Artists object to Burna Boy performing in SA as AKA demands apology

The Tshwane Entertainment Collective have joined some South Africans in objecting to Nigerian artist Burna Boy performing at the Africans Unite concert set to take place in Pretoria on November 24.

The Tshwane Entertainment Collective raised a few objections to the concert including local artists not receiving funding from government while it is quick to fund events organised by foreign companies. The exclusion of local talents has also been questioned.

“As creatives, artists and event organisers who seem to never do enough to warrant receiving funding from your department, in particular, we were surprised to see a foreign-owned company, PlayNetwork Africa, soliciting funding and support at the drop of a hat. This reminded us of all the productions hosted locally which are either white, foreign or corporate-owned, that repeatedly enjoy an unreserved amount of financial and other support from the South African government through your department and its subsidiaries.”

Burna Boy headlining the event has not been taken kindly by the group either, who questioned why government would include an artist who threatened a local artist with violence.

“Your department is funding an event headlined by an artist who goes by the stage name Burna Boy. Whoever may have deemed that the country needs a PR exercise of this nature would have done so largely as a result of the callous, misleading and unwarranted incitement by this very artist. Not only did he spread falsehoods through his extensive platforms, he literally incited violence and hate. He further promised to inflict his own violence on locals before giving your government an ultimatum which you seem to have received and succumbed to.”

Burna Boy’s deleted tweet

Though the two artists were once on good terms, things went south a few weeks back during xenophobic attacks in Tshwane.

In response to the attacks, and AKA having complained – months prior – about losing awards and soccer matches to Nigerians all the time, Burna Boy took to social media, in a series of tweets, to condemn the attacks and threatened AKA while at it. He also vowed never to set foot in South Africa.

He said at the time: “I have not set foot in SA since 2017. And I will not ever go to South Africa again for any reason until the South African government wakes the fuck up and really performs a miracle because I don’t know how they can even possibly fix this.

“And @MI_Abaga it’s fuck @akaworldwide from now on. And if you down with him, it’s fuck you too. I respect you too much, please don’t throw my respect out the window cuz I swear you will fly out with it.”

He further wrote, in a deleted tweet: “And AKA, I knew you [were] retarded but I didn’t know it had gotten this bad. Next time I see you, you better have a big security bro, On Gambos Grave ur gunna need it.”

South Africans have now called on the Nigerian musician to keep his vow of never setting foot in South Africa should he not apologise.

AKA wrote: “Ek se … @burnaboy all we want is an apology. We know SA is not perfect. But we took you in as our own before you reached these levels. You say you are an African giant, prove it.”

Burna Boy is yet to respond to the backlash.

Ek se … @burnaboy all we want is an apology. We know 🇿🇦 is not perfect. But we took you in as our own before you reached these levels. You say you are an AFRICAN GIANT, prove it.

— AKA (@akaworldwide) November 13, 2019

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