Singer Jidenna has stated that homosexuality has always existed in Africa and part of its culture, not something that was imported by Europeans.
The US singer of Nigerian origin made this known in an interview saying:
“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.”
He added:
“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 mower 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.”
Speaking on Maurice Willoughby aka Reese who committed suicide after he was bullied for dating a transgender women, Jidenna said:
“So, what is a foreign import is actually the idea that this is somehow wrong. That what Reese is doing is wrong. That’s the truth. That’s actual history. Y’all can google it. You can look it up. Don’t take my word for it. Look it up. To me, if you understand that, if you grew up knowing that, then you’re not gonna have those guys on the street bullying him. Then maybe he doesn’t commit suicide, then maybe he doesn’t beat her, because he’s beating himself inside.”
He continued by referencing lyrics from his song “The Other Half”.
“And that’s what I say in ‘The Other Half.’ I said,’ I pray for my n***as surviving the pen. Demons taking my friends, boys pretending they’re men. B**** don’t f*** up my zen. My homie told me you violated a body and shorty that put me on 10. She begging me now to add it to the list of feelings I gotta keep in. Ain’t that the root of the drama? How we just lock up the trauma? Fighting within, fighting without, fighting, divide it, and conquer.’”
He added,
“Hurt people hurt people. When you see men hurting women or trans folk, or themselves, it’s because we don’t know how to express that all. And I’m still learning that day by day. Right now, I have the thinnest mask I have ever worn in my life and it feels great. I feel liberated.”