CAF deletes video celebrating S’Africa’s win after backlash for using Asake’s ‘Amapiano’

The Confederation of African Federation (CAF) has deleted a video celebrating South Africa’s round of 16 victory at the ongoing Africa Cup of Nations (AFCON) following backlash over the usage of a Nigerian song in the clip. 

On Tuesday, South Africa defeated Morocco 2-0 to progress to the quarter-final of AFCON in Ivory Coast. The Bafana Bafana stunned the Qatar 2022 World Cup semi-finalists with two second-half goals from Evidence Makgopa and Teboho Mokoena.

In celebration of the victory, CAF took its official Tiktok page and shared a clip of the first goal scored by Makgopa. The video was laced with Asake‘s Grammy-nominated smashing hit ‘Amapiano’.

The choice of song attracted backlash from South Africans, who demanded that a track by their compatriots be used instead.

“You could’ve used an actual Amapiano, not whatever this is…” wrote Trentfav, a TikTok user, in the comment section of the now-deleted post.

“Why not just play an actual Amapiano song, not Afrobeat Amapiano? That’s disrespectful, literally,” wrote Wazza Tegha, another Tiktok user.

A check by TheCable revealed that CAF had pulled down the initial video from its TikTok page and reuploaded the clip of the goal with ‘Ka Valungu’ by Tebza De DJ, a South African artiste, as the soundtrack.

@caf_online iBafana Bafana yiyo impendulo eqondileyo. 🇿🇦⚽️ #TotalEnergiesAFCON2023 #AFCON2023 #AFCON #SportsOnTikTok ♬ original sound – Limpopo_Boy

Amapiano is a genre of music that originated in South Africa in the mid-2010s. The sound has been adopted and modified by Nigerian Afrobeats singers over the past few years.

One of the biggest adopters of Amapiano in Nigeria is Asake, whose meteoric rise to stardom culminated in a 2023 Grammy nomination barely two years after breaking into the limelight.