Foregrounding Female Agency in the Dance Culture of Nigeria
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WHAT I DO WHEN I DANCE: FOREGROUNDING FEMALE AGENCY IN THE DANCE CULTURE OF NIGERIA Oladoyin Abiona A Thesis Submitted to the Graduate College of Bowling Green State University in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of MASTER OF ARTS August 2021 Committee: Angela Nelson, Advisor Jeremy Wallach Rahdika Gajjala © 2021 Oladoyin Abiona All Rights Reserved iii ABSTRACT Angela Nelson, Advisor Scholarship on female representations in hip hop has been predominantly premised on the sexualization of the female body. By focusing mainly on this singular aspect of the genre, we reduce the whole essence of womanhood in the industry to such interpretations. The limited scope of such discussions deprives the women of opportunities to tell their own stories of what they do when they dance. Seeing the cultural significance of dance as a form of popular culture in the Nigerian context, this essay, from a feminist perspective, closes this gap by engaging in a qualitative exploration of the lives of three female dancers in Nigeria telling their stories through dance. They are Kaffayat Oluwatoyin Shafau (Kaffy), Odumewu Debbie (Debbiepinkie), and Usiwo Orezinena Jane (Janemena). Exploring their social media archives, interviews granted to TV stations and a published autobiography “Alajoota” by Kaffy, this essay contextualizes and complicates the interpretations of sexualization in the Nigerian hip hop dance industry. Through dance Nigerian women performers are able to negotiate the heavily male-dominated hip hop scene. For them, dance is a coping strategy, a profession, a space for redefining self and embracing sexuality and femininity, and a form of youthful identity and inclusion. Anne Anlin Cheng in Second Skin: asks “How is it we know we are seeing what we think we are seeing? What are the conditions under which we see” (3)? Though theirs is still a negotiated agency, as it is in any society with hierarchies, their dancing taunts and resists patriarchy while working in and around the socio-economic, religious, and cultural contexts of Nigeria. By engaging dancers using academic discourses, we communicate their importance and highlight the social issues of greatest concern to women such as domestic violence, the rate of unemployment, the psychological effects of cultural confinement, and the burdens of stringent gender expectations. iv To my wonder women, Olajubutu Janet, my grandmother and best friend and Olufunmilayo Josephine, my mother and role-model The joy in your eyes as you dance to celebrate the goodwill of others inspire me. You go above and beyond for everyone; I got my tenacity from you both. v ACKNOWLEDGMENTS I am grateful to God for strength, for life, for hope. I am grateful to my thesis committee Dr Angela Nelson, Dr Jeremy Wallach, Dr Radhika Gajjala for your patience, encouragement, insights, and critiques through this journey. I am grateful to my family, grandma, daddy, mummy, Ayodeji, Tosin, Ireoluwa, Olaide, Oladapo, “The Twins”, “Tinuke”, Ifeoluwa, Kehinde, Temitope, for dancing with me in the sun and in the rain. I am grateful to my friends for cheering me on. vi TABLE OF CONTENTS Page INTRODUCTION .................................................................................................................... 1 Statement of Question .................................................................................................. 2 Statement of Overall Purpose ...................................................................................... 4 Limitation and Scope ................................................................................................... 4 Statement of Project’s Significance ............................................................................. 7 Chapter Overview ........................................................................................................ 7 CHAPTER I: DANCING IN NIGERIA ................................................................................... 9 Introduction ............................................................................................................... 9 The Female Dancer ....................................................................................................... 10 Professional Dancers or Video Vixens? ....................................................................... 11 Dance in Traditional Setting ......................................................................................... 14 The Role of Globalization ............................................................................................. 19 Sex Sells? ............................................................................................................... 22 CHAPTER II: SURVIVING THROUGH DANCE ................................................................. 26 Introduction ............................................................................................................... 26 Politics of Survival ........................................................................................................ 27 Complexities of Feminist Discourse in Nigerian Hip Hop ........................................... 30 Nigerian Women ........................................................................................................... 34 Youth Unemployment and Hip Hop ............................................................................. 36 Globalization and Capitalization of Hip Hop ............................................................... 37 Women’s Challenges .................................................................................................... 38 vii Women Empowerment Schemes .................................................................................. 41 CHAPTER III. WHAT I DO WHEN I DANCE ..................................................................... 43 Introduction ............................................................................................................... 43 Kaffy: Dance as Coping Strategy ................................................................................. 45 Her Calling: Dance as Profession ................................................................................. 47 Her Vision: Dance as Space .......................................................................................... 51 Janemena: Dance as Embracing of Sexuality and Femininity ...................................... 56 Pinkidebbie: Dance as a Form of Youthful Identity and Inclusion .............................. 62 Closing Remarks ........................................................................................................... 68 CONCLUSIONS ............................................................................................................... 70 WORKS CITED ....................................................................................................................... 75 1 INTRODUCTION Dancing was a major form of exercise for me during the state-imposed coronavirus shutdown. My favorite genre is Nigerian hip hop. The Afrobeat incorporated into Nigerian hip hop works for my purpose of exercise. I am also influenced by the shared cultural and literary knowledge in the lyrics as an insider, and as I reminisce on the importance and significance of these cultural elements and innuendos, it heightens the sense of belonging in me as a student from Nigeria in a foreign land. Dancing, I move my joints, my waist, and feel my body bounce. The trending Afro hip hop dance tutorials in circulation on the internet also help with the process. Though alone in my room, dancing with and for myself, I am conscious of the gaze of the society on my body. I struggle to push the negative connotations about the dancing female body in the hip hop genre to the back of my mind but needless to say, I am constantly reminded of the place the female body occupies in the spectrum of power relations, generally in the society, and narrowly in hip hop. Sexualization and objectification of femininity has been a constant topic of discussion in the scrutiny of the hip hop culture that started in America, from where it flowed to other parts of the world. Considering the male gaze in Laura Mulvey’s “Visual Pleasure and Narrative Cinema” and female objectification in bell hooks’ “Selling Hot Pussy,” I ask myself, what do I do when I dance? In broader terms, what is the consensus about the dancing female body? The latter question brings up cultural gender roles and an attitude that implies that the female in patriarchal societies must behave in certain ways to conform to suppressing societal norms. Before the popularity of hip hop in Nigeria, famous indigenous music genres such as apala, fuji, waka, and juju featured female dancers in their videos. Addressing diverse themes of love, society, spirituality, valor and virtues, these genres transcend the dominant narrative of sex 2 and mitigates the reading of the sexualization of the female dancers. However, in the era of the internet, the foreignness of hip-hop, the mannerism, style, language, and most especially, its function as a tool of resistance and social change has made it alluring to youths globally (Iwamoto et al.). Hip hop has also been able to find its way into academia because of its heavy influence on youth culture everywhere. Rozie-Battle commenting on the spread and influence of hip-hop, stating The young urban population of the 21st century is the “Hip-Hop” generation. Generally, the term refers to a combination of