American singer Azealia Banks has condemned Angelica Nwandu, the Nigerian-American founder of The Shade Room, an Instagram-based media company, for not using her platform to highlight Nigerian issues.
Banks in a now-deleted Instagram post wrote: “The shaderoom is run by a Nigerian woman who is more obsessed with denigrating black Americans than doing anything with her platform to bring light to the issues like SARS and Boko Haram that plague her home country.”
The 29-year-old pointed out that although blacks in America have their own issues, however, “the situation in Nigeria is DIRE.” She accused Nwandu of not having the courage to fight for her own but instead “uses black American media to distract herself from how politically incapable she truly is.”
While questioning why people listen to Nwandu, amid name-calling and fat-shaming, she wrote: “African American are far fairing far better and she wants to be one of us so bad it’s comical.”
Banks further alleged that China is funding Boko Haram and other groups to terrorize Nigeria and its citizens: “I couldn’t be of Nigerian descent and ignore the fact that China is funding boko haram and other groups to terrorize Nigeria and it’s citizens while I sit back in my gluttony, gorging on poisonous american food supply while my people die on the sacred land.”
Azealia Banks is known for her outspoken and often controversial views. She has developed a reputation for disputes with public figures on social media, particularly Twitter, with Complex noting that “she gets more attention for her public feuds than she does for her music”.
This is not the first time, The Shade Room would be criticized. Last year, Cardi B called out the platform and its founder for continuing to post negative content about the people in her life.
Angelica Nwandu was dubbed “The Oprah of our generation” by Refinery 29 and a Celebrity Culture Savant by Complex. Time Magazine named The Shade Room in the 30 most influential on the internet in 2016. The New York Times called The Shade Room “Instagram’s TMZ.”
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