prior to Akon and Wiz Kids’ arrival in Ghana. A model reported that on the day of the shoot some girls were turned away as the agent (or the man responsible for calling them) informed them that “they now want half cast girls”. A term used to describe girls with mixed heritage, usually ones with white blood in them. More Articles You Would Love The Hot Fashion Model Starring In D’banj’s New Hennessy Music Video Goes By The Name Of….. Nigerian Actress, Angela Okorie Serves Smashing Suit Style Inspirations In Celebration Of Her Birthday “THEY”, most likely referring to WizKid, Akon, and/or his music video producer, turning away a fleet of arrivals originally requested to attend by the model scout. In fact, the agent requested if the girls could help him seek light-skinned girls because ‘THEY’ were so adamant on this request even on late notice. Nigeria, where WizKid is from, and Senegal where Akon is from, are countries both flooded with girls bleaching their skin simply because of such discrimination and being made to feel ugly if dark. Not just in media and modeling, but general favors in life. Whilst there are good people in both countries trying to reverse the self-esteem damage of such activities such as Adama Paris who banned skinned bleach models from the Senegalese national fashion week, Akon and Wiz Kid’s team are trying to further such acts internationally. If this is the intention Akon and the arrogant sidekick WizKid wish to introduce to Ghana, then we will be more than glad to uninvite them. Unfortunately for these bigots, Ghana has never been a land where girls are discriminated against for skin tone in any field. In such matters, it is obvious they will pass the blame onto an employee to maintain their reputation. But for any such behavior, both these artists should be boycotted until their position is clarified. It’s a shame that grown men who might be an inspiration to some still hover over the Earth with a very small-minded approach when it comes to reality. It might come across as simply a music video request, but it’s a habit existing in our countries born out of colonial rule, that unfortunately is also birth of skin color discrimination and self-esteem damage. Thank God Sarkodie did not sign to Akon’s label Konvict. All I can say is I am looking forward to the departure of Akon and Wizkid from Ghana. That would be great news. In fact we would be very glad if any model continues to report any such activities going on in Africa (with remits) so we can name and shame the real perpetrators behind the skin bleaching epidemic. Find More articles like this By clicking the link or following the menu links Articles/Blog->Articles By Type->Model Stories or Racism & Prejudice In Fashion akondark skindark skinnedhalf casthatelight skinlight skinnedmodelsracismvideowiz kid Share FacebookTwitterPinterestLinkedinWhatsappTelegramEmail Nana Tamakloe Founder of FashionGHANA.com and Accra Fashion Week. I'm grateful you visited, I hope you share, subscribe and share your comments or opinions below. More For You February by Serwaa Introduces ‘SƐWAA’ with Ahwenepa Nkasa Transitional Collection VIDEO: VLISCO Unveils the New Collection of “Satin Royal” for the festive Season... VIDEO: Nigeria’s Chidimma Vanessa Adetshina Robbed Off Miss Universe 2024 Title & Receives... 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Roland November 17, 2013 - 12:33 pm WTF…Its sad to see stuff like this. Ama agyen November 18, 2013 - 2:25 pm this is insane, why should both these two people whose heritage is in Africa be saying bullshits about dark skinned girls, @Akon, if his mum was light skinned would be like that darker as he is?, this is totally insanity, people like this should not be tolerated in a country like ours(Ghana), cus we are proud of our color. Tony Muhammad November 19, 2013 - 1:13 pm Well, well, well Black people. I’m responding late on this train, but I have a life -time ticket that guarantees boarding, even if I’m late. We as a people have a hard time accepting social environmental realities. “Divide and Conquer,” is a social tool mechanism used by the enemy of our race group the past 6000 years, but “he / white’s,” would not have been successful with this social destructive tool if it was not present in our so-called African tribes and societies when he arrived from Northern-lands many years ago. Prejudice and discrimination are innate human flaws crossing all so-called color lines. We being the original people must recognize the hidden-hand stirring the race pot. Akon and Wizkid have white massa that control their lively hoods in the entertainment industry. This is reality today that we as a people fail to recognize racism comes in black face as a scapegoat for the white hand stirring the pot. So Ghana wants to participate in the world of fashion, So Ghana will be affected by the standards that uphold the fashion industry. Fashion is an “elitist business,” and it caters to those with influence, power and big, big money. So ordinary working consumers buy into the fashion industry because the slave dreams of being the master, even when the master is reselling or displaying our culture as though we don’t recognize what is ours by birth right. And we don’t! Natalie November 20, 2013 - 2:28 pm As a dark complected beautiful African American it is sad to see African men behaving in such a manner. Every image I see of a dark skinned African woman… She is beautiful! Akon and WizKid who?1 TINKLA November 21, 2013 - 11:44 am By the way,which of them brought in that bad idear,is a shame to them loopdyloo November 21, 2013 - 5:42 pm Sex sells. .. money sells. . Drugs sell. . Ignorance sells. . And now it’s a particular skin tone that sells. I think it’s all stupid. I don’t think these men are any more guilty of anything than anyone else. They are printing what they feel will earn them sales. . Views. . Publicity etc. They may very well prefer dark skin females. But just as all the rest of this nonsense sells. . Light skinned models are something alot of these entertainers are using to promote sales. If dark skinned women are what’ was selling. . Regardless of their feelings about them. They would most likely choose them. It’s all about money. Why expect ppl to consider. Feelings. . Dignity. . Pride etc of a certain culture when we buy .. promote and entertain what they are pitching. It’s all about a dollar. And if that’s what they choose to chase then screw everyone else’s opinion bc we live in a sick world either way it goes. Truth hurts November 21, 2013 - 6:27 pm Once again here is another case of the unfortunate inferiority complex quite a few ‘so called dark skin women’ women face. Please, people need to learn to be confident about who they are regardless of if they are green, red, blue or pink. All artists, casting agents etc are COMPLETELY FREE to choose whatever colour of women they prefer for their shoot. If they like blue girls, let them choose blue girls. There are other artists that want to cast black girls only for certain video shoots. I know because I am in the industry but you don’t hear the other races of girls complaining so much when this happens. This whole ‘dark skinned girls’ issue is such a childish epidemic that needs to stop spreading. There is no problem. If I like thick assed women, it doesn’t make flat assed women any less attractive. It just means I prefer thick assed women. In addition, 80% of women in Wizkid’s videos are black. So anybody who feels disgusted because Akon and Wizkid have a preference for this particular video need to go and re-evaluate their own personal prejudice against other races and also re-evaluate their opinion. kevin djapasu November 22, 2013 - 2:27 am Thats the problem with these nigerians, they like this light skinned bizness too much its embarrassing. is not even a photoshoot, is a silly music video with girls dancing. no story line. fooolishness! Truth hurts November 22, 2013 - 9:49 am Kevin, Tinkla, Natalie and everyone else here with an opinion like that, you are being very hypocritical in my opinion. YOU PPL NEED TO SNAP OUT OF IT AND STOP USING THEIR SKIN AS AN EXCUSE FOR ANYTHING! The problem comes from people like you. This is because you, just like the girls who were turned away from the shoot, must have some deep insecurities about your skin colour. You are more prejudice than you claim Akon/Wizkid are! I assume you would have no complaint if they turned light skin girls away and only accepted dark skin girls. when Michael Jackson used Naomi Campbell as his leading model in one video and Iman in another video, I’m sure you didn’t complain saying he should have used white girls only because he is a white man. More so, I’m sure you didn’t complain that Obama is a ‘light skinned’ president. If you ask me, the fact that this debate over dark skinned girls keeps coming up shows HOW RACIST SOME BLACK PEOPLE ARE. We’re also not helping black women’s self esteem by feeding this imaginary idea that nobody wants them when 90% of afrobeats artists use mostly black girls e.g Iyanya, Timaya, Flavour, Burna Boy etc and countless white artists and American RnB artists use black girls in their videos…. Quit your complaining, there is no issue here. wants. Nana Tamakloe November 22, 2013 - 2:09 pm Hi Truth hurts. We appreciate everyone sharing their opinions even if it disagrees with anything we write. But for 1, please stop writing long articles. We would have deleted it but didn’t because we wont want it to seem as we are biased. 2, the girls werent complaining, I came across it whilst speaking to a model friend, and I am the one who wrote an article about it, she did not push me to do so, in fact she didnt know I was a journalist and didn’t know the story with go internationally viral. If you read some of the related story link, ie the one on Iman, you will see at times I have shared some opinions similar to urs. My reasons for writing this article was clear, and i cant address everything or it wud be to long. But please try and limit the amount of text in your comments. And also stop comparing an individual choice to a social choice. It makes knocks you off your point. Thanks, Nana Maximus January 14, 2014 - 7:44 pm LISTEN HERE MR. TRUTH HURTS: what truth hurts?? this akon guy should go with girls of his caliber and then consider others if he wants. no one is insecure about the subject of skin color. esp not me. what i see, is a world fighting a war in southern sudan and central africa because of skin color. not to mention burundi. Light skin preferred in that region, dark skin deprived. In india dark skin is untouchable and in southern Iran dark skin population has little technology. HOW WILL YOU REACT TO THIS PSYCHOLOGICALLY?? if you were in their shoe? Just like women feel used during sex without commitment when it was a dual affair. kevin djapasu November 22, 2013 - 2:13 pm Truth hurts, you are wrong far from right. There is no story line to any video that will make some1 chose light over dark nor are any of the girls popular to specifically chose from. If there was a story implying it was shot in brazil, then it might make sense they want a particular look, but this is just typical girls dancing. so by no argument it is biased and racist. Truth hurts November 23, 2013 - 3:00 am Nana no vex, I do disagree. I’ll make my final post shorter…. There are too many songs to list where Wizkid has used black girls as the majority so he’s clearly no bigot…. fact! The media are doing the damaging of self esteem all by themselves by giving biased accounts of situations like these. Good to have mixed race girls in the video. They represent both dark and light skin best. Neither dark nor light skinned ppl should complain. Well done to Akon and Wizkid! Everyone should even pray for more inter-racial relationships so the world can become ‘one mixed race’ and then, petty skin colour ignorance will stop. Nana Tamakloe November 23, 2013 - 2:07 pm Well you just contradicted yourself. First you say it is the media perpetrating such rhetoric (not in these exact words) before carrying on to talk about how pretty light skinned girls are, even going to the extent of saying there shud be more mixed relationships. Which you and I know is silly becus the whole culture of believing mixed girls are more beautiful is strictly media influenced such as this video, hence why except these two guys its never reported in Ghana. Unfortunately for u, many ppl disagree. Hence why this article received over 11000 likes. No one tells white ppl they need black blood to be more beautiful for their runways or tv shows, and so Africans dont need white ppl to tell us we need white blood to be beautiful. All this proving everything in the article that ideas like your encourage racial discrimination and skin bleaching. Dark skinned ladies know they are beautiful, unfortunately they live in a world of envy and some racist people such as you that encourage they be otherwise for them to succeed. And we are calling out this rubbish. Anancy November 25, 2013 - 7:05 pm @truthhurts-please show me these videos where dark skinned women are in prevalance as i seem to have missed them. Fact is majority of these videos by black artist feature mixed black through to latinos and white women. I’m surprised to see this is happening in Africa of all places. When artist such as Sean paul started they had black to brown-skinned women and became successful featuring these women. As they became successful they disassociated from women of this skin tone..once again trying to associate anything that is successful as close to whiteness as possible. It is a combination of the (mainly white) people behind the scene but also black ones too. And as usual black men in these videos promote this status quo that light-white is more successful and do nothing to include black darker skinned women, except the odd one now and again. Black men should be ashamed of themselves as in all aspect of their lives they continue to put other women before their own but when their asses are on the block who are the first people they run to…their sisters and mothers of course. Emmanuel Adiaba Armah December 30, 2013 - 10:22 am I think Ghanaians an all well meaing black people should stop patronising Akon and his wizzkid music and let’s see how they will sell with those half or quarter cast light skin the looking for. If he Akon was discriminated against as black as he is where would he be today.. Corn May 9, 2015 - 2:05 am They are being used as agents for the ” Whitening “. Comments are closed.