Though most Ghanaians were happy when Sarkodie won theBest International Act – Africa in 2012, majority were not happy that the BET Award organizers gave him the plaque off stage or back stage. Most people in Ghana felt and still feel symbolically, it smacks of disrespect to African artists and Africans as a people.
However, there are some who always go to the defence of BET organizers – posit that that is the status quo at BET Awards towards African artists and that they are doing the latter a favour so there is no need to bash them for giving African artists awards backstage.
The BET Awards were established in 2001 by the Black Entertainment Television network to annually celebrate African Americans and other minorities in music, acting, sports, and other fields of entertainment.
Researching on the award scheme, GhanaCelebrities.Com discovered that KKD is one of the African Adjudicators for BET’s International Acts – Africa. He explained why BET organizers usually give the plaque or statuette to the African artists off stage:
“First, BET is a huge American brand so their audience is Americans or people living in America. They have a responsibility to their audience, to generate income, pay taxes to the government of America, create employment, promote artistes or performers with their culture, and to be competitive in their market.