MAMAMOO's Hwasa received flak after her episode in the reality show "I Live Alone" also known as "Home Alone", which was aired on Saturday. She was criticized for wearing a Nigerian traditional costume to give a fun feel to the show. Her action was slammed as being racist towards the Nigerian traditional attire.
Hwasa took part in the MBC show "Home Alone: Girls' Secret Party" that is a spin-off of the popular program "Home Alone" and was seen wearing a costume that looked like Nigerian traditional costume buba.
Buba means blouse. It is derived from Yoruba (one of the largest ethnic groups of Nigeria) tradition that means upper clothing. It is paired with iro meaning wrapper and gele meaning head tie. What Hwasa wore on the show was similar to buba, including gele.
Hwasa Wanted to Look Funny?
The show is basically a comedy event and Hwasa was with her fellow cast members Han Hye Jin and Park Na Rae. It was a live broadcast on the YouTube channel. The problem was not that Hwasa was wearing the buba dress, but was the fact that it looked like she chose the dress to make her actions on the show look funny.
After social media started flooding negative comments about Hwasa's costume, the producers of the show issued a clarification in this regard and said that Hwasa was not wearing the buba costume. Giving more details, the statement read that her dress was inspired by the Korean Sauna dressing tradition.
Buba VS Korean Sauna Tradition
"We have received negative messages regarding Hwasa's outfit. We want to clarify that this outfit originated from a Korean 'sauna' outfit that Hwasa often wore on our program. We had no intention of comically presenting a traditional outfit from a particular country," the statement from MBC channel read.
"We realize that some of you have falsely identified Hwasa's outfit as a reflection of a traditional Nigeria outfit. Furthermore, due to the comedic genre of our show, some of you have shown concerns suggesting a comical reflection of traditional outfits and the possibility of it leading to racism. However, we want to assure you that we had no intention of relating her outfit to one from a specific culture," the producers explained further.
MBC also stated that the show "I Live Alone" had no intention of comically presenting a traditional outfit of a particular country.
