The Castle Milk Stout Brand, which is Africa’s largest stout, carries a powerful brand purpose of inspiring South Africans to rediscover their African traditions and values in a modern world. The Castle Milk Stout brand has consistently brought this to life through inspiring, insightful, and impactful campaigns, such as Ancestor’s Day as well as Last Stories of Culture, with the aim of preserving African culture.
Castle Milk Stout’s loyal consumers call the beer ‘inkunzi’emnyama’, which translates to “The Black Bull” inspiring Africans around the continent to embrace the strong, dark, black in colour liquid that the brand has. Using the insight that black is largely attributed to something “negative” or “to be feared, the brand launched their Don’t Fear Black, Savour it campaign, which aims to build a strong connection of the brand’s intrinsic and extrinsic properties. Through this campaign, Castle Milk Stout will encourage South African consumers to embrace the colour and the taste of the liquid by declaring and speaking about the issues that drive people to fear black. Castle Milk Stout’s stance is Black, similarly to the black liquid; the following properties can be attributed to Castle Milk Stout.
- Black is Rich
- Black is Smooth
- Black is Bold
- Black is Brave
- Black is Different
- Black has a taste
As the Castle Milk Stout Don’t Fear Black, Savour It campaign is a celebration of richness, boldness, smoothness, taste, and culture without limits. Butan is a brand that represents and has done some amazing work through fashion that represents African culture and therefore the perfect collaborative partner to translate the campaign to a clothing range. The story of “inkunzi Emnyama” is woven through each garment symbolizing key attributes of Castle Milk Stout.
The partnership with Butan won’t be the brand’s first high fashion partnership as it has previously partnered with the likes of Tshepo Jeans, to memorialize and bring to life its campaigns. Castle Milk Stout decided to partner with Butan due to it aligning with all the characteristics of Castle Milk Stout, every garment tells a unique story, is of high quality, different, and certainly makes a bold statement.
To showcase the range, Castle Milk Stout partners with lead actors from the Showmax Hit-Series “The Wife”; Wiseman Mncube, Kwenzokuhle Ngcobo, Thulane Shange, Sipho Ndlovu and Mondli Makhoba to showcase the streetwear pieces which Castle Milk Stout created with Butan. Having worked with all five personalities on various campaigns, they have gotten to know the brand and have immersed themselves in the brands journey. As modern traditionalists, with rich stories to tell, they were the perfect individuals to personify the Don’t Fear Black, Savour it Campaign, each with compelling stories which justified their interest in the campaign and justified the partnership.
Colourism having been one of the talking points amongst the panellists of the Black Conversations Series is an issue that affects many people in society and Thulane Shange attests to that by detailing how his dark skin automatically cast him out of the standards that society has set. The inception of this campaign afforded him the opportunity of gain his power back and using it to change the narrative for future generations.
The Black Conversations Series aimed at changing the narrative around social norms, which aligns with the aspirations that Thulane has of using his craft and his developed skills to enable the black community by telling their stories and redefining blackness in a modern society. The Castle Milk Stout brand, a brand that fearlessly pioneers such conversations and changes aligned with Thulane.
Redefining blackness in a modern society speaks to dissembling the structure but not necessarily losing the essence of blackness- culture. Mondli Makhoba mentioned that his legacy lives through stories passed down to him. “The stores of my father and grandfather that I narrate to myself whenever they cross my mind. My mother and grandmothers’ teachings that I still live by to date. These are all conversations I have with my children as a way of preserving my culture.”
Leading the charges in Season 3, Kwenzo describes speaks on how the Castle Milk Stout brand resonates with him as he, like many young modern traditionalist is “connected to his roots, which I hold dear and never want to lose” . His words are echoed by Shange who details a particular event (Black Conversations Launch) where says “ I nearly fell off my chair because I was like, there’s a show where black people have a right to just be blunt, truthful and unfiltered. This is what we need more of!” he exclaims. In the issue, the 28 year old opens up about the industry and some of the challenges he has faced as well as his experiences growing up with a dark complexion; This opportunity to speak on Don’t Fear Black – Savour It has allowed me to express myself how I’ve always wanted, to project and echo that being Black takes nothing away from who you are and what you can achieve. Blackness isn’t bad, and through this campaign we get to celebrate it.”
Having recently joined the cast of The Wife as Mqhele Zulu, Wiseman Mncube has worked with Castle Milk Stout since 2018, and has described this particular campaign as “For me, ‘don’t fear black’ means don’t fear who you are and what you’re made of. As Black people, we tend to fear ourselves and our potential. We judge and define ourselves by our skin
colour, how we speak, our background and past, and end up looking down on ourselves.
But we have the potential to be greater. This campaign encourages us to instead be proud and embrace who we are.” Said Mncube. The actor also discusses replacing Bonko Khoza who played Mqhele in the first two seasons of the series. While Sipho proudly proclaims that “ More needs to be done to liberate the Black child. I feel privileged to be part of a campaign bringing stability and relevant conversations in Black communities.” Makhoba who plays the role of the Zulu clan’s patriarch, similarly to his on-screen character, highlights the importance of preserving African culture and languages “ ‘I researched all the show’s scenes with a cultural element to perform them to the best of my ability. I’ve contributed to the preservation of the Zulu language in the form of a poetry anthology titled Imizwa Nemicabango.”.
The brothers who share the same sentiments where the preservation of culture and the redefinition of blackness is concerned, have also formed a genuine brotherhood. Mondli Mkhoba speaks on the end of The Wife and mentions that “what I am taking away from this is the brotherhood.” Reiterated by Kwenzo Ngcobo who states that their support, on and off screen made it easier to bring his character to life, “I am so lucky to get to work with people who I consider as my family. Having the support of my brothers has enabled us to learn a lot from each other”.
The December/January issue is available in-stores nationwide, digital copies are also available on the GQ website.
Follow the official Castle Milk Stout social media accounts:
Twitter: @CastleMilkStout
Facebook: Castle Milk Stout
Instagram: @castlemilkstout_sa
YouTube: Castle Milk Stout
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