Glamour recently announced
that Queen B Matheba is their December
cover star. South Africa’s it-girl decided to break the news with an unusual Instagram caption:
"Proud to announce!!! 1st
black local star on the cover of Glamour South Africa!! December 2014 issue
goes on sale TODAY!!"
Bonang is the magazine’s very first local,
black personality to grace the cover, and we are not trying to take that
achievement away from her.
A little background on Glamour, it was launched
back in April 2004 - that’s roughly
117 issues printed. This is concerning, mainly because according to Conde Nast the
magazine is widely popular with "black locals" –
making up over 54% of their readership. Many
of Lady B’s followers and loyal fans are understandably happy for her, and some
are flabbergasted by the fact that it took the magazine 10 years before putting a SA
black girl on its cover.
One of the magazine’s readers took to Glamour’s
Facebook page and commented on the controversy:
"As for GLAMOUR magazine,
it has no cause for any celebration. It should actually be ashamed that it took
a DECADE to have a Black face on its cover, a DECADE of a
"post-apartheid" dispensation, in a country where Blacks are a
majority. And the fact that it is using statements like "Get yourself a
copy of the historic December 2014 edition of GLAMOUR magazine - first ever
Black local star graces the cover!” is itself a slap on the face of Black people…"
The magazine claims that they reflect South Africa's rapidly changing
demographics, yet 10 years have gone by
without seeing a local, black celebrity/model (of which South Africa has
plenty) on the cover.
Picture from Bonang's Instagram
My thought on
the Glamour SA cover…