Xenophobic Attacks: Burna Boy urges black foreigners in South Africa to defend themselves

Nigerian artist Burna Boy has spent enough time in AKA’s home country of South Africa that he has come to refer to it as his second home. He is popular in Mzansi and even once posted a video of himself having to be escorted out of Newlands East in Durban, after being bombarded by fans.

But amid the ongoing xenophobic attacks, Burna Boy has urged black foreigners living in South Africa to defend and protect themselves against xenophobic attackers.This comes after he got involved in a debate around his former ‘bestie’ AKA, the current xenophobic attacks in the country and Nigerian foreigners mostly fearing for their lives.The exchange seemingly started when Nigerian rapper YCee tweeted his opinion about how South Africans felt towards Nigerians, citing AKA’s tweets back when South Africa lost in the Afcon quarter finals earlier this year to Nigeria.He said there was a “subtle dislike that a lot of them (If not all) feel towards Nigerians and no matter how hard they try to hide it … it eventually jumps out”.From there, in a series of tweets, Burna Boy chimed in, putting their years of good friendship aside saying that he will never set foot in South Africa again “for any reason until the South African government wakes up”.He said he was boycotting South Africa because of how badly his fellow Nigerians were being treated.In a now deleted tweet, Burna Boy also told AKA to take care of his security, before giving him the middle finger.

The two once collaborated in AKA’s 2014 smash hit All Eyes On Me and at some point Burna Boy referred to AKA as his brother sighting South Africa as his second home.Meanwhile, amid the heated tweets, he also acknowledged that there are “some South Africans who are amazing”, he said “they are not many at all”. Burna Boy is scheduled to perform at this year’s AfroPunk festival in Johannesburg on December 30 and 31 alongside local and international musicians. It doesn’t look like he will finally break his two-year boycott from his second home.