spot_img
Wednesday, July 9, 2025
spot_img

Lupita: Being Luo Made Me Uncomfortable

Lupita: Being Luo Made Me Uncomfortable
Lupita: Being Luo Made Me Uncomfortable

Oscar award-winning actress Lupita Nyongโ€™o has for the first time opened up about being Luo, telling Vogue magazine that it made her feel uncomfortable as a teenager.

In the wide-ranging interview, which earned Lupita her second cover on the respected magazine, the actress also reveals how she was told her skin was too dark for a TV role in Kenya during auditions.

- Advertisement -

โ€œI developed this discomfort in all things that identified me as ethnically Luo when I was a teenager,โ€ she told Vogue.

However, she says that being told she her skin was too dark for her to act never put her off.

โ€œNo,โ€ she said. โ€œIt didnโ€™t ring true. I just thought, I need to find another way.โ€

 

She also says that she was forced to speak either Swahili or English since Dholuo, like most other tribal tongues, was forbidden at Kenyan schools.

- Advertisement -

โ€œSo there was a certain amount of shame attached to my mother tongue. . . .โ€ she said.

โ€œLupita is Luo, a member of the Nilotic tribe that migrated south from Sudan. They are one of the darkest-skinned of the African tribes,โ€ explains the magazine.

The 12 Years A Slave actress further spoke about growing up in Kenya, how she would climb mango trees at her grandmotherโ€™s farm in Kisumu (we think this is a lie) and how she would like her children to experience such a life one day.

Asked whether she would raise her children in Kenya โ€“and not America- Lupita said: โ€œโ€ฆI think that will all be determined when I have that moment. When I have that man.โ€

According to the magazine, on the subject of her love life, Lupita remains silent, but since she broke up with rapper Kโ€™naan in 2014, she hasnโ€™t appeared to be seriously dating.

nairobinews.nation.co.ke

Lupita: Being Luo Made Me Uncomfortable

Comment on the article

- Advertisement -spot_img
- Advertisement -spot_img
- Advertisement -spot_img
- Advertisement -spot_img

Latest Articles