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Ye Stay Oblivious: Hands Out Yeezys to Dictator, Orphans in Uganda

In one of his recent daily missives via TMZ (do the Jenner-Kardashians partially own that site?) Kanye West said he was getting off the Twitters; alas, he has not. Suggested Reading The Root 100 – 2020 Black History Month – 2022 Hip-Hop 50 Year – 2023 Video will return here when scrolled back into view…

In one of his recent daily missives via TMZ (do the Jenner-Kardashians partially own that site?) Kanye West said he was getting off the Twitters; alas, he has not.

Video will return here when scrolled back into view
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Ye and his wife Kim Kardashian, and eldest daughter, North West, are in the East African nation of Uganda to record and complete his next album, now titled Yandhi.

West, dubbed โ€œa former black manโ€ by some funny writer, has fancied himself a humanitarian, and has apparently been giving out $220 Yeezys to children in an orphanage in one of the poorest nations in Africa, and has trekked to the presidential palace to give Ugandan leader Yoweri Museveni a pair as well.

https://twitter.com/kanyewest/status/1052152040896512002

However, Ye, being ahistorical Ye, is rubbing some African musicians the wrong way.

One of Ugandaโ€™s biggest musical stars criticized Westโ€™s meeting with the president who has been in office for more than 30 years and refuses to step down. Museveni is Africaโ€™s third longest serving president, and in 2005 helped to oversee a change where presidential term limits were lifted.

Quartz reports that musician turned lawmaker Bobi Wine (real name Robert Kyagulanyi Ssentamu), told the Guardian that it was โ€œimmoralโ€ for West to โ€œjust to rub shoulders with the president.โ€

Wine has been a thorn in Museveniโ€™s side after his election to office and was reportedly detained and tortured this summer for his efforts.

Fela Kutiโ€™s son has also strongly disavowed West after the Chicago contrarian said that the โ€œspirit of Fela is inside him,โ€ before taking his trip to the continent.

Of course, if Ye read a book he might know that Felaโ€™s spirit was all about resistance to corrupt systems and men, for which Fela himself was tortured for.

Ye, meanwhile, obliviously cozies up to such folks with alarming regularity, seemingly getting more shallow (is this the same man who recorded โ€œDiamonds from Sierra Leoneโ€?) by the minute.

Always considering himself a fashion plate, he and Kim rocked neon green sweaters with the Yeโ€™s World Food Program and the words โ€˜Saving Lives, Changing Livesโ€™ on them after coming to the orphanage with kicks and Beats by Dre headphones.

I know that there was once another madman in Uganda some time ago. His name was Idi Amin.

Straight From The Root

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