'I’m a victim': Cyan Boujee on how her affiliation with Alabuga Start programme affected her

Cyan Boujee has opened up about the personal and professional toll she suffered due to her involvement with the Alabuga Start programme.

The DJ and social media sensation was among several prominent influencers who travelled to Russia for the campaign and who have faced public backlash after the department of international relations & co-operation (Dirco) issued an alert about jobs promoted on social media, citing the dangers of human trafficking and slave-like conditions abroad. The matter is under investigation.

Cyan, whose real name is Honour Zuma, said the experience was a learning curve for her and she had now become an example for other influencers to be careful. 

“I feel like I’m a testimony for ladies to be careful,” she said during her interview on the L-Tido Podcast. 

Aside from the social media backlash, Cyan said her career was also affected after she was permanently banned from her TikTok account.

“I lost a lot. I lost some dignity. I have a lot of anxiety. I lost my TikTok account. This is a huge learning curve for me. But more than anything, I’m a victim. Even if I'm sorry for not doing my homework and not being able to represent myself properly in the situation. I still believe I'm a victim and I hope that everyone else learns from this situation because it was bad for everyone, my team, my family. Everyone received backlash, not just me.”

While Cyan has since established a new TikTok profile, she said the public's reaction was telling of how they constantly villainise her. 

“I’ve always been a villain in every situation. The Prince Kaybee situation, I was a victim. That was revenge porn. I was a victim. I needed the community to come together to stand for me. But in that situation I had people throwing things at me while I was performing.”

Reflecting on her affiliation with the programme on her YouTube channel, Cyan shared a voice message she sent to her publicist while in Russia where she raised concerns about the programme based in a special economic zone in Tatarstan and targeting women aged 18-22.

“More than anything, I'm worried about the kids. I'm worried so much about the kids because when I interviewed them most of them were not happy, especially with the answers they had to give on camera,” she said.

Cyan said there was “dodgy stuff” that made her uncomfortable while they were filming the promotional video, including smoking. 

“When I asked one of them how things were going, if she was happy with her accommodation and if her roommates were being nice to her, she just cried. I was in disbelief because she was not happy. We had to wait for so long for her to calm down so she could lie and say everything was good.

“I told them that if they were going to work with other influencers, they had to be legit.”