Mawelele – True Colours

Everybody has met someone who was all smiles until money, power or pressure came into the picture. The friend who was always around when you were buying, and nowhere to be found when you needed a lift. The partner who was gentle in public and different at home. The colleague who praised you to your face and talked behind your back. Time has a way of peeling off the polish.

What I find interesting is that the phrase works in two directions. It can be a warning about somebody else, the sort of thing you say after a painful discovery. It can also be a mirror, because every one of us has moments when our own colours show, usually when we are tired, stressed or think nobody is watching. A title like this invites both readings.

There is a very Nigerian side to the subject as well. We are always saying that a person’s character is known in hard times, that you only know somebody after you have shared a roof or a bank account with them. Elders have been telling young people this for generations, and it still catches people off guard when it happens to them.

Anyone who has been disappointed by a person they trusted will see themselves here. It suits the quiet stretch after a falling out, when you replay old conversations and finally understand what True Colours was telling you all along.