GENSOCIAL
PEOPLE HAVE criticised Love Island South Africa online as the launch cast is overwhelmingly white.
It seems that only one black woman, Thimna is part of the opening cast. Just two non-white men, Durang and Asad are in the line-up. The show opened with ten contestants.
Durang is a personal trainer from Cameroon. Thimna told show creators that she was looking for a really great boyfriend and new experiences. Asad is also a personal trainer, who is looking for new experiences on the show.
The mainly white cast is despite the fact 47.7 million people, out of the 58.4 million in the country are black, according to Statista.
Traditionally, in the Love Island format, new contestants are added to the villa as the show goes on. As these contestants are usually a surprise, their ethnicities are not yet publicly known.
On Twitter, people shared their confusion after the Love Island South Africa social team shared a picture of the cast.
One user said: “This is Love Island South Africa??? The country at the south of Africa? The continent of the blacks??? If I scrim.”
Another user added: “’Y’all are in South Africa but you managed to have a whiter cast than UK Love Island.“
A further user said: “I don’t ever want to hear that they cast according to their population.
“The percentage of black people in South Africa is 80.2% and there are only two black people in Love Island South Africa. It’s a choice.”
In South Africa, Love Island Orania is trending. Orania is a town in South Africa, where there are no black people.
A small group of Afrikaners bought land, and Orania was created in 1991.
According to Cambridge historian Edward Cavanaugh, the future residents of Orania used dogs and pistol whippings to drive out the community of 500 poor black and mixed-race people who were squatting on the land beforehand.
Contestants who enter Love Island South Africa hope to win a cash prize of R1 million (£47,500).
Love Island USA recently crowned the franchise’s first ever black winning couple, Justine Ndiba and Caleb Corprew. However, it was reported by People, that they split nearly four months after they left the villa.
Love Island Nigeria has been commissioned by the Digital Play network.
