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In the US, the word harks back to the Jim Crow era, when segregationist laws were instituted in the southern states to oppress black Americans after slavery was banned. Water fountains, toilets, and bus seats were marked "whites only" or "coloured only". This painful history of racial segregation mirrors that in South Africa before white-minority rule ended in 1994.
The history of the coloured community is complex but "quintessentially South African." The community has disparate origins but was brought together under apartheid rules. The Population Registration Act of 1950 required people to be registered into one of four racial categories - white, black, Indian, or coloured. Another law designated residential areas according to race.
Michael Morris, head of media at the South African Institute of Race Relations, says the history of the coloured community is complex but "quintessentially South African." The community has disparate origins but was brought together under apartheid rules. Tyla, who identifies as coloured, has woven a rich cultural tapestry from this complicated history. According to South Africa's latest census, coloured people comprise 8.2% of the population.
Lynsey Ebony Chutel and Tessa Dooms, co-authors of Coloured: How Classification Became Culture, describe the people there as an eclectic mix of appearance, language, accents, and heritage. When Chutel went to Columbia University in New York, her identity, like Tyla, was the topic of conversation after she introduced herself as a coloured woman from South Africa on her first day.
South Africa radio host Carissa Cupido, who grew up in the predominantly coloured area of Mitchell Plains in Cape Town, says that despite the classification imposed on her, she has "embraced, accepted, and celebrated" being coloured. Tyla's hit Water became the first solo song by a South African musician to appear on the Billboard Hot 100 chart since Hugh Masekela's Grazing in the Grass in 1968.
Tyla's success has given her goosebumps, as she is excited for the next generation of coloured girls to see her representation. There have been other coloured South African musicians who have found international fame, but none have reached Tyla's heights.
Carissa Cupido's tone shifts from joy when discussing Tyla's success to annoyance at the scrutiny around the star's identity. She finds it disrespectful to undermine someone's way of life just because they do not understand it. People who disregard Tyla's heritage are also "erasing and dismissing my existence and my family's existence, and the way we understand, perceive, and navigate the world."
With a new album coming out early next year and a Grammy nomination, Tyla is likely to be dominating headlines and prompting further debate over her identity for some time yet.
This article is republished by BBC News. Click here to read the original article.
