Taylor Swift's Wildest Dreams video is set in a generalised Africa. Photo / YouTube
Taylor Swift's Wildest Dreams video is set in a generalised Africa. Photo / YouTube
Taylor Swift has been accused of presenting a "white colonial fantasy of Africa" in her latest music video that's been accused of racism - accusations the clip's director denies.
Following its release at the MTV Video Music Awards this week, the video for Wildest Dreams has been slammed for having a mostly white cast - despite being set in a nostalgically filtered version of Africa.
Starring a glammed-up Swift and Gran Torino actor Scott Eastwood, the video tells the story of two 1950s-era movie stars filming on location in an unnamed savanna.
Only two black actors are included in the video, playing soldiers who appear in background shots.
Writing for the NPR, Viviane Rutabingwa and James Kassaga Arinaitwe criticised the video for "romanticising colonisation".
"We are shocked to think that in 2015, Taylor Swift, her record label and her video production group think it was okay to film a video that presents a glamorous version of the white colonial fantasy of Africa," they said.
"Swift's music is entertaining for many. She should absolutely be able to use any location as a backdrop," they added.
"But she packages our continent as the backdrop for her romantic songs devoid of any African person or storyline, and she sets the video in a time when the people depicted by Swift and her co-stars killed, dehumanised and traumatised millions of Africans.
However, the director of the video, Joseph Khan, has hit back at the accusations of racism. In a statement on Wednesday he said the video included black people, was produced by a black woman and edited by a black man.
"We collectively decided it would have been historically inaccurate to load the crew with more black actors as the video would have been accused of rewriting history. This video is set in the past by a crew set in the present," he said.
Fyi I say we shot it in "Africa" because I shot it on more than one country. Botswanna and South Africa.
Several other music videos have been slammed as racist in recent years.
Katy Perry's Dark Horse music video caused offence among Muslims with a scene that showed the singer burning an Islamic pendant. More than 50,000 people signed a petition for the video to be removed.
Canadian pop singer Avril Lavingne was ridiculed for her Japan-themed video for her 2014 single Hello Kitty over accusations of fetishising Japanese culture. The singer responded online.
