Chris Brown is coming to South Africa. Let’s sit down and talk about it.

The Live in Johannesburg, Breezy in South Africa event, presented by Big Concerts and Y, will be held on Saturday and Sunday, December 14 & 15, 2024, at Johannesburg’s infamous FNB Stadium, Africa’s largest stadium. This will be Brown’s first time performing in the nation in almost ten years.

Since this announcement, you might have already seen the backlash to him coming to perform here. And you know what? I’m for the backlash, for very obvious reasons.

A petition was started by Women for Change, a South African women’s rights group, to cancel the Grammy-winning musician’s December 2024 shows in Johannesburg because of his history of domestic violence. The Change.org petition, which went viral on October 2, 2024, requests that the government and concert promoters “reconsider” permitting Brown to play at the stadium, where more than 94,000 tickets were sold out in less than two hours. Yes, 94,000 tickets sold out in less than two hours—ha! Meanwhile, on any regular day, we see people sharing new gender-based violence (GBV) statistics.

“When someone like Chris Brown is given a platform in a country where GBV is at crisis levels, it sends a damaging message—that fame and power outweigh accountability,” said Ms. Walters, executive director of Women for Change.

The controversy reflects growing worries about GBV in South Africa. Femicide and other forms of gender-based violence are pervasive in our society and are not limited by race, class, or culture. It has eroded South Africa’s moral foundation to the point where immoral behaviour is accepted as the norm. GBV and femicide rates in South Africa are among the highest in the world. A woman is killed every three hours, frequently by an intimate partner, and a rape is reported every twelve minutes. According to statistics, between 25% and 40% of South African women have been victims of intimate partner violence (IPV) at some point in their lives. I don’t think we realise just how many women this impacts daily—every minute, every hour.

In the continuous fight for women’s rights, Women for Change emphasises Brown’s 2009 felony conviction for attacking fellow singer Rihanna. The 2009 domestic altercation between Chris Brown and Rihanna is the most well-known example of his history of abuse. They contend that permitting a well-known individual with a history of violence to perform in South Africa conveys the wrong message to victims of assault. Brown, then 19 years old, entered a guilty plea to assault and was given a five-year probationary period, community service, and counseling on domestic abuse.

In spite of the criticism, Brown seems unmoved. He expressed his delight about performing for his South African supporters in a comment on the organisation’s Instagram page. Brown wrote, “Can’t wait to come,” on the Women for Change post. Can’t say this is shocking—moving like a true abuser with absolutely no shame. Others have expressed dissatisfaction with his disregard for Women for Change‘s concerns.

But while that is the case, in true South African style, his supporters have taken it upon themselves to harass, threaten, and divert the attention of vital organisations who support victims of femicide and gender-based violence, encouraged by his inappropriate actions. Wild.

As part of Investigation Discovery’s No Excuse for Abuse campaign, a documentary called Chris Brown: A History of Violence debuted on October 27. The Hollywood Reporter stated that the documentary explores Brown’s “alleged offstage aggression, including intimate-partner violence, assault charges, and even sexual assault allegations.”

Not us enabling this man with a never-ending list of violent behaviours.

Making it obvious that he is not welcome here will help fight the systemic oppression of women worldwide, even if the issue we face is far larger than him.

How can South Africa, a nation with one of the highest GBV rates globally, confront the normalisation of violence in its culture? Can we truly say we’re serious about tackling GBV if we welcome artists with violent histories?

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