The 38-year-old said Africans should instead put aside their differences and work in unity to advance the continent’s welfare.
He added: “Now we can’t just continue to cry about the pain we felt through the Trans-Atlantic Slave Trade and the isms and chisms designed for us by the present day colonial masters. We need to amalgamate our resources, we need to come together and know ourselves more and work towards the development and stability of the continent of Africa. We need to build modern cities, new reservoirs, new universities and so on. Let’s put our differences aside. I would like to extend this call to all the presidents in Africa to come together and sort out the problem of Africa.”
Sizzla made this remark at a symposium organised as part of the just-concluded Roots International Homecoming Festival, which brought to the country prominent black nationalists from the diaspora.
He enthused: “People in the western diaspora need to come to Africa. We need to open the door of not just repatriation because we gonna be repatriated, yeah. But what are we gonna do when we get here? And what plans or development programmes have we for our people in Africa and the people out of Africa coming to Africa? So, very much with all your help we need to pull our resources together in whatever faculties and develop the continent – all the people in the world as black people, not just in the diaspora, please get together. I like what I am seeing. I am happy. I stand for black international repatriation, redemption for black people and the development of the continent.”
Sizzla is one of the most commercially successful contemporary reggae artistes. He was raised in Kingston and studied mechanical engineering at high school. In 1998, he won the best international reggae artiste award.
By Alagie Manneh
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