Jidenna, Tiwa Savage And Burna Boy Speak Out Against Xenophobic Attacks On Nigerian People In South Africa
Reports have continued to come out of South Africa that citizens from other African nations are being targeted — and outright killed in some cases — in what has largely been decried as a xenophobic attack on foreigners.
According to BBC News, the attacks were orchestrated in response to the widespread sentiment that foreign Africans are taking jobs from South Africans, who are currently facing the highest rate of unemployment in recent history.
Photos and videos have been spreading on social media of rioters torching cars and looting foreign-owned storefronts. Five people have reportedly been killed and at least 189 arrested, according to the news outlet.
The South African government is facing pressure from other country’s leaders, politicians and celebrities calling for the country to do more to stop the violence.
In response, a number of stars of Nigerian descent are speaking out against the xenophobic attacks.
'This apartheid trauma is rampant, cancerous, and volatile. My heart is heavy,' Jidenna tweeted late Thursday evening.
He continued: “These xenophobic attacks and assaults on women in [South Africa] aren’t new. They‘re a direct symptom of apartheid & they‘ll only end once the attackers realize that women & Nigerians are not the enemy. Neo-colonialists made u feel castrated & worthless; tribalism & patriarchy are their guns.”
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Nigerian’s hottest star at the moment, Burna Boy, sparked a national call for a boycott after he vowed to never step another foot “for any reason” in the country until the “South African government wakes the f**k up.”
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The Afrofusion star cited his own “xenophobic experiences” in the country as to why he hasn’t traveled there in the last two years.
“This goes against everything I stand 4, but at what point do we take action?” he posed. “[Let me] also say that there are some South Africans who are Amazing, Progressive AFRICAN people and I will forever Love them like I Love myself. But they are not many at all.”
Read his thoughts in full below.
Nigerian singer Tiwa Savage also pulled out of an upcoming performance.
The songstress canceled her show at a festival in Johannesburg in protest of the “barbaric butchering of [her] people.” In a follow-up tweet, she clarified her sentiments include all Africans impacted by the situation.
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South Africa’s President Cyril Ramaphosa has since addressed the widespread violence.
In a video published on his official Twitter account Tuesday, he spoke out against the attacks.
"The attacks on people who run business of foreign is totally unacceptable…[it is] completely against the ethos that we as South Africans espouse” Ramaphosa said. “There can be no justification whatsoever...that they should go out and attack people from other countries."
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