No Naomi Campbell, Vogue Africa isn't a fabulous idea

One of the few people on earth truly deserving of the now overused "supermodel" tag, Naomi Campbell told Reuters she believes it's time Vogue had an Africa edition.

She's quoted as saying: "We just had Vogue Arabia - it is the next progression... Africa has never had the opportunity to be out there and their fabrics and their materials and their designs be accepted on the global platform... it shouldn't be that way."

And why not? The fashion world is trying to show more diversity (not just on the runways, though they remain overwhelmingly white): the new head of menswear at Louis Vuitton is black (Ghanaian-American Virgil Abloh), Balmain's creative director is biracial (Frenchman Olivier Rousteing), British Vogue is now helmed by a black man (Ghanaian-born Edward Enninful) - so a Vogue Africa would be a great way for the most influential name in fashion media to jump aboard the "we love black folk" ship.

And Vogue Africa could benefit many financially (job creation, global exposure for designers etc).

But do we really need a declining brand (sales and prestige) to validate our creative existence to the world? Why are we still thirsty for the West's acceptance? Because, as Campbell suggests, the path to having African fabrics, materials and designs "accepted on the global platform" is paved with editions of Vogue Africa.

But this - and I'm writing in the South African context - feels counterintuitive to what young black Africans in particular are doing now.

We're trying to do things on our own terms, disrupt the narrative, own our narrative and tell our own stories - our way. It goes against this spirit of decolonisation that we've been pushing these past few years if we do back flips because there might be (the rumour's been around for several years) a Vogue Africa.