How Africa
Exploiting ambiguity in his latest collabos Kwangwaru (with Harmonize) and Mwanza (with Rayvanny) Tanzanian music icon Diamond Platnumz is pushing the envelope on moral issues, and President John Pombe Magufuli’s government is at pains to tame his growing popularity.
With over 30 million YouTube views since it was released in April, the Kwangwaru video whose lyrics carry sexual innuendoes, as does the recently released Mwanza, have gotten Diamond summoned by law authorities .
The latest now costing his Wasafi company TSh9 million (Sh403,000) in fines with the government warning that the song should be pulled down from all social media platforms and not be used in the much anticipated annual Wasafi Festival.
With Diamond out of the country on a business trip, Rayvanny and Diamond’s manager Babu Tale sent an apology saying they took blame for the vulgar lyrics.
But it is his growing popularity that must be more worrying with an estimated 50,000 fans expected to attend the annual music event at a time when Diamond is perceived to be warming his way into politics.
