'Dem get perfect dark skin': Di African nation wey be home to favourite fashion models

BBC News

5 hours ago

She wear one chic outfit, wit flowing braids and her face no get make-up, Arop Akol look like your typical off-duty model.
She sit down for chair for di office of her UK agency, First Model Management, she tok about her big career wey don make her waka for runways for luxury brands for London and Paris.
"I bin dey watch modelling online since I be small pikin wey dey 11 years," Akol, wey dey in her early twenties now, tell BBC.
For di last three years, dem dey stream her across di world wen she dey model, she don even share runway wit Naomi Campbell for one Off-White show.
To travel for work dey lonely somtimes but Akol dey constantly bump into models from her birth kontri - South Sudan wey plenti kasala dey happun.
"South Sudanese pipo don become very well known for dia beauty," Akol tok, she get high cheekbones, rich, dark skin and she be 5ft 10 inches tall.
Look through a fashion magazine or scan footage of any runway show and you go see Akol point - models wey dem born and raise for South Sudan, or doz ones wey from di kontri wey dey stay abroad dey evriwia.
Dem range from up-and-comers, like Akol, to supermodels like Anok Yai, Adut Akech and Alek Wek.
Afta dem scout her for London car park in 1995, Wek na one of di veri first South Sudanese models to find global success .
She don dey appear for plenti Vogue covers and she bin don model for di likes of Dior and Louis Vuitton.
And di popularity of South Sudanese models dey show no signs of slowing - leading industry platform Models.com dey put togeda annual list of modelling top 50 "future stars" and for im latest selection, one in five models get South Sudanese heritage.
Vogue also feature four South Sudanese models for im article about di "11 young models set to storm di catwalks for 2025".
"Di expectation of wetin model suppose be - most of di South Sudanese models get am," Dawson Deng, wey dey run South Sudan Fashion Week for di country capital, Juba, with fellow ex-model Trisha Nyachak tok.
"Dem get di perfect, dark skin. Dem get di melanin. Dem get di height."
Lucia Janosova, one casting agent for First Model Management, tell BBC: "Of course dem dey beautiful... beautiful skin, di height."
However, she say she no dey sure exactly why fashion brands dey find South Sudanese models over oda nationalities.
"I no fit tell you because plenti girls dey wey also dey beautiful and dem from Mozambique, or Nigeria, or different countries, right?" Ms Janosova add.
Akur Goi, South Sudanese model wey bin work wit designers like Givenchy and Armani, get one theory.
She believe say South Sudanese models dey in high demand no be sake of dia physical beauty, but for dia "strength" too.
Dem born Goi for Juba but as a child, she move to neighbouring Uganda, like Akol and hundreds of thousands of oda South Sudanese.
Many pipo run comot for years afta 2011, wen South Sudan become independent from Sudan.
High hopes bin dey for di world newest nation, but just two years later, civil war happun, wia around 400,000 pipo die and 2.5 million homes relocate to places like Uganda.
Although di civil war bin end afta five years, further waves of violence, natural disasters and poverty make pipo to continue to comot from di kontri.
Recently, fighting between goment and opposition forces don increase - wey dey cause fears say di kontri go return to civil war.
Afta dem comot from South Sudan for Uganda, Goi "biggest dream" na to become a model.
Fantasy become reality just last year, wen agents bin find her through Facebook. For her veri first job, she walk for Italian fashion giant Roberto Cavalli.
"I bin dey super excited and ready for my first season... I bin really dey nervous and scared but I tell mysef: 'I fit make am' - becos na my dream," na wetin Goi tell BBC from Milan, afta she bin fly out for a job at di last minute.
But some South Sudanese models bin don get veri terrible journeys.
One investigation by British newspaper the Times bin find out say two refugees wey bin dey live for camp for Kenya bin fly to Europe, but dem tell dem say dem too dey malnourished to appear for di runway.
Afta di modelling jobs don complete, dem go tell many oda models say dem dey owe dia agencies thousands of euros - as some contracts specify say dem go payback di money for visas and flights, dis dey usually happun wen di models start to earn money.
Akol say she bin face a similar issue. Wen dem bin find her for 2019, di agency in question bin ask her to pay for different fees - fees wey she now know say agencies no dey normally request.
"Dem bin ask me to pay money for registration, money for dis, for dat. I no fit manage all dat. I dey struggle, my family dey struggle, so I no fit manage all dat," she tok.
Three years later, wen she bin dey live for Uganda, one ogbonge agency eventually scout her.
Deng, wey dey help upcoming South Sudanese models produce portfolios, tell BBC say some of dem bin dey complain say dem dey pay dem for jobs wit clothes, instead of money.
Many models also come up against anoda challenge - dia family perception of dia career choice.
"Dem bin no want am and dem no want am now," Akol, wey dey live for London, now tok about her own relatives.
"But we [models] bin manage to come up and say: 'We be young kontri. We need to go out and meet pipo. We need to do tins wey evribody dey do.'"
Deng say di pipo wey dey live for urban areas don become more open-minded, but some South Sudanese dey see modelling as prostitution.
Parents dey question di whole concept - dem dey wonder why dia daughters go dey "waka for pipo front ", im tok.
Deng remember one young woman wey im bin dey assist wey bin dey about to fly out for her first international job.
Di young woman family wey no happy say she be model, follow her to airport just to stop her make she no enta di plane.
But, Deng say, di woman relatives eventually allow her and she don dey model for one top lingerie brand since.
"Dis girl na actually di breadwinner of di family. She dey send all her siblings to school and nobody dey tok about am as bad tin again," im tok.
Im dey "proud" to see dis model - and odas from South Sudan - on di global stage and although di industry dey cycle through trends, Deng no believe say South Sudanese models go go out of fashion.
Goi agree, im say "increasing demand for diversity" in fashion dey.
Akol too believe say South Sudan don come to stay, dem say: "Alek Wek don dey do am before dem born me and she still dey do am now.
"South Sudanese models dey go a long way."