The singer Gims was the guest of LeChairman, for an interview on the Youtube channel “Oui Hustle”, March 22, 2022. Screenshot – “Yes Hustle” Youtube Channel
Indulging in revisionism, the Congolese rapper, followed by millions of subscribers, notably mentioned “electricity” in the kingdom of Kush, an ancient civilization in East Africa.
Electricity from Antiquity, African knights 50,000 years ago, the myth of Wakanda… The singer Gims happily skids in a long interview given on the Youtube channel “Yes Hustle” , on March 22, but which unleashed comments this Tuesday on social networks. Each week, the online program questions a personality, more or less known, about his personal and professional career.
At the microphone of the youtubeur LeChairman, the Congolese singer was invited to answer questions about his religion, his family, geopolitics (in particular the war in Kivu) … but also history. It is this last part of the interview that caused a particular reaction, given the extent of his ignorance and the revisionist dimension of his remarks. “Africa is Wakanda, damn it! At the time of the Kush Empire there was electricity“says Gims before continuing:”the pyramids that we see there, at the top there is gold, gold is the best conductor for electricity. It was damn antennas, people had electricity (…). The science, which (the Egyptians) had, is beyond comprehension and historians know it».
A pyramid in the kingdom of Kush in the Nubian desert on February 26, 2010. ASHRAF SHAZLYASHRAF SHAZLY / AFP
The singer does not stop there. “Africa populated Europe before the Europeans, they were called “Afropians”, they were decimated by the “true Europeans”, who came from Asia.He then invokes chivalry…50,000 years before the Europeans, we already had the notion of chivalry. Today we find paintings hidden in catacombs, it’s “renois” who are in knight mode, Lancelot all that. Of course it already existed, it’s just that we need to know our history.»
The words of the famous artist of Known like never before (2015), Bella (2013) or even J’me tire (2013) did not fail to make Internet users react with a prancing hashtag #wakanda in France trends on Twitter. The video has been viewed over half a million times on Youtube, with no contradiction from YouTuber LeChairman, who seemed to drink in his words with admiration. During the video, the youtuber even claimed that the singer was “stuck on the subjectabout the conflict in Kivu.
The words of Gims, to the tens of millions of subscribers, obviously raise questions, in the age of social networks and the virality of fake news, especially on Tiktok, very popular with the younger generation. The singer is not at his first stroke of brilliance. Already in 2022, he had called on Muslims to no longer wish him a happy new year and his birthday, saying that he preferred “let’s focus on our own things“, THE “muslim brothers“. Remarks considered at the time as bad “proof of assimilationby the Minister of the Interior Gérald Darmanin, then questioned about his request for naturalization.