Burna Boy Has a Complicated Relationship with Africa

Great success affords people a voice, and Burna Boy is using his to celebrate the best of Africa and to denounce its worst. Through his lyrics and public pronouncements, it’s clear that he has a love-hate relationship with the continent, but his messages consistently convey a pride in the spirit and culture of Africans, as well as a hatred of corruption and graft. Anyone familiar with Burna Boy’s music (and can understand the mixture of Nigerian dialects he often uses in his lyrics) would be familiar with his stance on his continent. Many of his songs include Afro-centric messages, like the song “Another Story,” which gives a history of how Nigeria was colonized by the British. The 30-year-old believes that the only way African countries can get the respect he is looking for is if they join together. According to him, “it cannot be achieved by the way it’s been going … we’ve been falling for a long time so why not try something new?”

SOURCE: CNN