Homosexuality is African – Jidenna (video)

Jidenna shut down claims of of same-sex relationships being non-existent in African culture during his visit to Sway Universe. 

The Nigerian-American singer debunked claims of Europeans bringing homosexuality to Africa, while also blaming misinformation and homophobia for limited ideas about homosexuality which has a place in African history. 

“The whole idea that Black people, and our tradition to be Black… You hear these African leaders who are dressed in three-piece suits, got an iPhone, speaking in English and not their native tongue are saying, ‘it’s unafrican to be homosexual, it’s unafrican… we don’t have it. That was brought as a European import.’ It’s not true. It’s not true at all,” said Jidenna, a Stanford graduate who spent the first ten years of his life in Nigeria.

“You got Uganda, the kingdom of Buganda at the time… Before Uganda, there was an openly gay king. If you go to Zimbabwe… the bushmen as they call them, you’ll see homosexual acts in the Cape paintings. If you go to different communities in Africa, there was different rights of passage where if a woman was with a woman, or a man was with a man, they were thought to be more powerful.

“There was never a time where this didn’t exist. Or where it was just hands down that homosexuals were wrong. That’s not actual an African thing, which means it’s not a Black thing” he added.