Not at all. Look at Eddie Murphy. Before him, the Black guy in American movies was usually the side kick who got killed in that one moment of heroism. Or he was a bad tempered police chief. Then Edddie came along with the Beverly Hills Cop movies, and there you had this Black guy with a sharp brain, confounding his white sidekicks and foes alike.

What is patronising is the assumption many media people make that African audiences are not ready to see African people on the screen. We heard that a lot in Zimbabwe, but to date the box office records are broken by the few movies made in Zimbabwe.

I am not saying that we reverse polarity and shut out the light-skinned Blacks. I am not for political correctness. I am just saying a dark skinned person is as beautiful as a light skinned one. If someone steps in to my office and wants to act in my production, my first concern is whether they can act or not and if they are available and are easy to work with.

Being dark skinned myself, I must say in all fairness I have never had any problems because of my colour. What has often stood in my way is the fact that I was a Rastafarian in a predominantly Christian environment.