image via Jidenna Instagram

Jidenna is speaking out about homosexuality and long standing myths in African culture surrounding homosexuality and claims that it was “brought over” by Europeans.

While visiting ‘Sway’s Universe‘ to promote his new album ‘85 To Africa‘ that was just released last week, the singer/rapper broke down his thoughts of the misinformation surrounding same sex relationships in the African and black culture.

image via Jidenna Instagram

For those not aware, Jidenna grew up in Nigeria for a good period of his life, and has been very vocal about his African roots (his father is Nigerian while his mom is white). He was not afraid to go there on the touchy subject of homosexuality.

“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.”

“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.”

Get into that and many, many more gems of knowledge in the full interview below (LGBTQ comments around the 20:20 mark.)

If that wasn’t enough, check out his recent visit to ‘The Breakfast Club‘ as well.

Kudos to Jidenna!!