Bono has been criticised for apparently endorsing a song which includes the lyric, “Shoot the Boer”. The U2 frontman said the song, which was sung during the fight against apartheid, had its place, like music supporting the IRA.
His comments came at the start of U2's tour of South Africa. But callers to local radio stations said the song was designed to stir up racial hatred. "That's hate speech. They don't know our history at all," said one caller to a South African radio talk show.
The song has been at the centre of a political storm in South Africa, with the controversial leader of the African National Congress's youth league, Julius Malema, locked in a legal battle with a white lobby group over whether it should be banned as hate speech.
Sometimes used as a derogatory term for white people, Boer is an Afrikaans word for farmer. In an interview with the South African Sunday Times, Bono said: "When I was a kid and I'd sing songs I remember my uncles singing, rebel songs about the early days of the Irish Republican Army." Bono said in an interview with the South African Sunday Times. “We sang this and it's fair to say it's folk music.” He went on to sing a song whose lyrics spoke of carrying guns and readying them for action.
"Would you want to sing that in a certain community? It's pretty dumb," he said. "It's about where and when you sing those songs. There's a rule for that kind of music."
