Freedom of EXPRESSION and ARTISTS!

Last week, AKA, a South African rapper raised a debate when he took to twitter his political preferences. I do not know what prompted his tweets but he basically said that he will never perform at any political party (Economic Freedom Fighters (EFF)  & Democratic Alliance (DA),  to be specific) event except those of the ruling party. See his tweets below.

 

Of course and as expected some people took offense to his tweets. Some reminded the rapper that his supporters come from all parties and that as an artist he shouldn’t be seen to be partisan.

Leaders of EFF, clearly did not take kindly to AKA’s tweets. EFF President, Julius Malema tweeted AKA concerning the issue, he warned the rapper not to turn himself into an enemy of the EFF * this sounded like a threat*. AKA and his followers reminded everyone that his right of expression and association is enshrined in the constitution.   See below the tweets between the politician and the rapper.

Now, I understand very well that in South Africa there is freedom of speech as well as freedom of association.  These privileges are to be enjoyed by all those who reside in this beautiful country.  When I saw AKA’s tweets, the first thing that went through my mind was “he shouldn’t have”. Not because he doesn’t enjoy the same rights as everyone else but merely because he is an artist. Personally, I feel that artists (this goes for business as well) shouldn’t isolate some of their supporters by being vocal about their affiliations. People are not blind, they will see which events you attend the most/ colour t-shirts you wear etc. all this could be an indication of your preferences but to be blatantly vocal about it may not sit well with some of your supporters.

Artists are people of influence, they influence through their art, fashion, social media etc. It will not be far-fetched to think that some young people may choose a political home based on who their favourite rapper supports. Also, it is not far-fetched to think that some people may stop buying products of a certain artist solely because of their affiliation. It is easy to argue that one has rights, that one cannot be responsible for how other people behave but in a new democracy like South Africa, where people still get very emotional about politics, I would argue that it is dangerous for an artist to publicly announce their affiliations. It is dangerous but more so irresponsible, mainly for the reasons I shared above.

On the other side of the coin, artists are citizen too, they are part of the country and they should be able to associate with any political party without fear.  Each and every voting citizen has a right to influence the future of the country. Not twitting your affiliation doesn’t mean that you are not part of the process nor that you don’t have rights. It simply means that you keep it to yourself because you are sensitive to people from different political homes that you rely on for survival.

 

Tweet from Minister of Sport to AKA

I wanted to get a sense of what other people thought of this matter so I posted a question on Quora “Should artists (musicians, actors etc.) talk about politics? Express their preferred parties?”. I received a few responses like this one:

“As far as them having a responsibility to be neutral, I don't believe in that at all. They're artists to begin with, and art is, by its very nature, subjective. They make a living by expressing themselves. So why shouldn't they express their thoughts on politics? It's part of the game. Personally, I tend to have a higher respect for artists that risk criticism by doing so……”

 

“Well it's a matter of fact, what do you think that musicians are not a part of a country. Don’t you think when recession strikes they are also ones to suffer or when something bad occurs in country they don't get affected or when an unjustified government officials take some inappropriate decision at indulgee themselves in certain conversation which reflects a bad image of country.

Later, I edited my question and I asked “Is it wise for artists to express their political choices especially on social media?”  Below is a response I received:

“Yeah it's true, one should not publicly open up talking in favour of one or other party but what I meant to say is everyone has right to speak their thoughts, yeah but on same hand one doesn't need to publicize some other party.”

 

I stand by my opinion on paragraph 3, artists should be sensitive towards their supporters. After all these are the people that keep them where they are. This still doesn't mean that artists are not part of the process or that they don't get to choose who governs.