Nigerian senator invites Kanye West to visit African slave ports: ‘Experience the choices in chains’

A lawmaker from Nigeria has extended an invitation to Kanye West to visit old slave ports in Africa in the wake of his comments where he said slavery was a “choice.”

West dropped by the offices of TMZ this Tuesday to profess his love for President Trump and to give his version of the history of slavery in the U.S.

“When you hear about slavery for 400 years — that sounds like a choice,” West said during an interview with TMZ’s Harvey Levin and Charles Latibeaudiere. “Like, you was there for 400 years and it’s all of y’all?” West continued. “It’s like we’re mentally in prison. I like the word ‘prison’ because slavery goes too direct to the idea of blacks. It’s like slavery, Holocaust. Holocaust, Jews. Slavery is blacks. So, prison is something that unites us as one race. Blacks and whites being one race. We’re the human race.”

In a tweet from this Friday, Nigerian senator Shehu Sani slammed West, saying that the American rapper has “defecated on the graves of victims.”

“If @kanyewest thinks Slavery was a choice, we will offer him a free ticket & tour guide to visit slave routes and camps in Badagry Lagos, Ouida Benin Republic, Ghana & Goree Island in Senegal to ‘experience the choices in chains’. Kanye defecated on the graves of victims,” Sani tweeted.

In the wake of the mounting uproar, West dialed back his comments just a little.

“[To] make myself clear. Of course I know that slaves did not get shackled and put on a boat by free will,” West tweeted. “My point is for us to have stayed in that position even though the numbers were on our side means that we were mentally enslaved.”

Featured image via Flickr

Sky Palma

Before launching DeadState back in 2012, Sky Palma has been blogging about politics, social issues and religion for over a decade. He lives in Los Angeles and also enjoys Brazilian jiu jitsu, chess, music and art.