Nakhane on leaving SA: I wasn't fleeing the 'Inxeba' hate

Musician Nakhane has hit back at suggestions that he fled South Africa in the wake of backlash against his 2017 film Inxeba: The Wound.

Nakhane has been touring the world since he decided to leave our shores to base himself in the UK full-time over a year ago.

The move came as traditional leaders in South Africa called for his film to be banned from cinemas for depicting the Xhosa initiation ceremony and its use in a gay love story.

But speaking to Huffington Post US recently, Nakhane denied that he had fled the country, saying it simply made sense for him to move for the sake of his career.

"I didn’t flee - that’s not really the way it happened. While all of this is happening, the album was getting mixed and mastered. I knew I was going to do a lot of press in Europe. So it made sense, practically, to move," he explained.

"Also I needed a change. I was 30 years old. It just happened at the same time people were being lunatics."

The star said that while the hate wasn't behind his decision to move, he did take it seriously. He said that amid the immediate backlash after the film's release, he was forced to cancel some trips across the country - but he wouldn't let the hate get to him.

"I had to cancel some of my planned trips to the Eastern Cape and Cape Town due to the threats, but I've really said everything there is to be said."

In 2018 Nakhane took to social media to speak about dealing with the hatred towards him: "We are vile. We are perverse. A virus that they will do anything to get rid of. I sat in my apartment read[ing] the verdict, close to tears, shaking.

"I saw myself as a child, mocked for being effeminate. Afraid for my life as a teenager as I walked past straight men as I had no idea what they were capable of. I always had something to hide. They hated me."