Is Tyla Black or Coloured? | Why American Ideas About Race Fail in Africa

When pop star Tyla identified herself as “Coloured,” it broke the internet. For many Black Americans, the word carries the brutal legacy of Jim Crow segregation.

In Britain, it’s an outdated, offensive label once used broadly for non-white people. But in Southern Africa, Coloured is a distinct, recognised cultural and ethnic identity with centuries of its own history, heritage and complex positioning within colonial and apartheid hierarchies.

Same word. Completely different histories.

In this episode of Rigour & Flow, Aiwan and Tamanda untangle what happens when American racial frameworks are projected onto the rest of the world. Aiwan recalls the fierce rejection of “Coloured” in Black British communities, while Tamanda breaks down why being mixed-race does not automatically make someone Coloured in Southern Africa.

The conversation then arrives at the University of the Western Cape (UWC). Established under apartheid specifically for Coloured students, UWC rebelled against its founding purpose to become an intellectual home of the anti-apartheid left.

For Tamanda, arriving as a postdoctoral fellow brought epistemic relief and then she met the university registration form: Black African. White.

Indian. Coloured.

Other. Which box does a mixed-race Motswana-British academic tick?

And what happens when a system designed to tackle historical injustice ends up erasing the very complexities it tries to measure? 🎙️In this episode: The Tyla controversy: What this global race conversation revealed about American exceptionalism through a Black lens. Coloured ≠ mixed-race: Why the two identities are not interchangeable in Southern Africa.

Ever shifting language: From “coloured” to “people of colour” to a fierce re-assertion of Black identity. Apartheid’s racial ladder: How legal categories created hierarchies between Black, Coloured, Indian and White communities.

The story of UWC: How an education institution designed to enforce segregation transformed into a centre of resistance. The implication of the "Other" box: When administrative categories fail to reflect human reality.

Honorary whites and the absurdity of race : What Japan, China and apartheid reveal about racial classification. Affirmative action today: Does the legacy classification system still serve post-apartheid South Africa?

And what of the global conversation this raises? The question here is: As we try to make sense of the ‘nonsense’ surrounding race, can we acknowledge that race is constructed while still measuring the inequality created through it? 🎧 Listen wherever you get your podcasts. 🎥 Watch the full episode on YouTube: ☕ Support the show: https://buymeacoffee.com/rigourandflow 🔁 If this conversation resonated with you, please share it with a friend Please rate, review and subscribe for weekly episodes.

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