P. Diddy, together with American artists Alicia Keys and Usher, went to South Africa–the country with the world’s highest number of HIV infections–to perform in an MTV/Levi concert called “Staying Alive.” The show will be broadcast to a global television audience of up to two billion people on World AIDS Day on December 1. Before singing to the sell-out audience in the city of Cape Town, P. Diddy was led through cheering crowds to tour several local AIDS programs. There he hugged a weeping young woman as she told him about the high cost of her anti-retroviral medication and listened to HIV-positive mothers with babies as they performed their own song for the performer. Their music was upbeat and cheery, but the Xhosa lyrics were not. “We are dying of HIV,” the women sang. “The AIDS virus is killing us.”

Combs, whose Bad Boy Entertainment business empire is considered an influential packager of urban culture, is one of the celebrities enlisted by the advocacy group YouthAIDS to convince young people that AIDS prevention can be cool. He spoke to NEWSWEEK’s Esther Pan in Cape Town about HIV, racism and his African experience. Excerpts:

NEWSWEEK: How does it feel to be in Africa for the first time?

SEAN COMBS: This is where I’m from, this is my family here. I’m just happy to be home. It’s a beautiful thing seeing so many black people here together.

You were mobbed by enthusiastic crowds when you appeared in public. Boys chanted “Bad Boy for life” when you were in Khayelitsha. Were you surprised at your reception?

For my first introduction to Africa, it was extremely emotional. I definitely feel welcome here. The love is crazy. Especially with black people, there’s certain things we have in common, just like Jews or Italians or any other group have in common. It’s like a vibe. And if you give off a good vibe, you’ll get it back. I’m cool here. Y’all drop me in a village somewhere, and I’ll just be one of the cats on the corner, chillin'.

Has anything surprised you about your trip?

The strength of the people who are dealing with AIDS. The strength and hope they have, when they got nothing. I mean, we got it so, so good back home. They got people living in sheds, man! That s–t ain’t right. The government should be ashamed of themselves.

They have a golf course 20 feet away from where people are living in sheds. I don’t understand how you can be on a golf course next to the sheds. I’d be taking water over there, take some bricks, some wood over there, before I’d think it was OK.

You mentioned racism earlier. Do you feel the AIDS epidemic is treated differently by the world because it’s most severe in Africa?

I think that if [the 29.4 million people infected in sub-Saharan Africa] were dying in the United States or England, the whole world would shut down. If this was white people in London, it would be on CNN nonstop, breaking news, all day, every day. We’d be sending tanks, planes, trains, we’d be giving away the medicine for free. But because it’s black people in Africa dying, it’s a different story. It’s unjust for people to have medicine that can save peoples’ lives and not share it. Politicians need to get on that.

When did you become aware of the AIDS epidemic?

I’ve known about AIDS since, like, the late 80’s, but I never heard of nothing where you just let [millions of] kids die. I thought that’s what the United Nations was for.

What do you think the world should do differently in dealing with AIDS in Africa?

It should have the same attention as the whole Iraq situation. There should be U.N. special meetings, there should be worldwide attention from world leaders on this, no matter about access to gold or oil or the Gulf or whatever. If you’re a world leader and you do nothing about these children dying, you’re just nasty.

What do you think of what you’ve seen of South Africa so far?

People might think it’s okay now that apartheid is over and everything, but the way black people are treated, it just ain’t right. You got people here living in sheds, man. You mean with all the technology we got, all the resources, we can’t do something about that? We got [housing] projects at home. At least build them some projects! You can go to Sears and buy better sheds for your tools, y’know what I’m saying? Send a million of those over here.

How do you see your role in spreading the message about AIDS?

I’m going home to tell people that Africa is beautiful. It’s not like you get off the plane into some kind of jungle. They got restaurants here, they got clubs here, they got people living here. Once people know about it, they’ll want to do something. If you know about these millions of people dying and you don’t do something about it, you’re like an accessory to genocide.

Will you come back to Africa?

There ain’t no better place for me to hang out. I’m definitely coming back. Africa’s the new sexy spot. We’re going to make it hot.