'We hugging trees' — DJ Sbu rides 'Twitter' mockery wave to his benefit
'I’m learning a lot about myself, African history, our predecessors, older heroes ... and people who preached black consciousness ...'
If there's any celebrity who can never be bothered by the Abantu Bazothini syndrome, it's DJ Sbu himself.
The spiritual journey he has embarked on is one he's willing to go through openly and honestly, regardless of people's opinions.
The DJ who is no stranger to controversy and backlash on social media found himself on the list of trending topics in Mzansi and got mixed reactions after he suggested that people 'hug a tree' to live and connect better with themselves.
While some might not have agreed with his advice, as he gears towards launching a single on Friday titled Maruapula, it seems he has decided to make lemonade from the bitter comments he received.
“This Friday, we hugging trees with #Maruapula” he captioned one of his posts.
Speaking on what inspired his transition, his dress code and his new state of mind with TshisaLIVE, DJ Sbu said he was on a journey of establishing his black consciousness by practising and learning the history of it.
“I’m learning a lot about myself, African history, our predecessors, older heroes ... and people who preached black consciousness ... A lot of the things that I have been reading about and the information that I have been reading says to me, instead of looking at a God in the sky, God is in me ... That information is empowering me and I think I’m not the only one.
“Since lockdown started, it allowed us to go down deep and educate ourselves more about what’s happening in the world. For me, it didn’t start in the lockdown, but it enhanced my education in me reading African books and finding out about our history,” he said.
DJ Sbu continued, revealing how kwaito star and media personality Zola 7 had played a pivotal role on his journey as he's been aware of how he had spoken of it before.
“Zola has always had this knowledge since back in the day and spitting that knowledge. I'm very blessed to have known him on a personal level where he's a brother and friend of mine. He is one of the major reasons why I had to go and dig down deep into finding out about myself, who we are, and black consciousness.”
Over the years DJ Sbu traded in his fade cut to embrace his facial hair and grow dreadlocks and even though people have had a mouthful of comments, he says his contentment silences it all.
“I’m older now, I'm 42, I’m excited. I’m in the best place of my life ... What you see on the outside, for instance, other people will talk about the dress code or other people will talk about the facial appearance or the facial hair,
“A lot of black conscious Africans embrace their hair either through dreadlocks or letting their afro grow, let their beard grow, others comb and some not, others don’t even have hair, they are cleanly shaven and are black conscious.”