The West always twist Africa’s story and put their faces on it – Burna Boy

Grammy Award winner, Damini Ebunoluwa Ogulu popularly known as Burna Boy has activated his Pan-African self once again as the Musician said in an interview with BBC that, the time for Africans to start telling their own stories is long overdue.

The afrobeats star said the move is necessary “because our stories have always been twisted and told and most of the time our stories have been twisted into the western world and then white faces have been put on the real characters.”

Burna Boy is not far from the truth; recent revelations show how a very important element in Africa’s history was distorted. Ghana’s heroine, Queen mother Yaa Asantewaa who stood her ground, rallied men and fought against the British empire to retrieve the exiled king at the time and also protect the Golden Stool was misrepresented in the media. 

A black historian Herman W. Hesse revealed that, the image which was always associated with her character and known by many as the brave Queen mother was actually a picture taken by an American Theatre Arts student who wore a bulletproof war jacket, held a gun and posed like Yaa Asantewaa. The average African has been socialized over the years to accept this false history and this is just one of the consequences of failing to take control over your own history and tell the story as it is.     

According to Burna Boy, the time for Africans to start writing their own story is now. He said in his interview with BBC that, “now is the time to overturn all that because finally we have a generation of Africans who is not going to stand for that.” Adding that, there is no better time to “change the narrative back into the truth” than now.

The Nigerian born star singer has won the Best Global Album at the 63rd edition of the Grammy Award with his ‘Twice as Tall’ album beating records such as FU Chronicles by Antibalas, Agora by Bebel Gilberto, Love Letters by Anoushka Shankar, and Amadjar Tinariwen. He dedicated the award to Africans; “This is a big win for my generation of Africans all over the world.” The global super star said in his acceptance speech.