Africans react to rapper Meek Mill’s question: ‘Why American social media never support African tragedies?’

Several southern African towns were ravaged by a tropical cyclone in the past week killing over 500 people, some of whom are still struggling to survive after losing their homes and livelihood.

Cyclone Idai swept coastal towns in Mozambique, Zimbabwe and Malawi with flash floods and ferocious winds 10 days ago with the number of casualties rising to 446, 259 and at least 56 dead in the three countries respectively.

Unlike other disasters outside the continent, the cyclone is receiving little attention on social media which is not helping in getting relief for the thousands affected and those still trapped in the flood waters.

Only a few countries and humanitarian agencies including Tanzania, the United States, Red Cross, United Nations among others are in the three affected countries offering support and relief to victims.

The seeming silence on social media got American rapper and activist Meek Mill to ask on Twitter: “#PrayForMozambique I wonder why social media in America never support African tragedies? ?”

This question received thousands of Retweets and Replies with many of the Twitter users from Africa blaming Africans for being silent on their own tragedies but pays too much attention to the West.

“Social media Africa itself has been a huge disappointment. Even African Union itself. The silence around big tragedies in Africa is unfortunately global. Those people are in dire need of help, some haven’t had a meal in a week,” says Twitter user @DCalyn.

This attracted more reactions from other Africans who supported his claims while others stuck to Meek Mill’s views stating that Americans “don’t care” about Africans.

“Because they don’t really care about us,” tweeted a follower. “They also make movies to make Africa look like WAR ZONE…..I love ???Africa…. LORD IS WITH US ??” tweeted another.

“They have no lucrative investments in it…no reason to care from that standpoint,” another follower of Meek Mill claimed.

The arguments were made by mostly Africans who also blamed African media for not doing enough to cover the continent’s tragedies while relying on Western media to do so.

While the debate goes on, there was an attack in Mali where armed men on Sunday reportedly dressed as traditional hunters killed 134 villagers including women and children. This too has not trended on social media.

In early March, social media discussions were saturated with the crash of the Ethiopian Airlines Boeing 737 Max-8 plane that took off from the Ethiopian capital to Nairobi killing all 157 people on board including eight crew. The victims were from 35 countries globally and the world paid attention.

Here are some reactions to Meek Mill’s tweet and how Africans felt about it.