Nigerian artiste, Burna Boy, might not perform at the ‘Africa Unite’ concert slated for South Africa between November 23 and 24.
According to a petition written by some South African musicians under the aegis of ‘Tshwane Collective’, and sent to the Minister of Arts and Culture the artiste does not deserve to be a part of the show, and as such he should be exempted.
The Africa Unite concerts, a response to recent xenophobia in the country is organised by Play Network Africa, based in Nigeria, in partnership with Phambili Media SA and appears to enjoy the support of South Africa’s department of arts and culture.
Expected to perform at the show are Burna Boy, Kwesa and Jidenna. The first concert will hold at Hillcrest Quarry in Cape Town on 23 November and the second at Sun Arena, Time Square in Pretoria.
However, the ‘Tshwane Collective’ questioned the exclusion of local artists and Burna Boy’s invitation to perform at the concert, accusing the African Giant of inciting hatred against South Africa, in the wake of the xenophobic attacks.
“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 platform, 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”, the group said in the letter to Nathi Mthethwa, minister of art and culture.
The department of culture has however distanced itself from the concert and said that its logo had been used “erroneously” on posters advertising the event, Times Live reported
“The Department of Sports, Arts, and Culture wishes to dispel the untrue information currently being spread on social media, that it is funding the Africans Unite Concert featuring the artist known as Burna Boy. It is unfortunate that the department’s logo was erroneously used on the poster advertising the event,” spokesperson Asanda Magaqa told TshisaLIVE.
Asanda said that the department had not allocated or granted funding for the event. “The department wishes to reiterate that it has not allocated or granted any funding to the event in question and any reports to the contrary are entirely false.”
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