Lupita Nyong’o could only laugh after the tourism minister of her native Kenya said the actress was overlooked as the country’s international tourism ambassador because she’s been “unreachable.”
Backlash mounted online last week when Kenyan tourism minister Najib Balala picked British model Naomi Campbell as ambassador, representing the “Magical Kenya” brand.
In response, many people asked why someone like Nyong’o, who was born in Mexico but raised in Kenya since she was a toddler, could not have been selected instead. Balala said at a public event this week that Nyong’o had been unreachable for the past five years and that they had failed to make contact with her.
Nyong’o on Friday literally laughed at that idea.
“Me when I hear the Kenyan Ministry of Tourism has been looking for me for fives years,” the “Black Panther” star posted alongside a cheery image of herself laughing...
Backlash mounted online last week when Kenyan tourism minister Najib Balala picked British model Naomi Campbell as ambassador, representing the “Magical Kenya” brand.
In response, many people asked why someone like Nyong’o, who was born in Mexico but raised in Kenya since she was a toddler, could not have been selected instead. Balala said at a public event this week that Nyong’o had been unreachable for the past five years and that they had failed to make contact with her.
Nyong’o on Friday literally laughed at that idea.
“Me when I hear the Kenyan Ministry of Tourism has been looking for me for fives years,” the “Black Panther” star posted alongside a cheery image of herself laughing...
- 1/22/2021
- by Brian Welk
- The Wrap
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