Buju Banton is stirring controversy yet again, this time during a conversation with DJ Whoo Kid after reviving a long-running conspiracy theory surrounding Nelson Mandela, suggesting the anti-apartheid icon who emerged from prison in the 1990s was not the same man who had been incarcerated decades earlier.
“Yo, I hung out with Gaddafi,” the DJ Whoo Kid said, referring to former Libyan leader Muammar Gaddafi on the Whoo House Podcast. “I was in Saudi Arabia with Michael Jackson. I met Nelson Mandela.”
Buju interrupted with a claim that appeared to reference the so-called “Mandela Effect” — a widely circulated internet phenomenon in which groups of people share false or distorted memories of historical events.
“I’ve never met Michael Jackson and the Nelson Mandela I know died in prison,” the reggae artist said. “Then I find myself reading about a new Nelson Mandela.”
Whoo Kid, visibly stunned, responded by asking whether Buju was suggesting that the activists and one of the world’s most notable public figures — had been cloned.
“What do you mean? So I met a clone?” he asked.
Buju doubled down, claiming that newspaper reports from the 1980s had stated Mandela died while imprisoned on Robben Island. In reality, Mandela was released from prison in 1990 after 27 years in detention and later became South Africa’s first Black president in 1994.
The artist then tied the theory to the “Mandela Effect,” a term coined in the late 2000s after some people falsely remembered Mandela dying in prison during apartheid. Psychologists and researchers generally attribute the phenomenon to collective false memory rather than evidence of alternate realities or conspiracies.
“That’s what they call the Mandela Effect,” Buju said. “Don’t fuck around, man. You go do your research.”
Claims that Nelson Mandela died in prison in 1985 and was later replaced by a body double have circulated online for years as part of the so-called “Mandela Effect” conspiracy theory. In response to the spread of the claims, the Nelson Mandela Foundation published an article stressing that there is no evidence supporting the theory and encouraged the public to rely on archival records and verified historical sources. The Foundation said the rise of misinformation had underscored the importance of media literacy and launched digital archive initiatives aimed at helping researchers, students and the public access authenticated records about Mandela’s life and legacy.
However, the Buju and Whoo Kid conversation became increasingly surreal as Buju referenced Mandela’s former wife, Winnie Mandela, suggesting, without evidence, that tensions in their relationship somehow validated the theory.
“Why you think Winnie wasn’t f*cking with him?” he asked. “Because she said, ‘That’s not Madiba.’”
Winnie Mandela and Nelson Mandela’s marriage deteriorated publicly in the years following his release from prison amid political and personal strains, ultimately ending in divorce in 1996.
Whoo Kid appeared increasingly unsettled as the discussion continued, recalling a visit to South Africa where he toured Mandela-related historical sites.
“We all met him,” he said. “He took us to where he was. We saw the pan that he ate, washed his clothes. So that was all a facade?”
Buju offered no concrete evidence for his assertions, instead framing them as part of a broader distrust of official narratives.
“Things happen in this world,” he said. “Some of it can be explained. Some of it cannot be explained away.”
Banton’s first tour after he ws released form prison in 2018 was titled Long Walk To Freedom, an ode to Mandela’s use of the phrase near the end of his autobiography. Long Walk to Freedom describes freedom as a continuing journey rather than a final destination. One of the book’s most famous passages reads:
“After climbing a great hill, one only finds that there are many more hills to climb.”
