This article is more than 1 year old

This article is more than 1 year old

South African regulators have banned a television advert that showed a black man discovering a foreign land and naming it Europe, ruling that colonisation is “not open for humorous exploitation”.

The advert, for a chicken restaurant chain, tells a spoof story how the man leaves South Africa in 1650, sails overseas and, after many adventures, comes ashore and meets white local people wearing three-pointed hats and waistcoats.

“Hola MaNgamla (Hello white folk). I like this place, I think I will call it … Europe,” the man says, sticking his spear into the ground.

The Advertising Regulatory Board ruled that the commercial “trivialises an issue that is … upsetting for many South African people”.

It said: “Turning the usual colonisation story around might be perceived as having a certain element of humour. The reality though is that colonisation of Africa and her people was traumatic.”

The fast-food chain Chicken Licken said its advert was a tongue-in-cheek tale about how of its Big John burger got its name.

The advert “in no way, shape or form seeks to make a mockery of the struggles of colonisation,” the company said, and was designed to appeal to “pride and patriotism amongst South Africans”.