Why love is complicated in Burkina Faso

Afro-soul artists Nabalum and Amzy, whose style mixes hip-hop and Afrobeats, have recently dropped a collaboration that has women and men in Burkina Faso talking.

The song is called Amour Compliqué and Nabalum wrote it after she heard some women complaining about how their husbands stayed out late night after night, leaving them at home alone.

She invited Amzy to feature on it because, as she puts it, she liked his rawness and wanted him to express what a typical Burkinabè man might say:

Quote Message: Amzy was really natural, it was really easy to work with him.”
Amzy was really natural, it was really easy to work with him.”

The admiration is mutual. Amzy says he had been a fan of Nabalum before she got in touch with him:

Quote Message: Here the men go out whenever they want and the women suffer from this situation.
Here the men go out whenever they want and the women suffer from this situation.

Quote Message: The problem is that men think, ‘I am the man, I make the decisions, I do what I want and you don’t have a say in it.’”
The problem is that men think, ‘I am the man, I make the decisions, I do what I want and you don’t have a say in it.’”

Amzy’s lyrics in the song tell the woman to calm down because even if he is out with other women, he always comes home to her arms in the end. She should be content to stay at home.

Amzy says his words do not represent his own views at all:

Quote Message: I just played the role of the people who think like that. If I had advice it would be to talk about it and try to understand each other and treat each other equally, even if it’s difficult.
I just played the role of the people who think like that. If I had advice it would be to talk about it and try to understand each other and treat each other equally, even if it’s difficult.

Quote Message: We have to learn to raise the level of women.”
We have to learn to raise the level of women.”

There has been lots of reaction on social media to Amour Compliqué, especially from women and apparently many of them are playing it, by way of a challenge, to their partners.

By BBC