Homosexuality is African, it wasn’t introduced by Europeans – Jidenna

Jidenna is opening up about homosexuality in African culture. The singer, who partially grew up in Nigeria and never hesitates to represent his background, is now speaking about myths concerning same-sex relationships in Africa.

During an interview he said,

“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.”