Photo Credit : Getty Images
Actress and stand up comedian Tiffany Haddish has faced a lot of backlash, following her recent Tiktok video with over 200,000 views. “Hey all, I'm out here in Zimbabwe, Harare, and look at the grocery store, she said with a surprised expression. They have a grocery store. It's beautiful. Look at this grocery store; it's huge. It's absolutely humongous in Africa, baby, yeah. Believe it, it doesn't smell bad. They have a meat section, sodas, a lot of alcohol, and a freezer section.” Fans were upset particularly by how she pronounced Zimbabwe and Harare in a scornful way.
Unlike the grocery store at home, they sell dishes. They have a hardware section, too, along with appliances, stationery, sweets, toys, cookies, hygiene products, Vaseline, bubble bath, mouthwash, toothpaste, paper towels, toilet paper, dog food and cat food. Who knew they had the YOU tabloid magazine? They even have the Caution: Wet Floor sign, Haddish went ahead to say. “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,” a user posted X. Many fans were upset and disappointed at the Eritrean-American actress, accusing her of feeding into the stereotypes . “They think we’re chasing lions and zebras.” Another user posted the video on Twitter with the caption: “Tiffany Haddish is surprised that there’s a grocery store in Africa..? What’s wrong with these people?”
After the backlash intensified, Haddish took to X to defend herself. She cited the media as the main source of misconception, since it portrayed Africa to be prone to war and starvation. She also went ahead to claim that her African-American friends were too scared to accompany her to Zimbabwe. On arriving in Zimbabwe, Haddish said she was moved to tears by the reality, contrasting it with the negative portrayal she had been exposed to in the US. “The media had me thinking all of your food is purchased in outdoor markets with goats and cows just hanging out to be slaughtered, with all kinds of smells and flies everywhere,” she wrote.
“I have heard crazy stories about how they kill each other and that there is war every day there. I asked my black friends to go with me, and they were scared. We got here and I have been filled with tears finding out the truth. The media is lying. I thought I would share because I know people in the USA believe Africans don't have anything, she said. “I thought I would share cause I know people in the USA that believe Africans don’t have anything, she wrote. “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.
