FACT-CHECK: Offensive video suggesting White racism against naked Black girl not real

A video is circulating on social media suggesting an offensive racism act being meted out against a black girl by a group of white people.

In the video, two white men and a woman take turns to urinate on a petite naked girl who appears to be black. With her face down, the girl curls her body on a hard ground of an open space. A group of white men and women who surround the incident look fixedly at her while the men and woman urinate on her.

The video has been shared widely on social media, accompanied by varying commentaries and descriptions, most of them calling attention to white racism against blacks.

Some social media posts have connected the video with the recent expulsion of the French Ambassador from Mali by the military government. The posts suggest the video is a retaliation by some French against a Malian and those sharing it are calling on Africans to respond through protests.

“After Mali sent out the French Ambassador, the French caught a Malian in a remote French village and urinated on him publicly. Africa must Wake up. We have to stage demonstrations in front of all French embassies in our countries. This act by the French is an attack on our very humanity & dignity thereof,” one of the posts said.

Others have connected the video to a recent online protest against sportswear giant, Adidas. The sportswear brand had terminated its sponsorship contract with French soccer player Kurt Zouma, who plays for UK-based West Ham United. The player had been spotted in a viral video kicking his cat. The sportswear brand found the incident inappropriate and hence withdrew its deal with the player.

https://twitter.com/crnlsoliko/status/1491778724286844931?s=20&t=zll2OJ1Vb-lmcw1MgQBjMw

Fact-Check Ghana has verified the video and concludes the video is not real and does not relate to Mali or France.

Staged performance

The video is a staged performance by the renowned Guatemalan performance artist Regina José Galindo. The artist is famous for staging similar body arts with political themes.

In fact, photos of Regina José Galindo show she’s not as dark as portrayed in the video. She painted her body with coal for the act.

See below photos of closer shots of the artist

About the Performance

The title of the performance is Piedra. It was staged in the Universidade de São Paulo, São Paulo, Brazil on January 17, 2013. The performance essentially underscores the defilement and violence against female bodies in the coal mining industry in many South American countries including Venezuela, Chile, and Brazil, where coal is the country’s largest non-renewable energy resource.

This is how Hemispheric Institute, a US-based art center that curates works of artists, writers, and activists, described the Piedra:

“Piedra stages a woman’s body and a stone as objects conditioned to endure violent enactments. The ease with which a male-bodied actor, both in and outside of the performance, can defile the female body with the perfunctory act of relieving his bladder parallels the unconscious daily violence against a woman’s body.”

It added: “Piedra’s simple yet poignant actions capture both a local and global crisis: the detrimental effects of coal mining on the environment, the predicament of exploited female laborers, and the pervasive structural violence against women that economic exploitation perpetuates.”

You may also be interested in:

Half-naked photo of “Akufo-Addo” and “Serwaa Broni” in a room forensically fact-checked