OPINION: BET Awards Ashamed of African Musicians? Maybe…

The BET Awards 2014 went down two Sundays ago but for some time now there has been disquiet over the awards that seek to celebrate African Americans and other minorities in music, acting, sports, and other fields of entertainment over the past year.

For instance, many people don’t know that this year’s winner of Best African Act, Davido, received his award way before the main award ceremony started something different from what’s witnessed with other non-African winners. The cameras never showed where they were seated nor did they show the crowd’s response when Davido got on stage. In 2013, too, Ice Prince received his award to an almost empty auditorium when everyone had walked out.

Davido gives his acceptance speech after receiving his award

So this year, a renowned Nigerian blogger, Replay Tunes, decided he’s not going to shut up as African acts are embarrassed at the international stage. They opine;

“Last year, we watched as Ice Prince walked proudly on stage to receive his BET award, we smiled and applauded as he called up his fellow African acts to join him on stage in a show of solidarity. Later to my shock and disappointment I discovered that Ice Prince’s part was only aired on BET for Africa and UK.

This year, Davido did Nigeria proud by winning the BET award for Best International African act (BIAA). However, it was obvious the award was presented to him before the main award ceremony kicked off.

Without going into too much writing lets compare BET to the UK’s MOBO awards -At the MOBO awards, African acts that win in their various categories are awarded the same courtesy as their international counterparts. Everybody no matter what sort of star you are is in one room and the awards are presented in front of all attending Audience.

This is irrefutable evidence to me that BET or the black American music and entertainment industry and audience which they represent are truly ashamed of African acts. However they would not want to be seen as ignoring or being left out of the African wave (MTV MAMA) so they throw a bone.

BET Awards reminds me of the policy of racial segregation on the public transit system of Montgomery, Alabama when in 1955 Rosa Parks refused to give up her seat for a white person and move to the back of the bus.

Africa does not need BET, we are stars in our own right and we do not need some entertainment network in America to tell us what we are worth? It beats me why our established acts and their handlers would fall over themselves for this discriminatory show of support if there was ever such a thing – are we not aware of our own worth?

What a show of ultimate disrespect this is!!!!!

Ice Prince is congratulated by his fellow nominees at BET Awards 2013

Think about it for a second;

The poor International African acts are mandated to get to the venue before start off time so they could quickly collect their awards before the glittering American celebrities arrive.

My question also is, are the international African acts allowed to sit with their American counterparts or like Rosa Parks were they relegated to the shadows not to be seen?

Think about this article and if you are an African act reading this, ask yourselves –

Do I really need to be discriminated against and humiliated like this in order to receive validation from BET?

My advice to African acts is; Concentrate on getting to the MOBO’s instead and forget BET, their mentality of segregation and discrimination is ingrained and won’t disappear anytime soon because this is all the know this is their reality.”