Shaku Shaku phenomenon
By
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May 15, 2018
First Gentleman with Wilson Orhiunu
Email: babawill2000@gmail.com
Twitter: @Babawilly
It is everywhere. Youths with
handcuffed hands, nodding and marching on unsteady ground into an uncertain
future. There is a side to side rhythmic sway like one walking and nodding in a
narrow canoe on the River Niger. Suddenly, there is a pause and the handcuffs
are off. One hand points in the direction of the Promised Land while the other
hand is shaped like a phone and placed on the ear calling all friends to alert
them that El Dorado might be in sight. Welcome to the new dance craze called
Shaku Shaku originating from the land that gave us the Agege bread.
Yes, Shaku Shaku is said to have been
invented on the streets of Agege organically. Like all dance crazes, there is
music to go along with it. Olamide is the King of the music but other
performers such as Reminisce, Mr Real, Obadice, DJ Prince, Small Doctor, Dammy
Krane and Slimcase also keep the Shaku feet shuffling.
Dance crazes are not new at all. Recently Psy had his ‘Gangnam
Style’ make waves across the world. The principal move is quite similar to
Shaku Shaku except that with Psy’s dancing there is a dramatisation of South
Korean youth riding imaginary horses as they gallop to the beat. Gangnam Style
has the dancer gyrating with two hands forward in a movement that mimics
holding onto the reins of a horse. Shaku Shaku, on the other hand, is a dance
of youth uncertainty and bondage, as opposed to Gangnam Style which is one of
middle-class affluence and youth aspiration. Barrack Obama and David Cameron both
had a go at Gangnam Style but I don’t see President Muhammadu Buhari bursting
any Shaku Shaku moves in the foreseeable future.
For a long time dances have
been imported into Nigeria. The 60s had the highlife brought in from Ghana,
followed by American dance imports. James Brown moves were quite popular in the
early 70s with local performers such as Geraldo Pino providing good imitations
of the JB shuffle.
In 1974, ‘Kung Fu’ fighting by Carl Douglas took the Lagos youth
by Earthquake. A bizarre dance hat had us jump and land frozen in a Kung Fu
pose. Sounds silly now but felt Avant-Garde at the time. ‘Ring My Bell’ by
Anita Ward ushered in a dance called ‘feelings’ in which the shoulders heaved
in time with the beat while alternate legs were stuck out to the side. A dull
and monotonous occurrence but, again, felt like the coolest thing to do. In the
80s, dancing definitely got harder with the breakdance and rap music
influencing the music scene. Michael Jackson was the pin-up boy of dance in the
80s and everyone tried to learn some of his moves.
The new millennium brought a
feeling that Nigeria had banned the importation of foreign dances (instead of
petrol and diesel which we should have been refining ourselves). Yet that
Makossa groove from Cote d’Ivoire came and took Nigeria by Earthquake. Magic
System’s ‘Premier Gaou’ put a BMW engine in every pelvis instigating rotations
that broke the laws of physics at every Nigerian party. Some of those moves
looked like ducks with genital herpes doing the moonwalk.
Ajegunle boys soon brought us
Galala and Swo aided and abetted by Daddy Showkey (there is always a
ringleader) and Marvellous Benji. Then Olu Maintain hit with Yahozee, a
strange dance that involves swinging the arms like a pompous orchestra conductor
and then suddenly looking at one’s hands lifted in the air. I have noticed that
Lagos Island is yet to give Lagos a dance. We are waiting
Alanta was a strange dance
that had the youth in seizures grabbing at various parts of the chest and
beating the abdomen like some weird radioactive scabies was crawling under the
skin. The dance came with a sardonic facial expression representing a crazy
economy and untold hardship for the masses. Fela called this state one of
“demo-crazy “aka demonstration of craze; essentially a failed democracy.
More was to come, Iyanya
brought us Kukere a dance that gave the impression that one was afflicted with
painful piles which had to be dislodged by shaking each leg alternatively like
a pneumatic drill while clenching the buttocks. For a change from Kukere,
Nigeria lifted its ban on imported dances and Azonto came in from Ghana.
The boys from Accra took their dance ascendancy for culinary
supremacy and began to boast about their Jollof rice.
Nigerians went back to the
research laboratories and a breakthrough came by way of Davido who brought the
Skelewu dance which had the youth move and groove with their tongues hanging
out while they reversed an imaginary car with one hand while the other hand was
akimbo. Walking backwards was a strong metaphor for the Nigerian economy at the
time.
Lil Kesh hit with Shoki which
had the youth squatting to the ground to pick up Nigeria, few grains of sand at
a time. They wiggled the outstretched hands of sand high up but the winds of
corruption blew the sand in their eyes. They gave up and dunked the remaining
sand away and had one hand over their bad eye.
Alas, we are in the Shaku Shaku era. A move that binds Nigerian
youth the way a winning Super Eagles team can. I say, make a Shaku Shaku mix
version of the National Anthem for a revived young Nigerian nationalism. There
are no tribal variants of the move. Unlike JAMB examinations that have
different pass marks for different states of the country, Shaku Shaku is an
equal opportunity dance craze. When that track ‘Wo’ by Olamide hits the
airwaves, the expectation is the same from Kano, to Port Harcourt and Lagos.
Bust a move and the best one gets the most likes on Instagram; a pure
meritocracy.
Those of a certain age
complain that they cannot cope with this new footwork. I implore them to
practise and avail themselves of cerebral plasticity. Those old neurons will
reconnect and the moves will make sense in the end. Dance at parties sometimes
is a bit like an archaeological site. There are levels of deposited soil that
represents various time zones. How people dance dates them to the exact month
they stopped practising the new moves.
Learning new moves for some
is just not a priority so they might become stuck at the Anita Ward ‘Ring My
Bell’ era in 2018.
It’s all good. The heart and lungs don’t mind what the moves
are. Just move and the heart benefits accrue.
Shaku Shaku could grow like
reggae did and produce billions for Nigeria. First, we need our own Bob Marley
and an indigenous version of Chris Blackwell’s Island Records. World domination
beckons.
Just ‘Wo’!
