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Nicki Minaj attacked for performing in Angola


By NAIROBI NEWS REPORTER

American rapper Nicki Minaj is under attack for accepting a presidential invitation to perform in Angola. According to international media, the rapper had been requested by human rights activists to cancel the concert because of what they called a dictator leader.

Last week, the Human Rights Foundation (HRF) said in a letter that the money to pay her came from “government corruption and human rights violations”.

Nicki went on with the scheduled Saturday event in the capital city of Luanda at a Christmas party hosted by the Unitel communications firm, which is part-owned by the family of the country’s controversial President Jose Eduardo dos Santos.

She shared photos of her arriving, preparing and on stage through her Instagram account received a lot of backlash from followers.

bahia_pluka commented, “stupid girl. Go and work for a dictator and money. You have great value in your life!”

therealgom commented, “@nickiminaj doesn’t have any principles, just cared about money. i thought the music was the bad part.”

The Bang Bang hit maker posted a photo of herself with the President’s daughter Isabel Dos Santos stating how she is the eighth richest woman in the world and is great motivation to her.

The photo received its equal share of backlash with fans accusing the rapper of supporting what they called “blood money.”

Minaj is not the only performer to be criticised by rights groups for their choice of gigs.

Singer Jennifer Lopez was criticised in 2013 for singing Happy Birthday to the leader of Turkmenistan, who was accused of human rights violations.

In the same year, singer Mariah Carey was criticised by human rights campaigners for accepting an estimated $1 million (Sh100 million) to perform for the same Angolan president.

In 2011, Nelly Furtado said that she would give away $1m (Sh100 million) she was paid to perform for the family of Libyan leader Muammar Gaddafi.