Yasiin Bey, also known as Mos Def, will be permitted to leave South Africa after being arrested for violating the country’s immigration laws in January 2016.
According to Reuters, Bey has been allowed to finally leave after apologizing to the South African government for breaking the law. Bey had been living in the city of Cape Town for two years and was arrested at the start of 2016 for trying to leave South Africa using a “World Passport,” which South Africa does not recognize as a legal travel document.
In a statement, the South African government has written: “(He) has unreservedly apologized to the Government of South Africa. The department is satisfied with the apology (and) will withdraw the charges against him.”
Bey had released a statement after his arrested, criticizing the decision to keep him in South Africa: “I’m being prevented from leaving unjustly, unlawfully, and without any logical reason. I have reason to believe or suspect that there are political motivations behind the way that I’m being treated because … I haven’t broken any law and I’m being treated like a criminal.”
The rapper and actor, who is originally from Brooklyn, will now be free to return home — though he will be prohibited from ever returning to South Africa.
Come to Jos the home of Nigeria hip hop and you ll thank me later Mos def.
Prohibit a black person from visiting his homeland? Africa already has a bad reputation for being poor and for allegedly spreading AIDS..This just make it worse and make people continue to frown upon that continent. Blacks stay taking Ls. Who wants to visit Africa now after this article?
More specifically South Africa.
Don’t be ignorant. Africa is not his homeland, it might have been the homeland of his grandmother maybe.
I bet that you wouldn’t say that Russia is the homeland of any white man born in Portugal? Then don’t be ignorant claiming that a whole country his homeland of a random black men who was born and raised in U.S.A
Gitcho ass out and stay out is what South Africa told him lol…it’s cool…come back and get funky on that mic
So sad, black people cant go anywhere on Earth without a headache. It sucks that the white government can kick black person out of African country. smh
if blacks knew how to do anything right without causing a headache for literally everybody else this wouldn’t be an issue. a “world passport” is a made up thing, it was made by some dude in the 50s and isn’t recognized by anyone. he might as well have written “AMERICAN” on a napkin and tried to use that.
South Africa is a country fueled by racism and is very similar to America right now… I am not surprised_
It has nothing to do with racism he needs to go we don’t want him here if he’s gonna undermine our laws.
Everywhere whites go there’s gonna be racism IJS
People are so ignorant and downright dumb. South Africa is not ruled by a white government anymore. SA have been ruled by a black president n mostly black government for the last 22 yrs. Mos def lived there illegally and paid the penalty. And why would a rich man leave a 1st world country to live in a 3rd world country? probably running away from some issue in his life.
there are plenty of reasons why a rich man or any kind of man would leave a first world country for the third world. even more so if that man happens to be black, the country he’s leaving America and the place he is headed is the African continent.
where is my comments? why are they not published? i didn’t say anything derogatory nor was i being explicit. whats up with my comments not showing up hiphopdx??
Typical uneducated “I haven’t broken any law and I’m being treated like a criminal.” If Mos Def was educated and didn’t need to blame his problems on society as a false accusation, he would never have said this.
Mos Def did break a law, he broke immigration laws and yes that’s a criminal offense and that’s why he was detained, placed on bail while facing these charges. That’s why as a flight risk, he was prevented from going home to safe haven America. Only Americans, usually the uneducated ones make stupid comments like his.
Wait a minute…all he had to do was apologize this whole time? And he chose not to before, becuz? If this isn’t the epitome of being a spiteful moron I don’t know what is…I expect a more intelligent approach from a man like Mos