It was so clear that the issue of xenophobia in South Africa was being used more as a marketing ploy by the organizers of the “Africa Unite” concert than as a way to effect real change.
That was my worry when I declined to perform. Just from the headline act they chose, it was clear that they wanted a controversial figure more than someone, eg Wizkid, who was engaged in the issue in a constructive way.
As we got closer to the day, the concert was generating even more hostility than unity and the organizers were doing nothing about it.
That was further proof that xenophobia was just a way for them to make money. Which is disheartening for those of us who genuinely believe in a united Africa.
Let me just say that Xenophobic attitudes are too widespread in SA and it is a problem. However it is also a problem to say people were murdered when they were not. Truth does matter.
How much damage did it do to African unity when several Nigerian artists claimed Nigerians were being killed in their numbers here when they were not? It has to be cleared up.
And asking people to accept this misinformation because of the lawlessness that did happen is not going to work. No one will agree to plead guilty to murder because they did something else wrong. No one will say they killed someone again today because they did so years ago.
It is also a problem and super ironic to threaten to physically attack someone (AKA) in the name of *ending* violence.
To then have an artist who has done both of the above booked without taking any of that back shows the organizers were not at all engaged with the actual issue at hand.
But we will overcome this stupidity. African artists do so much to unite the content all the time without the umbrella of a corporate money-making trick.
