Practitioners of African Traditional Religions (ATR) united on Twitter after a call to action by a popular social media personality called out trolls who were demeaning a photo of singer Summer Walker wearing all white online. 

On March 10, a photo of Summer donning a simple white dress and white headscarf circulated on Twitter. The “Ex For A Reason” songstress looked radiant and happy as she shopped for healthy foods at the grocery store.

Folks with no home training began to share the photo with embarrassingly ignorant statements about her attire. 

Jay Versace, a comedian, actor and musician who

got his start by making hilarious videos on various social media platforms, posted a poignant tweet regarding Summer’s attire. 

“I know y’all are posting this hoping to make everyone laugh, but we gotta create space for black women to navigate their spiritual practice. This is a African traditional attire for a specific spiritual practice. Let’s decide who we wanna tear down and who we wanna uplift,” he wrote.

 

The 24-year-old priest of Obatalá upped the ante by urging Black folks who understood the significance of Summer wearing white to drop their flicks in the comments. 

“Black folks wearing white thread, drop the pics.”

 

And did they. Although the singer didn’t directly say why she was dressed in that manner, people aware of certain practices spoke on her behalf.

Priests and non-initiates shared stunning images of themselves in white to show solidarity with the Summer and bring understanding about traditional African religions like Lucumi and Voudoun. 

 

Many of these faiths were practiced in secret as practitioners risked their lives if they worshipped openly. As more Black people step into traditional diasporic and African practices, awareness and teaching are key. 

Summer had the last word, though. She responded to naysayers and trolls on Instagram. The singer explained that she was, indeed, an iyawo who had permission to post the stunning photo from her godparents.

“Who’s the clown? The ones trying to reconnect to STOLEN practices? Or the ones who can’t see the importance of their own culture,” she wrote.

“Also, I know yawos aren’t supposed to post themselves, but I got blessings from my godparents to post myself for work. I wanna show how you can do your job and still be a yawo while still rejecting vanity. I’m doing this publicly to show how important it is to be in African religions / to de-stigmatize them.”

And real talk– sis looked good. 

Blessings to her.