It had just dropped hours before.
He picked my hair color, the outfits.
He likes to know whats going on from the top to the bottom, she says.
ALEXANDER PIPER*
If he dont like it, it aint happening.
Shokunbi, bubbly and confident, says Rema wanted someone who could shine on camera.
Hes like, I want you to act, she recalls.
I want you to give me everything.
I was like, Baby, you dont got to say no more.
She was previouslycastin Adekunle Golds Something Different music video as well.
Im thinking, Oh, theyre going to say were dating.
Im thinking theyre going to say I slept my way to the top.
(She and Rema have never been romantic, she insists.)
That kind of dismissal is something shes experienced all her life, especially in the modeling industry.
I dont think im ugly, Im bad, Shokunbi tells me.
It also causes intra-communal strife among Black people.
Africa, where the World Health Organization has deemedskin bleachinga dangerous and common phenomenon, is no exception.
Its been translated into today and forever.
Shokunbi was made to feel ashamed of her skin at a young age.
They used to call me burnt biscuit, dark chocolate, after midnight.
Someone called me a Smurf because I was so Black, I could turn blue.
Id be walking in all black for orchestra and theyd be like, Theres a ghost!
I used to get called everything under the sun.
Her own family mocked her, including her mom, who is light-skinned.
She didnt know what she was doing until I got older, Shokunbi says.
Shes like, Halima, youre so Black.
You have to go sit inside.
Why are you so Black?
She says shes often been boxed into a particular look, too.
The whole fresh-off-the-boat, they-look-like-they-just-came-from-Africa thats the realm that they like to keep the dark-skinned models in.
Thats something that Ive been fighting against for years.
Thats why I wear so many wigs and do so many different things.
Her worst experiences came working in Milan in 2019.
I left and there was black dye on my ears, on my edges, and my neck.
These experiences led Shokunbi to do more work behind the camera.
She now runs268 Studioswith three other African women.
They do video, photo, and event production, public relations, branding, and social media marketing.
Still, colorism manages to touch that work too.
We have to use her light-skinned privilege.
Wed be like, Girl, they like you more.
Go ahead and talk to them, explaining how their points will be ignored until Catia reiterates them.
She says Remas creative director,Richie Igunma, was the only person she told.
Richie only found it out because some girl made a reenactment of me dancing [in the video].
I reposted that because I thought it was funny.
Richie thoughtthatwas meant to be cruel.
He was like, Bro, what the fuck?
After she told him about the attacks, he reassured her of how beautiful she is.
I know your mothers dark-skinned.
Your siblings are dark-skinned.
Your aunties and uncles are dark-skinned.
I just feel like a lot of that stuff was just internalized.
