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American comedian Tiffany Haddish has defended her controversial TikTok video of her visit to a supermarket in Zimbabwe, saying it was aimed at dispelling perceptions that there was “war everyday” in Africa.
Haddish faced a backlash from some Zimbabweans on social media after she posted the video of her strolling through the aisles of a supermarket chain in the capital, Harare.
“Look at this grocery store. It’s humungous, in Africa,” she says in disbelief as she scans rows of shelves with soft drinks, frozen meat and fresh fruit.
The video has been viewed just over 200,000 times on TikTok.
“How ignorant could she be? Did she think that Africans shop from rocks? She needs to travel more and unclog her sadly colonized view of the world. Yikes,” raged one user on X.
Another person said: “They think we’re chasing lions and zebras.”
A third person said that Americans have a “misguided perception of Africa, believing that its inhabitants live in primitive conditions, residing in mud huts, lacking access to clean water, and being devoid of modern amenities like electricity and internet”.
Haddish responded to the criticism on X , saying that she had been taught a false narrative about Africa.
“I am an American, a Black one at that, and told for years that people are starving in Africa, showed pictures of babies with flies on them.”
She added that she was told “crazy stories” about how Africans “kill each other” and there is “war everyday”.
But Haddish said that her trip to Zimbabwe has opened her eyes and that she has been “finding out the truth “about the continent”.
“I thought I would share cause I know people in the USA that believe Africans don’t have anything,” she wrote.
Some have come to her defence.
“We like that you like our grocery store and all the products that shocked you are just basics here as well, we really aren’t in the forest hanging on trees,” said a voice of support for the actress.
The comedian is half-Eritrean and visited Eritrea for the first time in 2018.
She praised long time ruler Isaias Afwerki, who has been described by his critics as a “dictator”.
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