On February 6, 2020, a video of Nigerian superstar, Davido appearing on Nick Cannon’s ‘Wild N’ Out’ surfaced and went viral on Twitter. In it, Davido was seen performing a song with other guests on the show.
The singer showed up in a black custom Wild N’ Out hoodie while everyone around him wore “African attires”. Nick Canon looked like an unintelligent hotep in a silly costume with a gold turban, cuffs, and a fake lion hanging from his shoulder.
The other guests showed up in dashikis and kenteh (which is Ghanaian); further cementing their refusal to Google even the smallest details about the superstar they were having on their show.
And while it seemed like good fun, I found this entire episode of Wild N’ Out disrespectful to Africans and to Davido. African Americans have a culture of being willfully ignorant about Africa.
They constantly do things that would be considered disrespectful and racist if done by white people. They feel like they get a pass just because they call Africa “the motherland”
It shows in the show hosts and guests of Wild N’ Out just donning whatever looks the most “African”; without taking notes of the diverse cultures in Africa and the fact that Davido is Yoruba not just “African”.
It is expected that as a show host, Nick Canon does his job and looks up the people he is going to have as guests. But I would bet a lot of money that he said, “Oh he’s African. We’ll just wear something African then.”
His ignorance shows so blatantly in the title of the video, “Davido Takes Us Back to the Motherland”.
