Tevin Campbell’s Setswana tweets amuse South Africans
Locals were jubilated by the RnB crooner's knowledge and understanding of the Southern African language.
American RnB singer Tevin Campbell | Image: Twitter
South African social media erupted when American RnB crooner Tevin Campbell responded correctly to a Setswana tweet sent to him by a fan.
The question was posted in response to Campbell’s commentary on the furore surrounding the recent docuseries on R. Kelly’s treatment of women and young girls over the years.
A user by the name of @NthAsia asked “O tswa kae wena ? Ntse ke o batla,” which loosely translates to: “Where have you been? I have been looking for you.”
To which Campbell responded by telling her that he does not speak Setswana.
I don’t speak setswana and ain’t nobody googling so have fun with that😂 https://t.co/1Uyjl2767d
— Tevin Campbell (@tevincampbelll) January 4, 2019
https://twitter.com/tevincampbelll/status/1081339227172790273
Many were surprised that he correctly identified what language it is while others questioned the guess, suspecting that he used Google translate to pick it up.
https://twitter.com/tevincampbelll/status/1081341293098225664
Your Setswana is pretty good.👏
— Yolisa🇿🇦🏳️🌈 (@RoyaltyInMy_DNA) January 5, 2019
😎🤫 and when do we get some of these yellow emojis with some color?? I digress
— Tevin Campbell (@tevincampbelll) January 5, 2019
Hey Tev I'm so surprised. Your setswana is on point. Perhaps record new material in setswana? You did that with Dandelion in Spanish. Happy New Year
— Eugene Kgalema Boris (@EugeneKBoris) January 5, 2019
He later posted a screenshot of his screen to prove that his translate was not set to pick up Setswana.
https://twitter.com/tevincampbelll/status/1081349416949170176
He later got a little help from another South African fan who correctly translated the phrase for him.
https://twitter.com/tevincampbelll/status/1081351593969123328
He has since amassed a ton of South African followers and he welcomed them all with another Setswana tweet.
To my new SA bros and sis following…Ke ne ke ipotsa hore na u hokae! Hope I got that right 🙏🏾🙏🏾🙏🏾#alllove
— Tevin Campbell (@tevincampbelll) January 6, 2019
Tevin Campbell has joined South African Twitter now. Starting sentences with English e be a di feleletsa jaaka rona.
— Nchema (@ShottaZee) January 6, 2019
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