Uh Oh!
Erkyah Badu is getting ALOT of negative press today due to a recent performance she’d done overseas. Badu traveled across the U.S. border to perform for King Mswati III for his birthday salute in Swaziland. Badu is a well-respected musician known for her conscious songs of activism and human rights. So why did she agree to perform for a well known dictator who is ‘alleged’ to have a bad reputation of politics, especially on the policies of women?
Mswati opponents was shocked and appalled that Badu would perform for Mswati; an absolute monarch who holds supreme executive authority over legislative and courts. Mswati is also a strong supporter of polygamy and hypocrite [many say] for breaking his rules on the age limit [18] of marriage.
Swazi currently has fifteen [15] children and [24] children; wife number 13 reportedly was forced into marriage at the age of 17. Mswati bold decision sparked protests from 300 young women who rallied in front of the Royal Palace. You can read that story here
“ She owes us all an explanation” – says Alex Gladstein [Human Rights Foundation Director of Institutional Affairs]. The King is kleptocrat who lives in the lap of obscene luxury while most of his country men toil in abject poverty for less than $2 a day. “
Badu first replied the following in a deleted tweet .
“I was not paid by the KING. I had no idea of the political climate” Badu also mentioned that she obliged the request of her friend Jacob The Jeweler. Hmm?
Badu did address the question in an interview with Dallas Morning News saying:
” I want to address the people, not a group or a government agency. The people know I was not endorsing the KING or helping to further his political agenda. I have no agenda. I went into a situation not completely knowing the political climate of the kingdom.
” I can’t be held responsible for the situation in the kingdom because I signed up as an artist, not a political activist. I don’t belong to anyone or to anything. Anything I do is because I am a human being and I am for the people.
And she later tweeted:
” We are in a political season and I am being Used. WATCH CLOSELY. “
I’m sure this story is not going away anytime soon but I highly doubt the KING will issue a statement; after all he is the last ruling monarch standing in Africa.
Stay tuned PLUM’s!