“That Africa skit was tone def, insensitive and inappropriate,” Shenequa Golding, a journalist at R&B news website Vibe, wrote on Twitter. “Men and women in Nigeria, Namibia, South Africa and The Democratic Republic of the Congo are fighting for their lives and to reduce the continent as sexual destination for white women is shameful.”
MTV host Dometi Pongo added: “If you’re gonna try to touch that, it’s gotta be just a little smarter & more nuanced or don’t touch it at all. Not (right now).”
Adele, who hosted the fourth episode of the show’s current season on Saturday, broke character and burst into laughter several times during the scene.
The mock tourism commercial bills Africa as “the number one destination for divorcees of a certain age,” and features McKinnon’s character repeatedly boasting of the “tall, tall tribesmen” on the continent.
The three describe how they were taken in by tribes after their divorces, using suggestive wordplay to encourage other women to move to Africa.
During her musical performance in the same episode, singer H.E.R.’s band wore t-shirts bearing the slogan #ENDSARS, in solidarity with protesters demonstrating in Nigeria against police brutality and the country’s notorious Special Anti-Robbery Squad police unit.
CNN has contacted NBC Universal for comment. A representative for Adele declined to comment.
The singer was celebrating what would have been the Notting Hill Carnival, the world’s second-largest carnival, which usually takes place in the streets of west London every summer but was canceled this year due to the coronavirus pandemic.