urban village’s powerful video “dindi” is a call to action for people to embrace the beauty in their own skin.

We can’t deny how colorism has played a divisive role in Black communities across the world for many years and we’ve seen how people with a darker shade, at often times have been oppressed or overlooked. The idea that lighter skin is soft, pure and gentle, while darker shades of skin represent hard, negativity or ugliness, has been perpetuated in media for years, resulting in psychological insecurities that plague generations. We’ve seen this in magazines, music videos, movies and popular tv series where prominent roles are handed to light skinned people while the darker skinned people are either playing 2nd fiddle or remain in the shadow of typecasting.

Today the South African experimental four-piece band, Urban Village, released the visuals for “Dindi” a song addressing the effects of colorism, especially in young Black girls who grow up being called names. Dindi was a colloquial term which was used to describe people with a darker skin tone, a description which was thrown around like a blanket when a person had a lack of vocabulary to describe a dark skinned woman. The term was oppressive and used to erode the confidence of young women whose skin just happened to be a shade darker. With the song, Urban Village have taken the term and use it as a call to action urging an awakening for people to take pride in their skin, no matter the shade they are born in.

“For this was a necessary term to be used as an awakening for people being raised and brought up under a certain oppression, where all the dark-skinned people, especially young women, would have attempted to bleach their skin in order to be accepted as beautiful. The song promotes people of all colours to be proud in the very skin that they are in, no matter the shade and texture,” explains Urban Village.

The video for Dindi was shot and directed by the acclaimed Justice Mukheli. Speaking about the process of creating the track’s accompanying video, Justice Mukheli says; “Working on Dindi was a beautiful experience, from creative process to final production. Being able to contribute to Urban Village’s project celebrating black women was an honour because of the times we are in. We need to celebrate women more, protect them more and be a safe space emotionally for them, beyond just the comfort and safety we show to those who are close to us and in our immediate surroundings.”

Dindi comes off Urban Village’s debut album, “Udondolo” available to stream below: