Adele & SNL Face Criticism For African Sex Tourism Sketch
Adele hosted Saturday Night Live last weekend, and in most respects it reportedly went well. In at least one respect it went not so well, though. Adele starred alongside Kate McKinnon and Heidi Gardner in a faux commercial called “Africa Tourism.” Designed as a parody of sex tourism, it found the performers acting as white women mesmerized by the “tribesmen” and “massive bamboos” of the African continent, “the number one destination for divorcees of a certain age.” Adele found it so funny that she broke character to laugh a few times, but thanks to both its content and its timing, not everyone was laughing along.
As CNN reports, the “Africa Tourism” sketch has garnered significant backlash since airing early Sunday morning, with critics claiming it promoted stereotypes about Black men and was ill-timed in light of the EndSARS protests calling for the disbandment of the Special Anti-Robbery Squad police unit in Nigeria.
Here’s the sketch, followed by some critiques rounded up by Buzzfeed.
Adele was recently was accused of cultural appropriation for wearing her hair in Bantu knots, so this year is not going so well for her in this regard.