African leaders are selling off Africa – Mutabaruka

Jamaican musician, poet and actor Mutabaruka has slammed African leaders for not improving the plight of its citizens but rather selling off the continent to world powers.

“We need a new crop of politicians in Africa because none of the leaders in Africa right now is helping to move Africa forward, they [are] selling off Africa,” Mutabaruka told Anita Erskine on the Starr Drive Friday.

Mutabaruka, born Allan Hope also called on African leaders to give up power after serving their constitutionally mandated term in office.

According to him, most African leaders get corrupted by power which makes it difficult for them to give up power.

“African leaders don’t know when to finish…it is the power that corrupts them absolutely, the system says that they have to be powerful by any means necessary and these leaders don’t know when to give up.

“They don’t know when to transfer power to the next leader, they want to stay there till death, they are married to power and that is the problem”.

Mutabaruka is internationally celebrated for his poems that are said to ‘have given voice to a nation and helped forge an entirely new genre of music, dub/rhythm poetry’.

His words are described as revolutionary, fiery, scathing, and stinging, and potent.

Born in Kingston, Jamaica, Mutabaruka said he first realized “the power of the word” [poetry], when he was a teenager.