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 a music form (i.e., rap), clothing fashions, and a

general “in-your face” lifestyle. The influence of this urban Hip-Hop culture has

extended beyond the inner city into suburban as well as international communities. So,

despite the negative images the general adult population sees in this lifestyle, youth of all

races and economic backgrounds are attracted to various aspects of the Hip-Hop lifestyle.

(2)

Though in the face of an overwhelming display of sexualization, I read beyond the body movements to the unsaid and the unexpressed by looking at meta-discourses around dance by three female dancers in Nigeria: Kaffy, Janemena, and Debbiepinkie. Hip hop is ambivalently read as misogynistic and as a tool of resistance. In this research, I will look at the various nuances of power relations present in the female body as it moves to hip hop dance and lyrics.

Statement of Question

A very important question in the argument for or against female agency in hip hop dance is

succinctly framed by Anne Anlin Cheng in Second Skin: “How is it we know we are seeing what

we think we are seeing? What are the conditions under which we see”(3)? What are the

ideologies of dance in the Nigerian cultural context? How does this play out in the hip hop 3 scene? What do women do when they dance? Are women able to control their representations in dancing to hip hop music? If yes, in what ways? If no, what conditions makes it so? The notoriety of hip hop as misogynistic has been argued extensively in scholarship but what is important to examine is the why and how these misogynist narratives keep thriving and how the subjects themselves are navigating them. In a patriarchal society that disciplines the female body, what can be read as resistance, by whom, and why? These performances require that we reread how subjectivity is defined in Nigeria; it demands that we go beyond the performances to the background of such “subversive” behaviors. This argument will situate women not as warriors or victors in the struggle against patriarchy but as survivors, as fighters struggling and breaking loose in not just a patriarchal society but also in a post-colonial and global one with its complex structures.

This thesis adds to the scholarship on popular culture from a feminist perspective that seeks to contextualize the debate around female sexualization in hip hop or, in the words of

Mintz Lawrence, “explicate covert as well as overt ‘messages’ imbedded in popular culture”

(156). Mintz poses four questions to facilitate research into the study of popular culture phenomena. Paying attention to the fourth question that asks, “how can we relate [a] popular culture artifact to the society in which it is found? (159), I look at “the important trends, changes, ambivalences, or contradictions which might reveal the existence in the culture-at-large of complexities parallel to those of the popular culture object” (159), in this case an activity, dance.

This question serves as a framework for my complication of the interpretation of dance in

Nigerian society. 4

Statement of Overall Purpose

The purpose of this study is to complicate the simple reading of the dancing female body in Nigeria. It will examine the background of dance culture in Nigeria, the arrival of hip hop in

Nigeria, the tensions between the imported hip hop and the culture in Nigeria, the female body caught between these tensions and make suggestions for further study. I will analyze the archive of three female Nigerian dancers, Kaffayat Oluwatoyin Shafau, Odumewu Debbie, and Usiwo

Orezinena Jane. The archives, which include interviews, social media posts, and also an autobiographical memoir, will reveal their backgrounds, challenges, and opportunities in the

Nigerian hip hop industry. I will borrow from Ien Ang’s methodology in Watching Dallas. Ang received forty-two letters in response to her inquiry about why people loved to watch the series and postulates that for an in-depth understanding of these reasons,

the letters must be regarded as texts, as discourses people produce when they want

to express or have to account for their own preferences for, or aversion to, a

highly controversial piece of popular culture like Dallas. To do this they will have

to call on socially available ideologies and images, which channel the way in

which such a television series attains its meanings… [and] in which ideological

context it acquires social and cultural meanings.” (11)

Put succinctly, the purpose of this study is to contextualize debates about sexualization as a form of agency.

Limitation and Scope

Borrowing the title of Adrienne Rich’s book Notes Towards a Politics of Location, I look to Nigeria as the location for my study. One because of my experiences growing up as a female in Nigeria, and second, because of the lack of academic attention to the functions of mundane 5 activities such as dance in the life of the average Nigerian woman. With the hyper-sexualization of the female body in music videos in Nigeria, I aim to look at how these visualizations ambivalently ascribe and deny female agency. Though some studies (Popoola; Oikelome;

Onanuga) examine the issue of female sexualization in the Nigerian entertainment industry, none has attempted to question these struggles not only as a tool of patriarchy, but also as possible resistance against it.

Onanuga Ayodele carried out a linguistic and visual analysis of selected Nigerian music videos and argues against the hip hop industry’s propagation of the evil of “sexual conquest and physical violence against women” (81). But he came to the conclusion that “female personas also extend the deprecatory constructions by being willing participants in the performances” (104) of sexualization. Similarly, in “Are Real Women Just Bad Porn?’: Women in Nigerian Hip-hop

Culture” Oikelome Albert expresses his concerns about “the use of women as mere tools and objects claimed and cascaded around by Hip-hop artistes in Nigeria as a means of enhancing their [the artistes] celebrity status and commercial viability” (83). However, his concern about the helplessness or, worse, the objectification of the women in the music videos is more alarming than the conclusions he reached in this essay. He implies that these women lack any conscious will to make any decision about their affairs and therefore, constitutes a threat to the morality of the youths in the country. In other words, he dismisses communal efforts of raising a child as ineffective as long as women are paraded as sexual objects in music videos. Popoola Rosemary, on the other hand, is suspicious of the goodwill of male artists’ positive representation of women in a scant number of their songs. She argues that the “social advocacy by male hip hop artists feeds into the rhetoric of ‘speaking for women’” and that “the audience cared more about the sound, the quality of the videos, the rhymes, and all the iconography of youth identity than they 6

care about the capacity of the images to shape progressive attitudes to women in real life” (12).

However, as with the other studies, the women themselves who are the subject are left out of the

conversation. The arguments made in these essays cannot be slighted or even denied. They are

true but not the whole truth. They fall into the same trap of “speaking for women,” infantilizing

them, and taking away their right to make a case for themselves.

In this study, I acknowledge the voices of Nigerian female dancers by exploring, as a

microcosm of the larger population, the performances of Kaffayat Oluwatoyin Shafau,

Odumewu Debbie, and Usiwo Orezinena Jane. I acknowledge that no matter the best intentions

and objectivity I claim to approach this topic with, my bias as a woman and feminist who loves

to dance may come into play. But ultimately, I hope this study will contribute to refocusing

narratives away from the inadequacy of women to express themselves outside of sexualization.

Also, the diverse experiences of female dancers in Nigeria cannot be wholly captured in this

thesis alone, hence the limitation to the three dancers listed above, hoping that the larger dance

community can identify with some parts of their experiences.

Being a culture that became prominent on the streets of New York, hip hop primarily

embodies the experiences of the African American resisting racial discrimination, social and

economic inequalities. Now as a global culture, hip hop speaks to the local experiences of

wherever it is adopted. On the global scene, blackness is a form of otherness. In the United

States, African American women’s challenges have been greatly compounded by racism.

Writings on African American women will address such experiences. However, in other contexts

such as Nigeria, women’s subjugation is rooted in cultural and patriarchal practices. Nigerian

women are affected by some other social issues such as ethnicity, class, and colorism. However, gender cuts across all of these. My focus in this essay is how gender impacts interpretations of 7

the female body in hip hop dance in the Nigerian context and how the female gender lives in and

through this.

Statement of Project’s Significance

Approaching this study from a feminist framework, the spotlight is on how dance has

empowered women and how the internet has also provided more opportunity to reach a wider

audience from the safety of their own private spaces such as home, offices or any other space

that is safe and convenient for them to perform in. Combining music videos, interviews, and

social media, I will analyze how these three dancers foreground their agency through

“disobedience” to patriarchy, challenges, mistakes, and what drives their passion to continue in this line of work. Women are charting complex paths in challenging gender roles, expectations,

and limitations, and they deserve to be paid keen attention. Until the time of writing this essay,

there has been no reading of Nigerian dancers outside of sexualization. My thesis serves as a

turning point from this one directional interpretation to a more wholesome analysis of dancers in

the Nigerian scene.

Chapter Overview

Throughout the thesis I use the term “dancer” to refer to both choreography dancers and

video vixens, arguing that both operate under the same working conditions and are sometimes

conflated in the music videos. Some music videos feature dancers, some only vixens, while both

are absent in some others. Because the internet has provided platforms for both professional and

casual dancers to display their talents or hobbies, it is difficult to assign specific terms to dancers

in digital spaces.

Chapter 1 introduces the concept of dance and the hip hop culture in Nigeria. It traces the

history of dance and hip hop in Nigeria and notes the moments when the sexualization of women 8 crept into the Nigerian music industry and the circumstances that led to this practice. Then, the space dancers occupy in the industry is examined. Chapter 2 borrows the phrase “politics of survival” from the title of the book African Feminism: The Politics of Survival in Sub-Saharan

Africa (Gwendolyn) to ground my argument in the historical context of gender roles and ways of resisting patriarchy in Africa, specifically Nigeria. Drawing insights from existing scholarly literature on the various nuances of policing the female body, I read the various forms of resistance by the female body as both empowering and resisting, a negotiated form of agency.

Chapter 3 focuses on the functions of dance using the dancers’ archive supported by existing scholarly literature. These functions include dance as career, a tool of emotional cleansing, a form of tradition passed over across generations, an art which mirrors the forms of social injustices in the society, a tool of resistance and disobedience to patriarchy, and most importantly, a platform for self-definition and independence. The analysis in this chapter is based on the three dancers’ archive that consists of interviews, social media posts, and autobiography.

Claims of negotiated agency will be affirmed or debunked. The conclusion revisits the importance of a bridge between academia and the people we study by paying attention to both the verbally expressed and unspoken aspects of their realities rather than assume the place of observer and interpreter of these realities. 9

CHAPTER I: DANCING IN NIGERIA

Introduction

Coming to the United States I was surprised at people’s reservations about dancing. I had taken it for granted that everyone dances, especially coming from southwest Nigeria, which is common at parties and celebrations. I danced as a young child at birthday celebrations, church, festivals, and ceremonies, in school and at home. Dance is a natural reaction to happiness, good news or even the sound of good music. To dance is to be appreciative of the good things of life.

With civilization, or what has come to be known as civilization by western standard, comes other associations with dance, objectification and sexualization. In this chapter, I look at dance in the context of Nigeria, the subject of sexualization and the female hip hop dancer. The aim is to complicate the simple reading of the dancing female body in Nigeria. It will examine the background of dance culture in Nigeria, the arrival of hip hop in Nigeria, the tension between the imported hip hop and the culture in Nigeria and the female body caught between them.

To dance is to “move rhythmically to music, typically following a set sequence of steps”

(Oxford). Joachim Richter and Roya Ostovar defines it as “body movements coordinated to a basic rhythm” (2). They identify the four main components of rhythm as tactus, tempo, meter, pattern. These components differentiate dance to other body reflexes or movements. Despite human innate ability to enact basic steps, dance requires creativity and dexterity. The truism in

Peggy Harper’s assertion in “Dance in Nigeria” that “dance is an emphemeral [sic] art and readily absorbs new elements and reflects changes in the surrounding society” (291) resounds after over five decades of making this statement. Though generally, dance maintained its basic steps over time in line with established cultural norms, transmitted through imitation, hip hop artists in Nigeria introduce distinct dance steps to accompany some of their tracks as a 10 mechanism to authenticate their styles and stamp it into the memory of the audience. An online article by Jessica Karissa, uses visual illustrations to describe and trace the history of some of these “Afro dance” steps.

The dances are often very simple at the base level, with freestyle options that have the

potential to catapult a song (and a dancer) to new heights. With endless ways to showcase

individuality, there is no "right" way to really do any of the dances. Instead there are a

million different ways, opening up room for every flavour of dancer to shine – young or

old, trained or untrained, comedic or serious, everybody has their own interpretation.

Some of these dances from Nigeria includes kukere by Iyanya, skelewu by Davido, sekem by MC

Galaxy, shoki by Lil kesh, zanku by Zlatan, soapy by Naira Marley. With every dance step created, dance redefines itself and becomes more welcoming to a wider range of audience across cultures. One of the most valid criticisms of popular music is standardization (Macdonald;

Witkin) yet the different dance steps or “leg works” as they are fondly called among youths, are full of “inventions” by the dancers that spice up redundancies (Cawelti). The contemporary dance culture in Nigeria has become a cogent symbol of youth identity.

The Female Dancer

Flooding media spaces are the demonstrations and recreations of such dance steps for entertainment, followership, and tutorial purposes. Presh Okosi uploads such tutorials on her

YouTube channel. In one of them, “How to dance: How to do five (5) popular dances from

Nigeria (dance tutorial)” she teaches galala, shoki, zanku, Etighi, and shaku shaku, among other dance styles. However, in recreating these dance steps, performers bring to the fore their own clumsiness, body types, vigor, enthusiasm and emotions to creating something different yet similar, eliciting different responses based on different contexts. These steps are not performed 11 individually in a dance routine but collectively to create an artistic flow by bodies disciplined by long hours of practice. The dancers are as important as the steps. Female dancers occupy a central place in the sales of music videos. Interestingly, they come in different shapes, complexions and sizes and are exploited in calling the attention of consumers. There are performances of sexuality and femininity as well which have attracted discussions in academic and secular circles. A number of scholars have published on the degradation and objectification of women in global popular culture (Bretthauer, Zimmerman and Banning; Conrad, Dixon and

Zhang; Ward) and in the Nigerian scene (Ekpootu; Oikelome; Onanuga; Okunlola). They all rebuke the system that perpetuates such objectification. The works of scholars in the Nigerian context consists of mainly textual analyses with little to no contact with the subjects. Ironically, they also fall into the trap of infantilizing the female who is the subject of their analysis. For instance, Onanuga, in his work “Of Commodities and Objects: Women and Their

Representations in Nigerian Hip-Hop,” samples pictures from selected songs that capture sexual performances or focus on the breasts and buttocks of the dancers. He concludes that the “female personas also extend the deprecatory constructions by being willing participants in the performances” (104) of sexualization. His method of linguistic analysis as against ethnography limits the credibility of his conclusion on the willingness of the dancers. In addition, it is a simplistic and emotionally biased reaction to the dancing female body outside of the social, economic, political, and historical contexts of their performances.

Professional Dancers or Video Vixens?

Though there is an ongoing debate on differentiating between professional dancers and video vixens, sometimes these roles overlap. Video vixens are female models that appear in music videos and act out the lyrics of the songs while professional dancers amplify the rhythm of 12

the song through dance. In the interview on professional dancers in Nigeria by Channels

Television, Adedayo Liadi voices his reservations concerning

dancers that are doing that, shaking of butts and their front side on stage and on musical

videos and all that and we have dancers that does everything with the total body…for me

I don’t see them as trained dancers as those that are using the general body, dance is

about you expressing yourself not sexually but physically, general body (0:35-45).

On the contrary, the performances of sexuality in music videos involve the use of the general body, facial expressions, movement of arms and legs and general body movements. Contracting and relaxing the muscles of the butt to coordinate with the beat involves constant practice as

much as it does for performance, which Liadi refers to as dancing. In the same interview, Abiola

Aremu, a video vixen, refers to her role as interpreter and acting out of the lyrics of the song. In

the music video “Idi ore mi” by the infamous Nigerian artiste, Naira Marley—known for his

profane lyrics and explicit female body presentations in videos—dancers’ and vixens’ roles are

clearly defined. At the opening of the video, three women are seen on a crosswalk on a street in

Lagos wearing pants and tube tops. The next scene shows the formation of other women who fit

Liadi’s description of dancers, with their body parts covered. For the rest of the music video, the

dancers danced while the vixens performed the lyric of the song. “Idi ore mi” can be interpreted

as “my friend’s butt,” and the three vixens have their buttocks exposed as they dance. They

assumed postures that have the camera focus on this part of their body while the “dancers” had

their whole-body parts and movements captured. Some artists blur the line between both vixen

and dancers in their videos (see Olakira – “Maserati” Remix Ft. Davido; Kizz Daniel – “Poko”;

Tiwa Savage – “Koroba”). Others have little to no presence of female dancers featured in their 13

acts, while a few are fairy tales of love between a boy and a girl (see Ladipoe Ft. Simi – “Know

You”; Patoranking – “I'm In Love”; Peruzzi – “Majesty”).

I approach this study from the thought process that storytelling has a way of legitimizing stereotypes and in this instance, sexualization. By centering sexualization, attention is drawn away from the context that produces such behaviors and responsibility loaded solely on the female as deserving of the ills associated with objectification. The artistry and labor put into dancing is also downplayed, perpetuating the stereotype of a sexual, passive female presence in hip hop videos. The Oxford English Dictionary defines a stereotype as a “widely held but fixed and oversimplified image or idea of a particular type of person or thing.” While some stereotypes are supported by the dancers themselves, seeing that quite a number of female dancers consider themselves sexy, societally legitimized stereotypes obscures the possible interpretations or readings of a people or phenomenon. This has led to the consensus of tagging dancers as morally irresponsible members of society.

The three dancers used as a case study for this essay, Kafayat, Debbie and Jane have at one point or the other gone through or is going through these negative appraisals in the society.

For example, Kafayat (Kaffy from this point), embraced this negativity by publishing a memoir of her journey as a dancer titled Alajoota : A Kaffy Story. In Yoruba parlance Alajoota is used derogatorily to refer to someone who dances for money. Yoruba refers to the people and language of southwest Nigeria. As would be expected in a patriarchal society, male dancers are exempted from such criticism and name-calling. In a society that disciplines the female body, what can be read as resistance, by whom, and why? These performances require that we reread how subjectivity is defined in Nigeria; it demands that we go beyond the performances to the 14 background of such “subversive” behaviors. From this vantage point, I explore how these female dancers have owned the negativity of being a dancer.

Dance in Traditional Setting

Understanding the dance culture in Nigeria provides the contexts for understanding the dancers in this study. Most times art is seen as the mirror of the society, but does dance performed in the hip hop genre (a foreigner) really mirror the Nigerian society? Dance, most times accompanied by music, has diverse performative functions in African societies. As there is no single definition of “African dance” or “Nigerian dance,” because of the different ethnic groups involved, caution is advised on homogenizing the concept of dance. As Georgina Gore rightly observed, “it is not only that dance is conceptualized in culture-specific terms, but also that conditions and relations for its production and performance are different.” (73). Keeping these admonitions in mind, below are some of the culturally specific conceptualizations of dance in traditional Nigerian settings.

Awuawuer Tijime Justin (140) sees performing dancing “as a good way to foster cultural understanding as a basis for dialogue and trust.” It is incorporated into the religions and rituals of traditional societies (Beek Van). The Urhobo people, an ethnic tribe in Nigeria, performs Udje dance as a means of calling out vices and upholding positive norms in the society (Tanure

Ojaide). In times of war, dance is organized as a form of mimesis of the opposition. These traditional functions later evolved into artistic performances during festivals. Trapped in the modernity of capitalism, it became adapted as a means of income for the performers within acceptable cultural boundaries. So, dance performed by either males or females has been part of cultural expressions in Nigeria. In Yoruba Dance: The Semiotics of Movement and Body Attitude 15

in a Nigerian Culture, a significant study on Nigerian dance, Omafolabo Ajayi discusses the

relevance of dance to the Yoruba culture in Nigeria:

At significant events, such as end-of-the-year rituals and festivities, religious

observances, rites of passage, political ceremonies, and professional activities, dance not

only serves as a popular convivial accompaniment but also serves to illustrate the

meaning and underline the symbolism of these occasions. Equally enjoyed for its

recreational and aesthetic pleasures, the dynamic form of dance functions to visually and

kinesthetically enhance and complement aesthetics as well as the symbolic impact of

other art forms, whether verbal or non-verbal, bringing out their full significance and

meaning (1).

Dance is a form of communication just like every other valid form and the associated meanings

are heavily culturally situated. In the rest of the book, Ajayi detailed the different types of dance,

their origins and the cultural meanings associated with each one. For example, the movements in

Lanku dance, “a strenuous and energy sapping movement, comparable to the effect of an

outburst of uncontrollable anger” (91) linked to the deity, Sango, the god of thunder. The Lanku

dance recreates how fearsome Sango gets when angry, a flawed character trait that eventually

leads to his downfall. This dance is accompanied by the bata drum which is Sango’s favorite

musical instrument. In contrast, the Obatala dance is more dignified and slower in its movements

to signify the concept of “a dignified old age, moral purity, coolness, peacefulness and the

eternal return of all these qualities” (69) embodied by the deity.

During colonial rule, dancing remained as part of the culture of the people but mainly as a form of entertainment. The symbolism as it relates to tradition and religions had been suppressed, the focus on just one function of dance-entertainment, ushered in the use of the body 16 for profit-making. Separating entertainment from other traditional and religious functions reduces the wholesomeness of dance as a cultural heritage to becoming a capitalist tool.

Interestingly, there is no gendering of the dancers as the author refers to the performers as the dancers or devotees of the deities throughout the book. Both men and women performed these dances. Both bodies, though recognized as different, work towards the same goal, the sanctity and success of the ritual or festival or whatever instigated such performance.

However, in the research conducted by Marie Agatha Ozah on “The Iwali girl child queen of Ogoja, Nigeria,” there is a link between dance and the female body. Dance has been used as a criterion for the assignation of virtue to women in certain societies like the Yala or the

Bekwarra people of Cross River state in southern Nigeria. Rather than perform a dance to primarily entertain or venerate a deity as with the lanku and Obatala dances, dance is also performed by the Iwali as an assertion of power and agency and a celebration of womanhood.

As with other forms of tradition, the origin of the tradition of Iwali is obscure but the author through oral interviews of custodians of the tradition and observation of the genre, concludes that

unlike other dances of the Bekwarra and Yala areas where some members of the audience

may enter the dance stage and perform a few dance steps to convey their gratitude and

solidarity during performances, no one is allowed to dance on the same ground as the

queen. Throughout the time of her performance, she dominates the arena, which is her

space; she is the archetype of the dance, to be watched and not competed with (76).

For the Yala and Bekwarra people, to dance is to be watched, celebrated, revered, venerated, and worshipped. However, situated in a patriarchal society, the agency of the queen and even the women saddled with her selection is ambivalent. The selection of the Iwali queen, a young girl groomed into the ideal or model lady in the community requires that “the child must be female 17

and a descendant of a queen or queens; she should have a beautiful physical structure with no

disabilities; she should be mature, for example, she must not be wetting her bed; and, most

importantly, she must have innate musical rhythm and be able to dance” (70). These standards of

beauty and perfection create a hierarchy even among little children which may impact negatively

on the identity of those not selected.

Although dance is still widely practiced in ceremonies, festivals, and religious gatherings,

Ajayi in “Yoruba Dance” recognized two major and fundamental forms that have corrupted the

form of dance as a nonverbal communication in Nigeria—religious intolerance and political

imperialism (4). This dimension of politics and religion was ushered in at the advent of Western

imperialists who came with the idea of bringing democracy and civilization to the natives, who

policed and confined the movements of bodies on the basis of civility and sanctity. As a member

of the Anglican church, memories of dancing to slow music and hymnals floods recollections of

my childhood. Kalu Ogbu buttresses this experience by referencing the strategy adopted by the

missionaries:

the missionaries nursed a suspicion about indigenous religions, especially the pervasive

power of indigenous spirits, the noise of the hypnotic drums, and the potential use of

music and dance in achieving ecstasy, trance, and prophecy. They sought to replace

indigenous musical traditions by inculcating Western traditions such as hymnody, organ,

piano, choral music, and brass bands in the project to transplant Christianity (20).

He assesses this strategy as a way to curtail “the emotive aspects expressed in dance” in order to demarcate between “sinful flesh and human emotions” and “the spirit” (14). The liveliness and freedom of body movements did not come into the church for decades until the emergence of

Pentecostalism. Pentecostalism “navigated the shift from a missionary-driven avoidance of 18 indigenous music and dance to the incorporation of indigenous elements, leading in turn to the popularization of Pentecostal music and dance that blends indigenous forms and concepts,

Christian symbolism, and popular cultural expressions” (16). Similarly, Ayuk Ausaji Ayuk rightly observed in “The Pentecostal Transformation of Nigerian Church Life” that lively worship characterizes the Pentecostal movement and became successful because “it is closely aligned to the Nigerian way of life and worldview” (191). As I have mentioned before, there is no singular Nigerian way of life or worldview, but the statement is made on the assumption that most Nigerian culture, as with other African cultures, embraces dance and festivities as inherent to their existence. Approaching the church life in this manner mitigated the conflict described by

Aluede et al. between the church and African dance:

in what we call the ‘Nigerian Christian church’ today, the performance of African dance

genres are [sic] viewed with suspicion and treated as profane, worldly and not decent

enough in God’s presence. This bias has led the worshippers into learning ballet and

other Western dances for use in the church. This trend is gradually leading to the

extinction of African dance in the churches involved (80).

Presently, dance in both religious and secular settings is a mix of traditional and hip-hop dance, though it is still heavily policed at every move in orthodox settings. Hip hop songs and dance are used in church services but frowned upon when performed at clubs or anywhere outside the church. The King James translation of the Bible at Colossians 3:23 which says “Whatever you do, do it heartily, as to the Lord” is used to validate this culture. Dance is an art form performed on the body and the body is the site where contestation of power originates in patriarchy. For this reason, the female body is meticulously policed and disciplined at the slightest offense. 19

The Role of Globalization

American black feminists base their work on the context of slavery and what Patricia Hill

Collins terms “controlling images” (5). Images of the mammy, jezebel, sapphire, are sometimes

self-fulfilled in the performances of black female artists in America. Unlike the “Hottentot

Venus” whose body, specifically her buttocks, was displayed as part of 19th century European

freak show exhibitions (Gilman; Sharpley-Whiting; Holmes; Crais), the Nigerian woman is not

degraded on racial lines. The Nigerian body is rather owned and policed by the cultural dictates

of patriarchy complicated by western imperialism. Even though these are not the contexts of

objectification in Nigeria, the jezebel image which “provides a rationale for the history of sexual

assaults on African American women” (Adams and Fuller 945) was also imported to Nigeria

through the adaptation of American hip hop. Albert Bandura in his work “Exercise of Human

Agency Through Collective Efficacy” explores the roles of globalization and technological advancement on global influence. He says:

[T]he revolutionary advances in electronic technologies and economic globalization have

transformed the nature, reach, and loci of human influence, and the way people live their

lives. These new social realities vastly expand opportunities and create new constraints,

often by social forces that know no national borders. People’s success in shaping their

social and economic lives lies partly in a shared sense of efficacy to bring their collective

influence to bear on matters over which they can have some command. (78)

Despite the validity of Rich’s theory of politics of location, a feminist approach geared towards

specific contexts, globalization has redefined the concept of peculiarity in oppression. The

possibility of identifying with the challenges of others across the globe becomes highly probable.

When immediate locality becomes hostile, the female dancer looks outwards for validity from 20 other “sisters” in similar circumstance. Globalization has also had a huge impact on the importation of the hip hop genre into Nigeria. From when it first was imported into the country, hip hop has undergone layers of changes over the years. Though not a tangible cultural product, the hip hop genre is arguably one of the most prolific cultural artifacts that, according to anthropologist Greg Urban, moves around the world and has been recreated to fit local realities.

According to Fredric Jameson, cited in Robert Walser,

pure textual exemplifications of a single genre do not exist; and this, not merely because

pure manifestations of anything are rare, but . . . because texts always come into being at

the intersection of several genres and emerge from the tensions in the latter's multiple

force fields. This discovery does not, however, mean the collapse of genre criticism but

rather its renewal. (27)

The hip hop that exists in Nigeria is a fusion of many other genres including dancehall, pop, fuji, juju (local genres) and Afrobeats. The inclusion of Afrobeats in hip hop signifies the inclusion of

African elements: language, costumes, culture, and of course the beats.

How has hip hop evolved in Nigeria? Gbogi Tosin identifies four phases of hip hop in

Nigeria: the first he calls the “phase of mimesis” that began in the early 1980s which coincides with the beginning of hip hop in the Bronx New York City. At this time, there was no easy access to the American culture; only the privileged had that access through travel and education.

According to Gbogi, this is the stage of “general experimentation with Americanisms and

American hip hop” (174). The second phase is the “domestication phase” which began in the early 90s (174). At this time, the language had changed to include Pidgin English. Emphasis is the first Nigerian hip hop music group to sing in Pidgin English in their track titled “Which One

You Dey” released in 1991. Unlike most of their predecessors who “rely on barely-rhymed 21

doggerel aping the rhythms and cadences of American old-school rap records, Emphasis

“presented a lucid narrative complete with plot, characterization and humor, delivered with a

relaxed flow in Pidgin English—the true language of Nigeria’s streets.” (Ikonne). This is

followed by the local dispersal phase that made available hip hop readily available to a growing

group of enthusiasts, the youth. Nigerian Hip Hop Music (NHHM) became a subject of

mainstream media discussion and attention (Charry 18).

The “global dispersal” phase is the fourth. Beginning at the turn of the 21st century, it marked a turning point for Nigerian music. More people have access to the internet and according to a report by Ogunlesi and Busari for CNN, most Nigerians use their mobile phones for “entertainment and information... for dialing into favorite radio shows, voting in reality shows, downloading and sharing songs, photos and videos, as well as tweeting.” In addition, music labels now have access to improved technology to create better content. Naira land, an online platform that provides an avenue for the discussion of Nigerian issues, on July 22, 2017, published a list of 50 collaborations between Nigerian and foreign artist including D’Banj ft

Snoop Dogg – “Mr Endowed”, P Square ft Rick Ross – “Beautiful Onyinye”, Wizkid ft Drake and Skepta – “Ojuelegba remix”, David O ft Meek Mill – “Fans Mi.” From 2017, however, more collaborations have happened. Burna Boy was nominated for the Grammys two consecutive times in 2019 and in 2020 for his albums African Giant and Twice as Tall respectively. In both albums he collaborated with other artists, for example, Sam Smith ft. Burna Boy – “My Oasis”;

Stormzy Ft. Ed Sheeran and Burna Boy –“Own It”; Burna Boy ft. Chris Martin – “Monsters You

Made” and many more. Wizkid collaborated with Beyoncé and won the BET Soul Train Award for “Brown Skin Girl”, one of the tracks on Lion King: The Gift; and Davido collaborated with

Nikki Minaj in “The Holy Ground.” The four phases explicated here corresponds closely with 22

the four phases of adoption of a music genre proposed in “Global Rock as Post-Colonial

Soundtrack” by Jeremy Wallach.

These international collaborations have helped in no small measure the quality of music

produced on the continent. Flipped on the other side is the cultural baggage that comes with hip

hop which includes the sexualization of women, especially the black woman in American hip

hop. Some may interpret this as cultural imperialism, but with the popularity of the introduction

of Afrobeats into the hip hop structure, Nigerian hip hop has carved a niche for herself in the

global scene. This is less imperialism than accessing the profits of a global culture. However, this does not undermine the threat of capitalism on cultural identity and authenticity.

Sex Sells?

This consciousness, “sex sells,” lies at the base of performances of most hip-hop songs saturating the arena with erotically dancing female bodies. In real life, no one walks the street dressed like that. According to Abiola Aremu in the interview by Channel’s Television,

the role video vixens play is not our doing, it’s an interpretation of what the director and

the artist [require], as you know they have actually come together, they’ve had the back

and forth, they’ve sat down to write the script and all that, so it is our interpretation , it is

what they tell us to do so most of the times if it entails us, you know being half naked or

almost naked, of course we have to do that. That is what we do; that is our job. You can

also call us actors but the difference is we don’t talk we don’t open our mouth, it’s all in

the face, it’s all in the body movement (3:50- 4:05).

Since “dance and sex both use the same instrument— namely, the human body—and both involve the language of the body’s orientation toward pleasure” (Hanna, 212), interpretations of sexualization becomes inescapable. Dancers or video vixens interpret the lyrics of the song and 23 help sell the records through their body even when sometimes, sexualization is unintended.

However, there is no statistics to prove that there is a direct correlation between sex and profitable album sales. Naira Marley, a Nigerian artist infamous for his presentation of naked women in his music videos, has over four million views on YouTube for his track “Idi ore mi”; other music videos with more clothed bodies released around the same time, on the same platform, had more views. “In my Maserati” by Olakira has over 23 million views, “Fem” has

18 million, “Duduke” by Simi over 31 million views, and “Deceive” by Yemi Alade has close to

7 million views. Although four million views are quite significant, there are other factors such as production, lyrics, a well-mixed beat, talent, credibility, fan base and more that makes a video successful rather than mainly naked bodies. Research needs to be conducted to explore the variables for a successful album in Nigeria but for this research, I will use the term dancers as a general reference to both professional dancers and video vixens considering that both perform in the same space, under similar cultural context and producers.

My initial assessment of the representation of female dances in music videos especially in the wake of the popularity of artist Naira Marley was quite negative. I was convinced they desperately sought the attention and money that comes with sexualization. As I study more, I assessed that all these are reactions to certain societal issues especially since traditionally, exposure of the female body is carried out in dire conditions, a last resort (Diabate). Outside of hip hop, Diabate delves into the history of women disrobing as a weapon against tyranny in

Africa. Some of the conditions that instigate women disrobing include public officials’ contestable neoliberal practices, dumping of toxic waste on African shores by Western powers, oil spillage by foreign corporation such as Shell and Chevron in Nigeria, mismanagement of pandemics by African leaders, and security threats from rebel groups such as Boko Haram in 24

Nigeria. All these conditions threaten the lives and livelihood of the women, their family and

community and “when all else has failed, and when their bodies seem to be all that they have

left, the women’s insurrectionary gesture often is their last resort” (4) to force the government

into fulfilling their desires. The author’s argument is that “naked lives and exposed bodies can

still be constituted to defy sovereign power, if only briefly and imperfectly” (6). Good.

Disrobing is a sacrifice that women have taken upon themselves as the protector and

cleanser of the land. During my childhood, I remember that mothers would confront threats to

their family members especially their children with stripping naked and cursing the oppressor.

And, in like manner, mothers would pray for their children naked when going through trying

times. Baring of the naked body in music genre can be argued to be conditioned by certain

unfavorable socio-economic and cultural practices but is attenuated and easily dismissed because

it is carried out as entertainment. Such cases of the naked female body in music videos can also

be interpreted as a silent cry against the economic effects of unemployment and cultural

constraints of patriarchy since in the words of José Esteban Muñoz, naked bodies “work on and

against dominant ideology” (11).

I opine that the stereotypical approach to the issues around sexualization in hip hop will

remain unproductive as long as there are elements of agency and independence, financial or otherwise in the industry as will be further discussed in coming chapters. It is also important to note that not all female dancers go naked in their performances. I would rather highlight the works and voices of women who have created platforms for themselves to excel as a form of encouragement for others who would love to explore the dance industry either as a hobby, passion, or necessity. Even though not every dancer may eventually reach that point but with 25 more independence comes more empowerment. These feats are attainable in light of the lives of

Kaffy, Debbie, Jane and other dancers and the platforms they have created for themselves.

How does dancing work in coordination with other forms of female empowerment schemes by governmental and non-governmental agencies in Nigeria? The next chapter looks at gender roles in pre-colonial and post-colonial Nigeria, the problem of youth unemployment, and the role of hip hop as a global culture. Dancing, like other professions, is one of the paths to financial independence, and an avenue to work with and around the dictates of patriarchy. It is also a way of revolting against the policing of the female body. 26

CHAPTER II: SURVIVING THROUGH DANCE

Introduction

In this chapter, I borrow the phrase “politics of survival” used in African Feminism: The

Politics of Survival in Sub-Saharan Africa by Gwendolyn Mikell to ground my argument in the historical context of gender roles and ways of resisting patriarchy in Nigeria. I will also explore the challenges of feminism as an ideology in the Nigerian context. Approaching dance as a form of nonverbal communication caught at the intersection of Nigerian cultural expression and globalization, I make an argument for hip hop dance as a tool used by female dancers in breaking loose from cultural expectations and dependencies. To objectively read the positions of female dancers in Nigeria, it is important to explore the role of women in traditional societies (pre- colonial era) and the history of women’s engagement with politics in post-colonial Nigeria.

As women have historically proven to consistently push back against subordination, chauvinism, and blatant disregard for basic rights such as the right to make personal choices, I situate dance, especially performed by women as another form of youth resistance and empowerment, acknowledging the socio-economic conditions of the country with its increasing spate of unemployment. While it may be read as sexualization, I look beyond this true yet incomplete reading of the dancing female body as a form of disrobing (Diabate), a kind of last resort, that loudly speaks to and against structures that work against the female body in a patriarchal society. In other words, I situate the debate around female agency and sexualization in dance within the historical, political, and economic context of Nigeria as well as the effect of hip hop as a global culture. God. 27

Politics of Survival

Black women have toiled and supported their households across generations and continue to. As a traditionally agrarian society in the precolonial era, women engaged in subsistence farming and petty trade of farm produce to feed the family and, if there was a surplus, exchange in trade. While men engaged in jobs such as farming, hunting, and blacksmithing, women were the vehicle of converting these products to cash. Women were also healers, priestesses, diviners, birth attendants and custodians of the sanctuaries of gods and goddesses. They engaged in services that came at a price and were highly patronized in the society. With colonization, women’s economic viability became restricted, and the colony subjected to the western template of working husband and stay-at-home wife. African feminism: The politics of survival in sub-

Saharan Africa explores the different ways in which women have resisted the system “using intuitive knowledge and perspectives” based on the writer’s observations and experiences (33). It also specifically details “how they rail against the persistence of gender-biased structures and institutions in their societies, and how they contribute to the emerging democratic culture and definition of feminism in their societies” (33). Though the contexts differ, the essays engage in dialogue on success stories, challenges, and recommendations for posterity across different

African societies.

Key to this collection of essays is “politics of survival” as used in the title. Survival has a connotation of suppression, dearth, and restrictions. Navigating these challenges requires deep understanding of the terrain, being vigilant when opportunities arise, counteracting or envisaging possible clap backs, knowing the weaknesses of the opposition and exploiting the same to one’s advantage. In the introduction, Gwendolyn Mikell points out that African women had to survive

“twin gender-political crises in Africa” as a result of “social-structural problems that arose 28

during the process of European colonization, [and] as African political economies were tied as

appendages to the West and African men were given increased recognition relative to women”

(2). Mikell went further to show how this was greatly exacerbated by the aforementioned issues

of “Islamic expansion and European conquest” on the one hand and the imperialist prescribed

template of governance used in post-colonial African government on the other hand.

This politics manifested in numerous ways in diverse contexts from pre-colonial to post- colonial era. One way this has manifested across the board is the dichotomy “described in terms of the relationship between public and private spheres, or what we may call the ‘domestic versus public’ distinctions in gender roles in Africa.”(Gwendolyn 2) BBC News Africa reports that on a 2016 visit to Germany, the president of Nigeria, Mohammadu Buhari, was castigated for his condescending comment that the place of his wife, the First Lady of the Federal Republic of

Nigeria, is in the “other room”: “I don't know which party my wife belongs to, but she belongs to my kitchen and my living room and the other room,” he said. The “other room” here refers to the bedroom, a space where women are expected to perform the role of sexually gratifying their husbands and nurturing children. This above statement by the president was a reaction to the first lady saying she might not support her husband when he runs for subsequent elections unless he has a firm grip on his cabinet. This implies that the opinion of the First Lady can only be valid in the bedroom during the throes of passion, the kitchen as a cook and his living room, not in discourses about nation building, politics, and leadership. The euphemistic use of the term “other room” shows how activities and fantasies of the bedroom are coded and shrouded in secrecy.

Though the president received much backlash on social media because of his statement, as

Musilla Grace theorizes, it reflects the state of mind of an average Nigerian man with its toxic patriarchal practices and beliefs. 29

Afro-cultural “policing” of the female body as a site of secrecy and shame. This

association of female genitals with shame and secrecy is embedded in many African

societies, where, from a tender age, girls are taught to conceal their bodies from the “male

gaze.” The male gaze both controls sexual desire and legislates the boundaries of

acceptable exposure of the female body, rendering public nudity outside these sanctioned

parameters indecent, immoral and shameful. This policing of the female body forms a

literal and symbolic circumscription of the female sexual body, while promoting a

posture of subservience couched in notions of decorum, dignity and integrity, as

safeguarded through successful control and concealment of the female sexual body. (53)

Nigerian dancers complicate this African traditional gaze of decorum in the hip hop dance

culture with its aesthetics of performing dance in smartly fitted costumes, creative body

movements, and the exposure of certain parts of the female anatomy.

Though the collection of essays in African Feminism explores African feminism’s

approach as “it has largely been shaped by African women's resistance to Western hegemony and

its legacy within African culture” (4), the hip hop scene may be an exception. Since 1999 when

these essays were anthologized, much has happened in terms of Western/African dynamism,

thanks to technological advancement and globalization. The internet had yet to take the center

stage in global culture as it is today. Globalization with the advent of hip hop complicates the

understanding of African feminism on the issue of sexualizing the female body in popular

culture. However, these essays help by way of understanding how historical contexts influence

the present and, how sexualization is linked with the socio-economic position of the female as it was during colonization and before the onset of globalization. Geographical borders are collapsed on the internet and there appears to be similarities in the representations of women in 30 global popular culture like in the hip hop. This chapter does similarly; it seeks to explore the peculiarity of dance as another “politics of survival” female dancers have adopted in Nigerian hip hop while exploring the complexities of globalization upon it.

Complexities of Feminist Discourse in Nigerian Hip Hop

There is a complex relationship between dance performed in hip hop and the Nigerian cultures. Dance has always been used for entertainment and profit. Traditional dance troupes still perform for profit, so the problem is not in dancing for profit per se as it is with the associative meanings of sexualization that comes with hip hop. However, dance has always been gendered.

Females perform for the male gaze in pageant ceremonies. In cultural texts like films and folk songs, there are references to maidens performing for the crown prince and the selected one becoming the princess or queen of the land. The relationship here is interwoven and calls for caution to determine their points of intersection, making it difficult to define sexualization in the context of the Nigerian space. Is this truly an imported phenomenon or the amplification of the patriarchal prejudices in the Nigerian society or is this just a case of, in the words of Patricia Hill

Collins, “changing political climates riddled with new obstacles” (21) making pegging a definition on the issue difficult? I argue it is the latter.

One of the major challenges I faced in writing this thesis is to justify my argument.

Initially I had wanted to write on how Nigerian female artists have pushed for women empowerment and reorientation of the girl child. The arguments gathered were not strong enough, or so I thought. First, the female artists who are in the limelight built on the foundation of sex sells while the ones who aspire towards authenticity are pushed out of the center spaces.

Following the same pattern of female subjugation and sexual representations in their songs, they lose their voice. The themes of love and sexuality are not bad in themselves, but I had hoped that 31 the platform available to talented female artistes such as Tiwa Savage could be used for more political discussions. I was soon to discover that male artists do more activism for women than do female artists themselves. For instance, Davido in the song “Wonder Woman” celebrates the women in his life in addition to other women who have excelled in their careers. Different from normal representations of women in hip hop, they represent women from all age groups and walks of life: face models, writers, Muslims wearing their hijabs, CEOs of companies, bloggers, singers, founders of NGOs, dancers, lawyers, entrepreneurs, and filmmakers. Their representations are not business as usual – well-covered, smiling, respected, and breaking down the stereotypes of beauty and fashion. Using the symbol of ballet dancing at the start of the video, Davido celebrates the grace and excellence of women represented in the track. However, the women celebrated are well positioned socio-economically, hence the “respectable” representations. Here, class is the major distinguishing factor between these women and other female dancers who depend on or have made dancing their source of livelihood. Socioeconomic conditioning of the Nigerian state is key to understanding and reading female hip hop dancers and the arguments around sexuality. There are male dancers too, but they remain unmarked since the gaze has been trained to focus on the female body.

Simisola, one of the most renowned Nigerian female artists, entirely avoids topics of political activism. She rather focuses on less-volatile subjects such as happiness, motherhood, love, and communal living. Others like her limit political discussions to their social media space.

This can be attributed to the pressure to keep music for economic purposes separate from music as activism. Again, as a woman, it is difficult to broach certain topics without incurring criticism from everywhere that may threaten their music careers. This is not a judgmental appraisal of any artists, just a citation of the difficulty of engaging in feminist scholarship in the hip hop scene in 32

Nigeria. Exacerbating this condition are the “internet feminists” who subjectively define

feminism and reduce it to domestic roles in the home like who does the cooking, washes clothes, looks after the kids and so on. Scholars have engaged in discussions about the individual experiences when it comes to theorizing feminism (Sensory and Marshall; Wilson). However,

Collins emphasizes that all these experiences should be measured in relation to humanism.

Shirley Chisholm asserts that “working toward our own freedom, we can help others work free from the traps of their stereotypes. In the end, antiblack, antifemale, and all forms of discrimination are equivalent to the same thing—antihumanism . . . we must reject not only the stereotypes that others have of us but also those we have of ourselves and others” (Collins 42).

For a better reception of feminism in the cultural space of Nigeria, the approach to feminism should be that of social justice for everyone, not just the female gender. It requires an understanding of the complementary relationship between men and women rather than a lopsided one. This translates to equal opportunities as well as responsibilities.

There is also the problem of the self-professed motivational speaker and the societal watch dog who criminalizes the whole feminist movement based on the criminal offenses or mistakes of one woman. Compounding this are exaggerated or taken out of context highlights on various media platforms. A popular example was when Chimamanda Adichie, the Nigerian author and feminist on Trevor Noah’s The Daily Show (2018) responded to a question on chivalric gestures such as opening the door for a woman:

I think the gesture like holding the door shouldn't be gendered I think it's a lovely thing to

hold the door, but we should hold the door for everyone right. I hold the door for men and

women, so I think the idea of sort of holding the door for a woman because she's a

woman I have trouble with it. I'm quite happy for people to hold the door for me right I 33

hope they're not doing it because of this sort of idea of chivalry because chivalry is about

this idea that women are somehow weak right and need protecting (5:52-6:20).

The coverage on many social and news media platforms read something like “men shouldn’t open doors for women.” Adichie has at various times been castigated heavily for her thoughts on certain traditional practices that she addresses as complicit in the objectification of women such as the cultural practice of bride price. She observed that bride price especially in places where the sum is quite exorbitant gives the male folks the right to the woman as property.

She expresses that originally; bride price was a symbol of goodwill between the two families coming together in marriage but has presently assumed a commercial status. Most of her critics are women who equate bride price to value. The higher the bride price, the higher the value placed on women, a source of pride to the woman and her family.

There is also the group of self-acclaimed social media feminists who according to

Simidele Dosekun are “young women [who] take for granted celebratory and now commonsensical rhetorics of “choice,” “having it all,” “empowerment,” yet cannot articulate their national or local feminist histories or make sense of their personal experiences of pervasive sexism in critical feminist terms” (968). Though celebrating financial and sexual independence from men, these women engage in social media arguments without reference to a corresponding history of female empowerment in the context of their societies that relies heavily on patriarchal capitalism and that sexualizes and objectifies. Grewal makes a similar point writing on feminism in India:

the current phase of capitalism in India is producing a new kind of popular, cosmopolitan

feminism that seems to operate differently than the feminism that many have come to

associate with women’s movements in India. This feminism constructs women as 34

working professionals at the same time as it commodifies feminism through beauty and

fashion culture. (31)

Professing independence, women in this category are still pressured and sometimes succumb to societal standards of living and beauty such as cosmetics surgeries and the complications that may arise from such. These are some of the challenges faced by well meaning, experienced and well-read feminists who wished to deconstruct the threshold of patriarchy and its manifestations in African society. Even though well read, they still struggle to work with and around patriarchy as it exists around them even from the vantage point of academic privilege.

Nigerian Women

Nigerian women in history have never been complacent. They have engaged in activities such as food processing, pottery making, mat weaving and cooking. Land was communally owned and women were given access to land through their husbands or, where applicable, their parents (Wole-Abu 2). Most times these lands were tilled to provide for the family. Furthermore,

in the south eastern part of Nigeria, women were involved in the production of palm oil

and palm kernel, their successes in long distance trade in different parts of the country

also accounted for the distribution of various food items and commodities. As a result of

the hard-working nature of the women, they were involved in the processing of food. Fish

drying was done in the coastal areas of Calabar, Oron and the Niger Delta, women in

Okposi, Yala and Uburu were known for salt processing pottery making and weaving was

popular among the Afikpo women. The women in the north, even those in purdah were

also involved in food processing and trading (Wole- Abu 2)

35

Politically, women have ruled dynasties.

Bornu [northeast Nigeria] women were adept at the administration of the state, they

occupied important positions in the royal family. Some of these positions were Megira

(Queen Mother) and Gumsu (First wife of the Mai or King). Similarly, in the history of

ancient Zaria, women performed significant political functions. Modern Zaria was

founded by Queen Bakwa Turuk in the first half of the 16th century and her daughter

Amina succeeded her as Queen. (Wole-Abu 2)

Others include “Moremi of Ile-Ife”, “Queen Emotan” of Benin Kingdom … “Efunsetan Aniwura of Ibadan, “Princess Inikpi” of Igala land. For lack of written literature in the precolonial era, their contributions have been largely erased and at best subsumed under the western academia’s general assumption of female helplessness and docility in Nigerian patriarchal society.

The hostility and restrictions placed on women during the colonial era incited the famous women riot of 1929 Aba (in Eastern Nigeria), a kick back against the heavy taxes imposed on market women by the British colonial administration’s Native Revenue Proclamation of 1906, “a taxation system in line with the imperial philosophy that the colonized should bear the cost of colonization” (Diabate 179). These acts of resistance are characteristic of women’s reactions to subordination. Diabate’s Naked Agency, delves into the historicity of women disrobing as a weapon against tyranny in Africa. Public officials’ contestable neoliberal practices (Cote d’Ivoire) imported toxic pollution (in Cote d’Ivoire, oil spillage in Nigeria), mismanagement of pandemics, and rebel groups (Boko Haram in Nigeria) are some of the conditions that can instigate disrobing. Disrobing is one duty that women have taken upon themselves as the protector and cleanser of the land. Culturally, any threat to the inability of women to sustain their family instinctively elicits these acts of resistance. Diabate listed gender, drought, and economic 36 interests as major factors behind the Aba women riot, attributed to “the dire economic circumstances, a result of the global economic downturn due in part to World War I, [which] hit women hard, compromising their major financial independence and ability to care for their families” (179). Disrobing is considered an act of last resort. Female dancing and the aesthetics of the profession can also be read as a statement of defiance against the traditional patriarchal gaze, a last resort in dealing with unemployment in Nigeria as well as a form of youth agency where young people take charge of their lives by any means possible considering the failure of the government who have been entrusted with securing their future. This assumption is not all- encompassing. There are other possible interpretations of dance which I explore further in the next chapter.

Youth Unemployment and Hip Hop

Youth unemployment in Nigeria is one of the most serious social problems plaguing the country. There are no accurate statistics on the number of unemployed youths in the country but the research team of Nairametrics.com, an online business news and financial analysis website, carried out an estimate based on the findings of the National Bureau of Statistics. They report that the “unemployment rate as at the second quarter of 2020 is 27.1%” indicating that about

21.7 million Nigerians remain unemployed. The data also reveals the worst-hit are Nigerian youths with over 13.9 million currently unemployed. To put it in perspective, that is more than the population of Rwanda or Greece. This has increased the number of youths going into illicit activities. On the other hand, many youths have become entrepreneurs and devised a number of self-survival tactics. Though the government has attempted to address the problem of youth unemployment, their current strategies are not effective. Besides the statistics only account for formal sectors as “real” employment which is an inappropriate measure for a country like 37

Nigeria. Also, Kawwagh and Ikwuba fault government policies of unemployment on the basis of

“adult’s perceptions of youth concerns and needs… non-involvement of young people in policy

formulation…[and] policies formulated and implemented just to avert the possibility of the

young people’s response to the shrinking unemployment opportunities.” (233) There are no

sustainable structures put in place to engage the exuberance of the youth population.

Describing how hip hop has helped keep the teeming unemployed Nigerian youths active

is an intimidating prospect. Not that it is impossible to do, but it is multilayered with different

turns and complexities. However, it is safe to say that hip hop has become one of the few

remaining spaces where if you can push hard enough, class is not a hindrance to success. Rose

sees hip hop as “a cultural form that attempts to negotiate the experiences of marginalization,

brutality, truncated opportunity” (Adedeji 76). Nigerian youths are marginalized, their dream

shattered and are, by the day, becoming agitated and growing restless.

Globalization and Capitalization of Hip Hop

Nigerian hip hop music is largely commercialized except when the situation calls for

activism. Sample cases are that of Falz (Folarin Falana) and Burna Boy (Damini Ogulu,)

prominent Nigerian artists who continues to be entertainers even as they take lead positions in

social activism. The work of Omobowale and Liadi reveals that the mass consumption of hip hop in Nigeria has yielded billions of naira for the industry. Not just that, it is “fast becoming a

major income earner not only for the direct actors (artists, promoters, marketers) within the

industry but also for the government in terms of taxation” (469). Unfortunately, dancers are

rarely acknowledged in the industry despite their strategic place as key to the sales of music

albums. This position is shifting gradually with the visibility and space the internet affords for

self-expression and creativity. The three sampled dancers for this study have maximized this 38 opportunity to advance their dancing careers. In a country of over 200 million people, a report by

Johnson Joseph for Statista, an online data platform, shows that “in 2020, Nigeria had 99.05 million internet users. This figure is projected to grow to 131.7 million internet users in 2023.

The internet penetration amounted to 46.6 percent of the population in 2020 and is set to reach

65.2 percent in 2025.” The astronomical increase in the access to the internet is concomitant to an increase in international visibility in all sectors, especially the entertainment industry. Cultural exchange and communication between Nigeria and other countries of the world can go a long way in defending Nigeria’s cultural values, furthering Nigeria’s national interest and fostering national development (Asobele 4). Rightly so but in addition, these relationships can be comparable to the two sides of the same coin; they tend to influence each other. It can defend and at the same time change cultural values, creating a kind of hybrid culture. As more and more people have access to the internet, to streaming sites, and to social media and social apps, the more diverse the engagement with globalization including forms of feminine agency and self- expressions. Dancing as a form of nonverbal communication is at the intersection of cultural heritage and global youth culture with strains of both reflective in the performances.

Women’s Challenges

The national policy on women as entrenched in the 1999 constitution of the Federal

Republic of Nigeria highlights that “Every citizen shall have equality of rights, obligations and opportunities before the law” and that “All citizens, without discrimination on any group whatsoever have the opportunity for securing adequate means of livelihood as well as adequate opportunity to secure suitable employment". Section 42(1) of the same constitution states further that: A citizen of Nigeria of a particular community, ethnic group, place of origin, sex, religion, or political opinion shall not, by reason only that he is such a person be subjected to any form of 39

discrimination. However, women are seen as the subordinate in the family, and this extends to

popular opinion that women are less than men and should remain under the authority of the

husband. The tension between the constitution and the cultural climate of Nigeria makes it

difficult to clearly determine when this principle in the constitution has been breached.

On the home front, Ashimilowo and Otufale found that there is a link between women’s

financial dependence on men in Nigeria and gender-based violence. They recommend for

“empowering women through training, in order to see themselves as important stakeholders in

contributing to household income, expenses in order to enhance their status and self-worth in marriage and family life” (112). Similarly, Ojo affirms that “women in Nigeria are harder-hit than men by poverty due to the nonchalant emphasis placed on female education, and the prevalence of early marriages which tend to further impoverish the womenfolk, and subject them to statutory discrimination” (Makama 120). Financial independence continues to be the desire of Nigerian women over generations suggesting that the politics of survival is rooted in economic independence. The World Health Organization also ascertains that “gainful employment and consequent relative economic independence of women would serve as protective factors against gender-based violence directed at women as earlier has been documented in some countries of the world”. Chika Ifemeje recommends “[T]he Federal

Ministry of Women’s Affairs and other stakeholders need to embark on mapping out strategies that will facilitate the political, economic and educational empowerment of women” (15). Since this recommendation has been made, there has been no sustainable and documented impact of these strategies in the lives of the women.

In the area of leadership, scholars have written about the challenges of women’s involvement in politics and recommended ways to overcome these challenges (Agbalajobi; 40

Ngara; Ogunlela and Muktar; Sokefun; Okafor and Akokwebe). Most of these challenges are

based on existing rules of engagement put in place by men. Chapman assesses the hurdles confronting women in politics:

Men are the major determinants of political actions and enactions (sic) generally

concerned with the perpetuation of power of the state…when women compete with men

for access to political power, they do so on the terms already established by men for

competition among themselves. The success of women in politics like that of any group

cannot be achieved within a system without displacing or replacing the existing elite. And

a change in values which cannot occur independently in the socio-economic as well as

political relations, without clear involvement of women in the political process through

holding of various offices (positions) and make known their own ambition through

consciousness and effective involvement in the political scene a condition which if absent

allows or facilitates the political elites dominated by and govern women remain the same.

(11)

Gendered relations manifests in the ownership of the female body, the financial dependence of women on men due to the post-colonial situation of Nigeria and the culturally ingrained notion in both men and women of the place of the women in the society which is below the man. Dancing breaks away from these societally imposed limitations. Despite this, the cultural and religious beliefs of accepting the place of the woman/wife as under the man/husband remains a barrier that has proven to be unbreakable. The vast majority of Nigerians are either culturally or/and religiously inclined. 41

Women Empowerment Schemes

Since the beginning of the fourth republic that started in 1999, the Nigerian government

and NGOs have engaged in various forms of empowerment schemes for women ranging from

micro-loans to skills acquisition programs. Izugbara in “Gendered Micro- Lending Scheme”

implies from the work of Ashford

that the sustainable empowerment of women is the surest key or avenue for reducing the

differences between the sexes that exist in nearly all societies. She contends that

empowerment is sustainable if it enables the powerless to gain control over the

circumstances of their lives. It means not only greater control over resources but also

greater self-confidence and the ability to make decisions on an equal basis with men. (73)

In light of this women’s empowerment programs targeted at primarily poor rural women are not

effective enough because there is no follow up plan and statistics to determine the effectiveness

of such programs (Izugbara 82).

Besides, the demography targeted by these schemes excludes the youth population.

Diabates’s “naked agency” is executed by women who are mothers within the age bracket of 40

and above. Because female dancers occupy the youth demographic, they are regarded as

dependent on their parents, hence there has been little or no governmental developmental

programs and policies targeted towards them. Also, in addressing unemployment, both male and

female genders are homogenously addressed without any consideration of the space a young

female occupies in a patriarchal society delegitimizing the peculiar concerns of the girl child.

After graduation, because of lack of job opportunities, most females enter a vocational trade.

This workspace has become saturated to the extent that people fight to keep patronage at all cost, reducing prices, or having sexual relationships with current and prospective clients. Some 42

improve on their skills to target the elite who pay more for their services but the percentage of

girls in this situation is relatively low. Unemployment, the saturation of the vocational sector and

the challenges of depending on parents or family members push much of the female population

to use their femininity in exchange for financial favors. It is either this or the female body is

exploited by others. Recently, with the popularity of social media apps, dance has been adopted

as a skill for empowerment. The visibility of Afro-beat in the global space has also called the attention of the world to the genre and its components which include dance, language, and culture. The internet is saturated with replication of Afro-beat dance steps by youths from across the world.

While the Nigerian government keeps devising ways of improving female representations at all levels of governance and policy making, I place dance on the same pedestal as other forms of female empowerment programs put in place by the government. Female dancers are seeking and fashioning out their own path in light of the complacency of the government in addressing issues of unemployment in the country. While some mourn the dearth of culture due to globalization, it has created a space for self-discovery and affirmation for others. It is important to emphasize that not all dancers come from an economically disadvantaged background. Some developed the talent and realized along the way, they could do much more with it. They could organize workshops, empower other youths, turn this into a formally recognized profession, and use it as a tool to redefine identities and codes of respect in the hip hop business. Though hip-hop dancing in Nigeria may be argued to stem from a business perspective, it has evolved to become so much more than that. Female dancers are leading the way and changing the narrative. The next chapter delves into how. 43

CHAPTER III: WHAT I DO WHEN I DANCE

Introduction

The previous chapters laid the foundation for understanding the argument for dancers’ agency in Nigeria. In this chapter, I will examine the lives and performances of three female artistes in the hip hop industry as a microcosm of the larger industry. I have chosen these three dancers because of the peculiarities of their experiences and modes of performance. They cut across a wide range of possibilities that most dancers can relate to which includes family background dynamics, socio-economic factors, the high rate of unemployment for youth, and the inability of government empowerment schemes to accommodate younger women. Looking into their memoirs and social media archives as well as interviews granted to TV stations and on online platforms, I approach my analysis through their lens. Even though I was unable to interview these dancers personally, these resources are akin to whatever personal interactions I may have had with them and my analysis is based on what they do backed by their words. They are Kafayat Shafau- Ameh (Kaffy), Odumewu Debbie (Pinkie Debbie), and Usiwo Orezinena

Jane (Janemena). For the rest of the chapter, they will be addressed by their stage names.

Like most social figures, these three artists did not rise to fame overnight. Theirs has been a story of consistency, tenacity and outright disregard for cultural restrictions and boundaries. I use “disregard” in this sense not to despise cultural norms but rather to describe how they have risen above and beyond them to shift and push the boundaries of gender roles and inequalities in a patriarchal society like Nigeria. Using a popular parlance in Nigeria and the title of Kaffy’s recently published memoir, these dancers were regarded as “Alaajoota,” literally “someone who dances for money.” As discussed in previous chapters, dancing in the Africa/Nigeria context is a non-verbal means of communication. It is believed that anyone can dance but not everyone can 44 dance excellently for money. However, this term is used derogatorily and condescendingly to refer to dancing as an unimportant profession, and dancers, at best, as unambitious and at worst, socially immoral and deviant. There is an undertone of sexuality in this worldview. The same is true of academic research that sees dancers as sexually deviant (Ekpootu; Oikelome; Onanuga;

Okunlola). Amidst these representations, the three dancers under review have moved the narrative in another dimension. It would be overzealous to argue that the society at large has embraced this profession or has dismissed their “slight” of the profession, but it is safe to argue that platforms for better representations are being created daily due to the success and visibility of these dancers and, of course, the accessibility of the social media. Porfilio et al. concluded in their study on "Ending the War Against Youth: Social Media and Hip-Hop Culture as Sites of

Resistance, Transformation and (Re) Conceptualization” that through social media, “youth have been afforded the enhanced ability to engage in artistic performances and academic initiatives that facilitates understanding of what give rises to oppression and injustice, to build coalitions with youth across the globe who are also grappling with social inequalities, and to act inside and outside of their social world in order to transform it” (101). The internet is key in this discussion of Nigerian hip hop dancers because the ability to create and recreate identities, exert agencies, and promote their brand would have been otherwise difficult without the opportunities afforded in online spaces. Advantages of the internet for the artist include increased visibility, easy access for both national and international audiences, limited censorship, reduction in the overhead costs of physical spaces, coordinated support from fans around the world, and the amplification of voices. The experiences of the dancers under review differs and for each dancer means something different. While there are overlaps here and there in my analysis of their experiences with dance, I explore how they meaningfully work through dance in a patriarchal system. Kaffy 45

has been in the dance business longer than the other two dancers and as such this analysis begins

with her.

Kaffy: Dance as Coping Strategy

The childhood to adulthood memories and experiences of Kaffy would eventually lead

her to earn the title “queen of the dance floor.” In her memoir, Alajoota published in the English

language, she chronicles the journey that led her to become the most prominent female dancer in

Nigeria today. Born into an affluent family of six, Kaffy had hoped like every other rich kid to

have a good education, fall in love, and live happily ever after. This dream was cut short when

her parents separated, and she was left in the custody of her mother with her other siblings. With

time this arrangement plunged the family into economic crises and as the first child, she had to

brace for the challenge of providing for her family. From expulsion from school because of the

inability to pay fees to constant displacement from residential locations, young Kaffy became

traumatized at an early age. Important in her dance journey was the time spent living with a

member of her extended family. Unlike the United States where children with parental are catered to by children’s services, family members take up this task in the Nigerian setting. This does not all the time guarantee a perfect resolution for the affected children, but it at least solves housing issues. Sometimes, such children are forced into domestic labor for the host family; some lucky ones find a safe haven. The negative treatment of such children is beyond the scope of this paper, but it is mentioned here because this experience sets the foundation for the entrance of Kaffy into hip hop dance. It is here that Kaffy “found music” In her words, dancing

served as a coping mechanism, therapy, and healing from [her aunt’s] endless abuse, and

it also gave me a reason to go on…I found solace in dancing. On days when I got upset

by something someone had said to me, or when I was in a sour mood, I locked myself in 46

my room, and danced for hours. There was a mirror in my room, and I danced facing it,

watching my reflection dance back at me, dancing with me. (84)

This experience of dancing in front of the mirror resonates with me as well. During the long, difficult Covid-enforced curfew, dance became to me a form of exercise as well as a coping strategy from redundancy and Covid depression. However, the major argument here is not about the dance performed in private spaces, even though dance might have started from such safe private spaces, the public performance is the focus of this essay. What do women do when they dance, starting from the private, a culturally safe place for the woman, to the public space, the male space, the forbidden space, a space where a woman can be seen but not heard? If dancing is a form of non-verbal communication, what message is being sent through this medium?

Kaffy’s multilayered experiences speak to the context of Nigeria in which most female dancers grow up. It is not surprising that her memories of her mother dancing had sown the seed for the love of dance in her. As a form of intangible cultural heritage such as oral tradition and other human activities, dance is transmitted from mothers as tradition bearers on to their female children consciously or otherwise. Not every woman can dance to rhythm, but most Nigerian women express happy emotions through body movement analogous to dance. Even though dance might have developed as a coping strategy for Kaffy, it grew to become much more.

Her first feature in a hip-hop musical video was reported to her family by neighbors who saw her on television. She was afraid to tell her family prior to this time. Born into a Muslim home, a venture into hip hop dance is a denial, or so it is thought, of good moral upbringing and

God. The aesthetics of hip hop is antithetical to religious tenets of sobriety and decorum expected of a woman. Articulating her opinion on religion, Kaffy recounts that “as an adult, my thoughts about religion and spirituality have had to go through rapid metamorphosis” (40. 47

She breaks the traditional notion that by default assigns godlessness and its equivalent in other contexts to dancing. The implication is that dancing and religiosity should not have to be mutually exclusive. Historically, they are not. Traditional religion used dance in worship, the same applies to religions like Christianity. Her constant gratitude and reference to God throughout the memoir implies the place of religion in Nigeria. She even prayed to Him saying

“Father Lord, the God of dance, come to my rescue” (136), which resonates with her own reality.

The biblical allusion made here is most times used in qualifying a person who is believed to be a beloved or servant of God such as “God of Abraham”, “God of the Israelites” and so on. The usage is extended in the Nigerian contemporary Christian settings to qualify respected pastors and prophets. Using this same allusion to qualify an activity such as dance, Kaffy implies that

God can be interested in His children’s mundane affairs such as dance. By so doing she affirms her identity as a godly dancer even when the societal standard of godliness contradicts her position. More often than not, reliance on a superior force helps navigate the turbulence of life, gives hope, and maintains sanity. She alludes to this when she says, “God came through for us every time we were kicked out into the streets and had no roof over our heads” (41). The role of religion in the context of Nigeria cannot be overemphasized. It is even very important in this scenario where the harshest criticism of dancers come from inside religious circles.

Her Calling: Dance as Profession

From dancing in front of the mirror to working out at stadiums to burn fat, to leading work out groups, Kaffy forges deeper into the world of dance. The dexterity and creativity that comes into dance is often overlooked and reduced to “shake what mama gave you” like it would shake and match the rhythm all by itself. Lack of appreciation for dance labor can be ascribed to it being regarded as irrelevant. Kaffy’s journey to stardom is a story of constant visibility in 48 workout sessions (94), aerobics (120), karate (92), basketball games (109), and marathons (166-

168). An opportunity presented itself in a show called Karamba Night, put on by a modelling agency in Lagos, Nigeria, where all the above skills were employed in a show of excellence. She reminisced,

it was a fusion of everything I had and knew - passion, the precision and moves that had

come from years of dance, basketball, martial arts, and aerobics. I became one with the

music, and the dance became the music. I was lost to myself, absorbed in my world. By

the time the music ended, I was done with my routine.

The audience exploded in a frenzy.

They roared.

They clapped.

And they chanted my name.

“Kaffy!”

“Kaffy!”

“Kaffy!”

The Queen of the Dance Floor was born. (130)

This success pushed her into the limelight where she performed in the music video of prominent hip hop artistes at the time such as “Ruggedman, Lexzy Doo, and Adewale Ayuba” (133).

Educational attainment had become elusive to her because of many mitigating factors such as losing all of her credentials, and her busy schedules. Already, she had won many competitions, worked as a personal trainer and was going to be featured in music videos. At that point, dancing had become her career. She observes that “[T]here was only one path for me now; the path that fueled me with passion and hope; something I could do and from which I could 49 create magic—dance. My mind was made up, I would take up dance as a career” (135). Though propelled by the financial benefits dance availed her, her intentionality in going into the dancing career speaks of agency—the agency to choose. It may be argued that she did not really have a choice seeing that school was not going as expected. This argument is faulty because it is made out of context; it does not consider the journey that led to this decision. This journey includes childhood memories and experiences, escapism, identity formation, talents, and skills. She breaks the societal notion that education alone brings success. Living in a society that prioritizes education even if there are no provision for graduates in the labor market, she carves out a niche for herself by building a career in a profession she loves in the face of overwhelming backlash from family and society.

As mentioned earlier, her feature in Lexy Doo’s “Baby Ske Ske” was reported to the family by a neighbor. Dressed in a black tank top with baggy jeans, and white top and black flared skirt, she was heavily chastised by her family, she was asked, “What do you want to do with your life? (139). Sometimes, this agency to redefine oneself is negotiated, not absolute.

After this episode with the family, she spoke with her uncle:

Daddy, I’m smart enough to know that if I choose a career path, I will succeed, whatever

that path may be. In fact, I’m going to prove to you that greatness doesn’t come from

being a Doctor, Lawyer, or an engineer. None of these professions defines a person’s

success; neither does it determine how good a person is. I love dance and I believe it will

take me far. Please daddy, just trust me, please, let me be. (140)

She needed the understanding of the male figure in her life to succeed. Traditionally, the father occupies the highest hierarchy in the home. He represents the godhead, and it is expected that he oversees, approves, and rebukes the activities of members of the household. This position is 50 transferred to the nearest male relative where the biological father is absent. Since she was living with her uncle, he represented the father figure, especially since there was a communication gap between herself and her own biological father. She knew and she worked with that. Agency does not necessarily mean total disregard and denial of established authority; it is working with and around patriarchy while at the same time taking a firm stand.

In the Lexy Doo’s “Baby Ske Ske” music video, Kaffy’s performance and expressions, mouth slightly opened, ruffled hair, can be read as sexual. It is not clear if she had sole autonomy in the dance steps created or if the director influenced some of them, the lyric of the song suggests sexualization, making the argument of agency difficult to prove. The dance cannot be interpreted out of the context of the track. In this track, the artiste sings of better prowess when it comes to sexually satisfying women: “Mo le se ju padi yen lo…I can do more than your paddy (friend, buddy)”. Despite having the agency to create the dance steps, she had to perform under a male director, producer, and artiste and satisfy a whinny, lustful audience. And this was at the early stage of Afro-hip hop in Nigeria. It is clear, however, that this performance signaled the beginning of her career as a professional dancer and this single performance cannot be interpreted independently of the process of becoming who she is today. After this series of performances, she went ahead to win bigger contracts with Mobile Telephone Network (MTN), the foremost mobile telecommunication company in Nigeria (147). Vodacome (V-mobile) mobile Basketball League (157), another telecommunication company, led her group to win the

Guinness World Record for the longest dance party in 2006. They had danced for 55 hours and

40 minutes, over approximately three days. 51

Her Vision: Dance as Space

The experiences and connections made prior to the Guinness World Record award and

the ones garnered as a result armed her with the confidence to build a dance empire. Like me, she

begins to question how dancing became reduced only to sexualization which is at the core of

exploitation and gender inequality. Maybe she did not really use the word sexualization like me

but her observations of the dance industry as an insider provides significant insight into this

problem. She observed that “dancers were respected in the 80s, and some had represented

Nigeria in international dance competitions” (189). This claim becomes difficult to prove

especially seeing that there is no accessible information about this. She did mention that some of

these competitions were organized by the John Holt Organization. She also observed that “Juju

and Fuji music were always selling one dance or another. Dancers had respect and were revered”

(189). Juju and Fuji are local music genres popular in the 60s through 80s before the advent of

hip hp. Though these genres still thrive today, the presence of hip hop has overshadowed them

especially on the international scene. How much respect is awarded to dancers in these genres is

also very difficult to prove. Again, this is due to the relegation of dance as unimportant, less

deserving of academic attention, at least, at the time. Notwithstanding this, the summary of her

observations was that dancers were once valued, and she questions at what point it went wrong and how “dance took a backseat…became a rundown profession and something that only unserious people got involved in.” (190). To change this narrative, she became emboldened to,

“not only restore the glory days of the past, but to help carve a new path for dance; a path that will give all dancers a platform that respects their art, and rewards them, accordingly, a path where dancers would be taken much more seriously” (190). 52

Kaffy’s thoughts suggests that she understands the hurdles and challenges they face in the industry. As a nonverbal component of the hip hop scene, they may not be able to articulate in spoken forms some of their frustrations. Caution should be applied when translating this to passiveness or docility. Negotiating these challenges works alongside devising strategies of resistance. These do not have to be violent or confrontational. One such strategy is elucidated here by Kaffy:

I see dance as a multibillion-naira industry, a conglomerate. I saw this big picture of

dance as a whole organization, as big as the film and music industry, and possibly even

bigger. Nobody was thinking about it this way. They didn’t even see past the first service

available, which is dance for artistes. I had to create an avenue to explore it elsewhere.

In creating other avenues for our services, I sought out the sports sector, then health, then

advertising…the more people saw the need for dance and the value we brought them the

more we were engaged; and sometimes we even had to perform at weddings and birthday

parties (191).

I am not suggesting that Kaffy or any of the dancers discussed in this chapter are feminist by any means. However, it would not be surprising if they are. In fact, they chart a course for both female and male dancers but seeing that females are the first target of exploitation in the hip hop misogynist culture, she speaks on behalf of women.

Exploring Kaffy’s Instagram handle, @Kaffydance, it is evident that dancing is much more than entertainment and a money-making venture. It has become a platform to engage in mentorship for upcoming dancers. It is her space to actively redefine the definition of dance. On

February 23, 2021, she posted the hashtag #THEREISNOJUSTINWHATIDO and on February

25 she calls out clients who do not value the services of dancers. Dance has also become a form 53 of family bond. She is always seen with her two children dancing, working out and making decisions together. For her dancing creates the space for a formidable bond between her and her children an opportunity she missed out on as a child due to her own parents’ strained relationship. By allowing the children make simple decisions, they are able to chart a path for themselves, an opportunity she did not have as a child. Personally therefore, dancing becomes a space to correct her own childhood errors. In order to change the narrative about dancers, she understands the urgency of “catching them young”. Hence her online sessions where she teaches young children to dance as a form of extracurricular activity.

To a society that values the traditional family unit, marriage and motherhood gives her validity and in some ways silences those who may otherwise have used being unmarried as a means of criticism. In 2020, she was conferred an honorary doctoral degree at Escae-Benin

University in recognition of her effort as the “pioneer in the business of dance in Africa.” In an article titled “Don’t just call her Kaffy, call her Dr. Kaffy” on BellaNaija.com, an online celebrity news platform, Kaffy was quoted expressing the importance of the moment:

This moment right here brought tears to my eyes as I reflected and had my life do a major

replay of all the struggles, pain and negative perceptions I have had to overcome to see

this day. As a child I looked through the Guinness book of world records and 18 years

later I broke a Guinness world record. As a teenager I pictured my face on billboards and

on tv and I saw it happen, I lived it. I watch movies and motivational speeches done in

the honorary gown of a doctorate honor and here I am honored with the least likely career

choice. I have heard so many doubts that through dance I can amount to nothing not to

talk of being celebrated or honored on this level in fact on many levels. I am here 54

surrounded by academics honoring me not for a certificate but for the application of

every ounce of knowledge I have acquired in life both in school and on the street.

While adopting politics of respectability, she breaks away from stereotypes and restrictions. For a woman to be respectable in the context of Nigeria, she must be married, have children, be hardworking and religious. She must also be accommodating of extended family and the community where she lives. Surely, being educated is an added advantage. Considering her

Muslim background, her Instagram page is replete with motivational talks and references to pastors and leaders in the Christian religion. She is a dancer, wife, mother, scholar, and leader.

She is the founder of the “Imagneto Dance Company”, the first dance company in Nigeria,

“Yanga by Kaffy”, a costume and active-wear line that caters to the needs of performers in the industry, “Ijoda by Kaffy”, a fitness company, “K.A.F.F.Y Kreative Arts Foundation” for youths mining talents from the street and catering to their needs, and finally “Dance Boss”, an initiative that seeks to redirect the mindset of youths from illicit money making schemes to developing a capacity for entrepreneurship (249).

To celebrate International Women’s Day, she declares on her pagne “I am a force. I have weight (value) and occupy space (impact). Excellence is my watchword. I am not limited by gender neither should you. I am a woman and I celebrate you!” (Kaffydance, I am a force). In another post she writes “Woman it’s time! Time to collaborate. Time to be limitless. Time to rise above inequality. Time to be intentional. Time to unite. Time to impact. Time for personal growth. Time for positivity. Woman it’s TIME! I celebrate you” (Kaffydance, Woman it’s time).

As a member of various women’s groups such as the Academy for Women Entrepreneurs

(AWE), these words of affirmation work to assert her credibility while inviting others into this space. The comments to these posts like all her other posts are overwhelmingly positive. 55

The decentralization of the dance market from mainstream hip hop music video is a form

of resistance and it is not surprising that the lead is a woman. Women had never been docile but

active participants in African communities, resisting forms of gender inequalities manifested in

the stronghold of patriarchy and forging a path for greatness. It is obvious the need for this

decentralization. As a UN advocate for women’s political participation and leadership, Meghan

Markle said in 2015: “Women need a seat at the table, they need an invitation to be seated there,

and in some cases, where this isn’t available, then you know what, they need to create their own

table” (8:22-8:36). She further says, “It isn’t enough to simply talk about equality, one must

believe in it, and it isn’t enough to simply believe in it, one must work at it” (9:11-9:26). This is

what dancers like Kaffy do when they seek to decentralize the hip hop market and create a space

where they matter.

There must be something inherently wrong with the industry’s treatment of dancers. A larger table was created: music videos, sports events, social gatherings, and production. With more opportunities came higher visibility. In 2016, Kaffy performed brilliantly with four other female dancers during “Tiwa Savage Live in Chicago”, a Nigerian female music artist’s tour of

Chicago. Wearing white tank tops and shorts, they performed for forty-three minutes. The rigor of their performance attenuated any form of male or sexual gaze. The athletic build of the dancers reveals their consistency and discipline. What do I see in their performance? I see a group of women taking space, working together, and loving the thing they do, and “cashing out” of it . I would argue that performing for and with a female artiste made a significant difference in

representation and that dancers like Kaffy have a higher bargaining advantage even though they

perform for male artistes. I do not have any statistics to prove this besides her testimony, but

looking at the effect of globalization, different social media apps, this conclusion is not 56 implausible. Many dancers have used social media as leverage to become their own producer and director, therefore mitigating the pressure to conform to hip hop’s expectation of them. Even if they do conform to the already defined patriarchal template of “sex sells,” they do it on their own terms. This leads me to the next dancer, Janemena.

Janemena: Dance as Embracing of Sexuality and Femininity

Like in discussions around black women’s sexuality in America, the trope of jezebel

(Collins, Balaji) in Nigeria is applied mostly to “immoral” women, those whose dressing tempts men, who dress in tight-fitting or little clothes, challenge men and use the power of their femininity to influence or confuse men. Women who fall into this category include dancers, movie artistes, and any ordinary woman who can be read as immodest. The racial connotation of this particular stereotype in America is well acknowledged but, in both contexts, the sexual behaviors of women are policed and demonized. Whereas the “slave owners effectively tied the controlling images of jezebel and mammy to the economic exploitation inherent in the institution of slavery” (Collins 82), in Nigeria, it is rooted in the institution of religious and cultural display of piety. The criteria for modesty or respectability differ from one place to another, mostly influenced by education, exposure, and tolerance. For instance, educated, well-travelled, social media enthusiasts may interpret makeup, trousers, and hair weaves as normal feminine accessories, yet they are defined as jezebelian in more prudish, conservative, religious sects. In some quarters, single mothers fit this trope as well. Any female deviant from the cultural standard of an obedient spinster and pious and submissive married woman is regarded as a jezebel. The burden of ill decision is on these women rather than on men’s poor judgement calls.

Among Nigerian contemporary dancers, Janemena can be argued to fit into the jezebel stereotype. However, she complicates the jezebel stereotype by always blurring the line 57 between respectability and sexuality. Marriage is definitely one of the criteria for determining a successful woman in Nigeria. It is believed a woman in marriage is more responsible since she is under the authority of a man, who is expected to police, monitor and curtail her excesses. A married woman like Jane is not a threat to the society However, it is difficult to reconcile this position and her online brand. The focus of her performances and brands is the embrace of female sexuality and body. She twerks scantily dressed. Though protected by the institution of marriage, she is still considered a very bad influence. She says in an interview with BBC News in Pidgin:

You know say dem feel say as I dey do di twerking so I bad finish. So anybody wey come

now because say I dey twerk I go open for dem. You know how dem be now. 95 percent of

pipo dey always tink say twerking na sexual and I no blame dem sha o because you know

wetin we dey use twerk na our ‘weapon of mass destruction’ as dem dey call am, na our

bumbum and our waist. (1:45- 55)

Translation:

You know people assume I am a very bad person and promiscuous because I twerk. You

know how people can be. 95% of people think that twerking is a sexual performance, and

I do not blame them because what we twerk with, our “weapon of mass destruction,” as

it’s called, is our buttocks and waist.

She performs independently outside of hip hop musicals, she dances to hip hop in her own space, and armed with the attention her body avails, promotes upcoming artistes with her routines, especially her own clothing and lingerie lines. She is also a graduate in mass communication from Delta State University, Abraka, Nigeria. Janemena moves in and out of cultural expectations making the grip of criticism slippery. Her official dance Instagram handle is 58

@janemena with a picture of her in a green bikini lying down in the sand, probably on a beach,

with her buttocks elevated. Then her bio page reads, “Mrs Plies,” “Married and still Twerking.”

In the interview with BBC, her introduction in Pidgin English reads “I be photojournalist,

entrepreneur, wife and professional twerker.” She goes on to say

I dey do something wey be say wen man look me, man go dey lost but I no dey let all

those ones carry me away o. I no fit say na me start twerking but na me show people say

yes, you go fit twerk and your life go still dey ok, your life go still dey no be perfect but e

go dey almost perfect. (2.01- 06)

Translation:

Men lose themselves when they see me perform but I do not get distracted by that. I

cannot claim that I started the twerking business, but I made people realize that you can

twerk and have an almost perfect life.

She understands the power of the female body to distract and arouse men but insists that despite

this, a woman can have an “almost perfect” life. I assume perfection here implies marriage, good

job and financial standing, and maybe happiness derived in the performance, it is still an

exaggeration in my opinion. In Nigeria with its strong clutches of patriarchy, perfection for a

woman is quite a utopian prospect. Because the oppression of women is rooted in cultural and

religious belief systems, perfection becomes relative based on the ability to survive in such

contexts despite class and financial standing.

According to an article by Buchi Blessing, Jane came to fame in 2017 after winning a

dance competition organized by KCee, a Nigerian male artiste, after which she started sharing

videos of her twerking routine online. Her first performance on stage was published on YouTube

(Onye Unbanatu). It is a comedy performance organized by Martin Rock, a comedian from 59

Warri, a vibrant oil city in the Delta state, in the south of Nigeria. She is deliberate about her performances, she intends to shock, to attract the male gaze, to be sexual, and to own her sexuality. She constructs herself as a sexual subject rather than getting trapped in the sexual objectification of the hip hop industry. Some members of the audience, both male and female, were shocked at her performance, while some cheered her on, expecting to see more flesh as her skirt sways on the boundary of her thighs and buttocks. She has them captivated. Dressed in a black top and yellow flared skirt stopping right below her buttocks, she dances thrusting and shaking the buttocks. In the performance, she is being wooed by the comedian who is drawn by her sexual allure. There is a tension in the audience, with her every move eliciting different reactions from them, as she slaps and pushes away her wooer, the crowd flinches, with every twerk, they react with mixed feelings—excitement and disapproval. She eventually gives in to her wooer, symbolized by a doing a split, only to realize she was a trophy to be won all along.

After this performance there is no record of any other physical performances in a show working under a contract. It would be preposterous to conclude that she would never perform again in public even though it seems she might have thought that she could do better by herself.

Clad in scanty attire, in a pair of pants and a bra, accessories barely covering her body parts, she plays around with her sexuality, taunting and daring, using it to draw attention to other parts of her business. She understands the power this holds over men and the appeal it has for women. She represents the wild fantasy of men and the boldness to embrace femininity and sexuality suppressed in women.

Janemena breaks the stereotype that women who engage in this profession are unsuitable as wives. On this she says during an interview with BBC News 60

so anytime I post video wen I dey shake bum-bum, dem do say ‘ehn, who wan date dis

kain pesin? Any man wey come your life, just know say di man he wan come shook you

commot o, e go use you, e go dump you, e go trowey you’ wen dem engage me, evribody

come start ’ehn, as dem don engage am so, e go stop to dey twerk.’ After 8 months dem

don engage am. You see, e be like say na only she buy di ring herself engage herself o.’

no be small tin dem dey talk o for traditional marriage I still do my twerking. (2:44- 3:11)

Translation:

Anytime I post my videos, people question who will date this kind of person and assume

that I am open to exploitation by any man who shows interest in me. When I got engaged,

people expected me to stop twerking. After 8 months of engagement, a lot of people said

“she bought the ring to deceive us that she’s engaged.” I twerked on my traditional

wedding day.

She is able to accomplish all these by creating a space for herself on the internet. Speaking on her autonomy, Janemena goes on to say:

First of all, I no dey twerk for anybody o, I go just put my camera dance, hapi, dance di

dance wey I wan dance and I go post am for una just to entertain una. If God even let me

see 200 years, I go still dey shake my bum-bum o. (4:33- 48)

Translation:

First of all, I do not twerk for anyone, I set up my camera and do my dance [happily, the

way I want to dance], after which I post them to entertain you. God willing that I age to

200 years, I will continue shaking my bumbum.

As an Instagram influencer, twerking is a form of entertainment to keep the interest of her followers whom she relies on to sell her products and advertise other brands using her online 61 celebrity status. But the most important thing is her exercise of agency by dictating how, where and when she uses her body, thereby inverting sexual images of the female body in hip hop

(Christian; Collins; Emerson; hooks; Macgregor; Morgan).

A superficial interpretation of Janemena’s presentation of self may fail to account for the use of the body and sexuality as a tool of not just identity negotiation but also financial independence. Since dancing is non- verbal, interpretations can only be adequately accounted for through subtexts. What are the other metadiscourses such as words, the settings, images, or fliers posted alongside the performances? In a recent Instagram post (janemena, Ladies…) set in a kitchen with white cabinets and flooring, she twerks while advertising a product that helps with yeast and other sexual infections. The setting indicates hygiene and cleanliness while her loose bright orange garment that is slitted to the waist revealing her skin highlights her sexuality.

Accompanying this is the caption “so, it’s happened, it’s not a death sentence Queen…Lets help you restore and balance your yummy, beautiful virginal’s PH.” This is an invitation to openly discuss sexual health, that have been mostly avoided or deemed a shameful condition. The hygienic setting also indicates that sexuality need not be unclean or reproached. She encourages women to feel good in their own body while offering services and goods that can help boost their self-image. Her message goes in the line of something like - I feel good in my body, I twerk and use beauty product that keep my skin glowing. If you want to embrace your sexuality and boost your self-esteem as I have done, patronize the brands I endorse on my page. Her body becomes her major tool that draws traffic to her page for the end goal of financial independence. If the body is the place of oppression, then it can as well be the space of empowerment (Means

Coleman; Shapiro). Since she is autonomous in her acts, attention is focused on her body and the messages targeted by each performance. Occasionally, she dances only to entertain her 62

followers. Janemena organizes cash giveaways as a means of connecting with her followers even if they cannot be in the same physical location and to keep their loyalty as her success depends on their patronage and love.

In other posts, she plays around with her husband for the fun of it. Rather than perform for a large audience in physical spaces, the internet helps protect the sanctity of her space so that the line between private and public is blurred in these performances. Most of her routines are done in the safety of her home, on street corners with few audiences, possibly the camera man and a few others, compared to being on the stage with a male director and/or producer dominating the narrative. This is a chosen mode of delivering her performances. While Jane plays around with her sexuality, Debbie explores both her sexuality and youthfulness.

Pinkidebbie: Dance as a Form of Youthful Identity and Inclusion

For Pinkidebbie, dance was a hobby that was almost suppressed by her upbringing. Yet at twenty- two years old, she won the Guinness World Records title in 2017 for the longest dancing marathon by an individual. She went beyond Kaffy’s 57 hours to slam a total of 137 hours

(Wazobia TV). Born into a financially comfortable family, her father would have sponsored her to the highest level of education. Nigerian parents highly prioritize education as the greatest legacy to give a child. Therefore, Debbie was sent to Covenant University owned by Winner’s

Chapel Church in Nigeria, to have a smooth transition through college without the interruptions of the education system in Nigerian government schools. Most private institutions run a very regimented schedule with many restrictions on students’ freedom. In the interview with Wazobia

TV, she specifically said “you are not allowed to play secular song[s] or do anything secular.” It is mandatory to attend the institution’s place of worship, have certain curfews, and adhere to 63 certain dress codes. Despite her love for dance, this lifestyle coupled with the private life her family lived, cut her off from every form of social activity.

However, Pinkidebbie’s love for dance never ceased. In the same interview with Wazobia

Max TV she answered the question of the motivation to compete for the Guinness World Record category for the longest dance time:

The main reason behind me doing this is was not because I just wanted to do Guinness

world record …when I entered the dance, entertainment world exactly I saw some things

in the dance industry which I didn’t like…I realized that dancers were being treated in a

very funny way and dancers themselves don’t even know how to carry themselves and

another part is too many people have a lot of dreams talents they are waiting for someone

to give them the platform to do it, I just thought of it why don’t I just do something and

make people believe that you can create your own platform. [sic] (1:39-2:25)

The inscription “The Future is Female” on the yellow hoodie she wore at the interview says it all.

Leveraging what she loves, she is able to prove that platforms can be created outside the traditional hip hop music video that many dancers clamor for. This is a form of resistance to the hip hop industry mainly populated and regulated by male producers and artistes. The saturation of this space gives room to little or no negotiation, forcing dancers to settle for the crumbs in the industry. Still recovering from the fatigue of the feat, during the interview she asserts that “It wasn’t easy, it was rough, challenging psychologically.” (0:45-52). Hers is a story of perseverance, determination, and strength, debunking the stereotype of women as the weaker sex, physically and emotionally. This is a boost to the ego of every woman out there to pursue and persevere, to win as men cheer you on. Prominent male and female artistes came to support her as she danced on for almost six days. 64

In another interview with NaijaloadedTV in 2018, Pinkidebbie reminisced about the periods that led to her competing in the Guinness World Records competition. She recalled, “I was the one that ran everything all by myself, sponsorship, I didn’t have a manager, I wrote my proposals all by myself, so it was like I did this” (7:30- 7:59). When asked if she would love to work solo or sign with an agency, she chose the former. Gesturing with her hands across her neck, she implies her reluctance to deal with the challenges of being under an agency especially in her earlier reference to the disrespect with which dancers are treated within the industry. To buttress this point in her response to how artistes treat dancers in the industry, she emphatically calls it crazy.

She, also like Kaffy, had a fall out with her father over dance.

My dad is not a fan actually…NYSC was my breakthrough, it was then I was actually

able to break through …most times I was always indoors…my father got angry and threw

my stuff out of the house, he threw my awards away… He was like after I sent you to a

private school, spent money on you and he wanted me to go to Canada for my Master’s

…I was like just give me one year, let me just do this thing, I have passion for it …he

said no, that I cannot do it …actually, I had to leave the house. (5:57-59)

National Youth Service Corps (NYSC) referred to above is a mandatory one-year post- graduation service for Nigerian graduates. By default, students are posted out of the states and region to work and acculturate in other parts of the country. Here, away from the scrutiny of family and school, she was able to explore her talent. At the time of the interview, she was not speaking with her father, but she understands that she lives in a culture where a father’s blessing is important. She must win him over. Questioned on when she would reconcile with her father, she replied “actually soon, there’s no way, I need his blessings too, I know at the same time, I 65 was still able to send a message too.” Her mother on the other hand, has been her greatest fan, sometimes dancing with her. An example was posted on her Instagram page on September 13,

2020.

The location of her performances resonates with the traditional forms of hip hop. This highlights the significance of hip hop dance in Nigeria as a cultural form of expression that combines global forms and local aesthetics. Her Instagram handle @Pinkidebbie archives the different locations of her performances. Sometimes Debbie performs in her house, in clubs around the country, and in social events at higher institutions. Most performances are carried out on the street at bus terminals, on top of one of the parked buses and bikes, on street roads, median stripes, markets, roof tops, uncompleted buildings, poor neighborhoods, slums and anywhere that catches her fancy. She excellently recreates the freedom and risky attitude associated with youthfulness and hip hop. Forman in “Ain’t No Love in the Heart of the City:

Hip-hop, Space and Place” affirms that “space and place are important factors that influence identity formation as they relate to localized practices of the self” and that “hip hop is also part of the everyday practices and experiences of youths around the world as they combine its expressive forms with their own national and local inflections” (155, 157). As a conventional aspect of the hip hop form, Debbie courted the street for validation. Street dancing in Nigeria is a predominantly a male-dominated space. She understands the importance of breaching that space if she were to remain true to her desire of creating an equal platform for dancers.

Additionally, engaging with music artistes such as Zlatan and Naira Marley (Pinkidebbie,

Marlians) Wande Coal (Pinkidebbie, Congrats King Coal), who themselves are known street artistes, is a strategy of winning the street over. 66

Working with male performers, she does not seek to distance herself from the system of patriarchy, rather creating a space for herself in it. By dancing alongside renowned Nigerian male dancers such as Poco lee,( Pinkidebbie, Poco Lee) she is making a statement of inclusion, creating a level ground for both men and women to have healthy competition and collaboration.

On her Instagram handle, she performs on stage with male artistes and dancers, not in a show of sexuality but in a friendly feud of dance expertise. In the Interview with NaijaTV, Pinkidebbie emphasized the importance of confidence in the industry. She says “I believe you need to know your self-worth, first of all. That is key. When you know your worth, nobody will talk to you anyhow…and you have to be very confident” (18:45). Not intimidated by the mainly male- dominated dance space, she takes the stage and make it hers. Always performing at clubs and shows across higher institutions in Nigeria, she takes dance a step further as a characteristic of youthful exuberance- lively, restless, and always moving. She performs in countries like Dubai as an official choreographer in music festivals, a rarity for female dancers. (Pinkiedebbie, Pinki of Lagos)

Constantly aware of the importance of not just the physical location of the street but the people living there as well, she explores dance as a form of collective identity among the youth, who are her major audience. Through her #pinkidancechallenge, they are invited into

Pinkidebbie’s space. The dance challenge is of course a form of publicity for her brand but at the same time, an acknowledgement of the street. The soundtrack used for the challenge is copyrighted for that purpose using her voice as the voice over. The use of her voice is a stamp of authenticity representing her presence everywhere the dance is recreated. It is also an experiment of the level of acceptability she has herself received from the people. Besides her dance challenges, her monthly dance-off attracts youth who want to acquire the skill of dancing, most 67 of them minors and youth. Filled with the prospect of having fun, this group engages with the event. To them dance is a form of belonging.

From the costumes she uses in her videos, it can be ascertained Pinkidebbie is of a free spirit. Performing in different apparel styles ranging from sporty, traditional, girly, sexy, modest, manly, indicates her freedom to choose and change her identity at her will. In her Instagram post on February 24, 2021, Pinkidebbie is costumed as an elderly woman in a wrapper, long sleeved blouse, and head tie. Other times, she is in sweatpants or shorts, top, face caps and sneakers

(Pinkidebbie, E be things). Posted on July 13, 2020, Debbie performed in a golden sequined dress with heels while dressed as Michael Jackson in another post on April 13, 2020. Dressed in multiple ways implies that she not restricted by gender, age, or sexual orientations. Her message could be interpreted that dance is for everyone despite age, gender, or class.

Dancing to her is a way of telling a story. Referring to why she embarked on the

Guinness World Record attempt, Pinkidebbie says “this whole Guinness attempt is because I really want to tell a story… I want people to understand the way things are. There are so many people that are of my own caliber that are out there, they just need someone to just push them…”

She hopes to own the largest dance school in Africa to help boost the image of the dance culture.

Presently she has taken her dance tour to Dubai. A flyer posted on January 27, 2021 on her

Instagram page reads “Dance off with Pinkie Debbie Afro Dance class (Dubai Edition).”

Coaching monthly dance classes is one of her numerous sources of income. Extending her reach beyond Nigeria, she is creating an international presence for her brand. With over 900 Instagram posts, most of which are dance routines, Pinkidebbie has negotiated a favorable and well deserving space for herself in the dance industry. 68

Closing Remarks

Because academic research on hip hop dance is in its infancy in Nigeria, few academic

essays are available on the topic. The ephemerality of social media data such as an Instagram

story feed and WhatsApp status makes it difficult to cite and document conversations going on

through this medium. However, from their social media archives, I have analyzed what Kaffy,

Janemena, and Pinkidebbie, coming from different backgrounds do when they dance. From

coping with a stressful life, embracing feminine sexuality, expressing the vigor of youthfulness,

and creating a platform free of constraints from the laws of patriarchy, they present different

narratives about the dancing female body. As public figures and influencers, they promote

brands on their pages, model their own business, and keep creating more space for themselves.

They also mentor and coach other dancers in the profession proving that success can exist

outside of formal education. Debbie and Janemena are graduates of Covenant University and

Delta State University respectively. While Kaffy dropped out of school to manage her growing

brand which needed her undivided attention, an honorary doctoral degree was conferred upon her

by Escae-Benin University, all in Nigeria. Yet, they chose dance. Critics may argue that “sex

sells” but as this analysis shows, the success was not handed down on a platter of gold based on gender and/or class. They worked for it through discipline and consistency, in the face of heavy backlash, while embracing their femininity and sexuality.

Three, the number of dancers analyzed in this study, is a small number compared to the numerous dancers with an online presence. These three were selected across the board because of their unique experiences. Many dance schools are springing up and the dance industry is growing to a level where they can have a level bargaining position in the hip hop industry. So, 69 what do women do when they dance? They resist patriarchy, correct stereotypes, and make money, all while having fun. 70

CONCLUSIONS

Dance provides a form of social capital that originates in the youth subculture. Youth social capital in the Nigerian context includes vacations out of the country, connections to celebrities, a vibrant social media presence and followership, and attending international educational institutions. For the keen observer, having a Nigerian education is not listed above.

The education sector of the country is also a victim of the insecurity and social decadence that currently plagues my country. Young people are discouraged from following this path because of the vast number of under- and unemployed graduates. Though Kaffy, Janemena and Pinkidebbie are well educated themselves, dance provides an avenue to access this social capital without the pressure and disappointment of academics. Through analyzing their use of social media platforms, this study broached the possibility of interpreting dance differently from the view of sexualization that is replete in academic essays. Tricia Rose rightly observes that “popular culture in general and youth culture specifically, provide a space for young Black women to construct what can be seen as a counter-discourse of Black womanhood. Coming from an inherently Black female subject position, these performers are able to resist and delegitimize the oppressive and exploitative representations of Black femininity that pervade the public sphere”

(89). It would be-over ambitious to affirm the aptness of this assertion in its totality in the

Nigerian hip hop dance industry. However, it is practicable to read resistance in their performances.

This research also acknowledges that the forms of resistance adopted by these dancers are situated in a patriarchal framework. Driven by an underlying desire for freedom of expression, they are still bound by the forces of capitalism, which makes the argument of agency difficult to defend. For instance, Janemena still performs for both the male and female gaze even if in digital 71 spaces. Pinkie Debbie performs with renowned male dancers in clubs and shows, scantily dressed. Kaffy, though seemingly independent of supporting male figures, battles with marital challenges (Alaajoota 235), and it is culturally and religiously expected of a woman to hold on as long as possible in the face of these challenges, which may be fatal in unfortunate circumstances.

Without the autonomy the internet makes available, the success of these women might have been hampered. Having attained some level of success through their social media platforms, they are able to capture and negotiate the traditionally male-dominated physical spaces which include performing for live audiences or shooting a music video with producers, directors, and artists present. However, reinstating the argument, having such online spaces where they can own their mistakes, stigmatization, and successes in their various manifestations, attests to a high degree of agency. Agency is not just being able to speak for oneself, it also entails learning from mistakes and growing from them.

Sexualization operates as self-confirming stereotypical constructions that women act out due to a long history of misogynistic capitalism led by patriarchy. It is when the socio-economic struggle of the youths is addressed and when we dig deep into the contexts that breed certain representations that discussions about the non-sexualization of women can be productive. Until then, women will do anything, as they have always done, to provide for their families and themselves. It is when women transcend the threshold of fear of not being good enough, pretty enough, and independent enough that sexualization can be redefined. But enough for whom?

Only by addressing this question can we understand how hegemonic culture is internalized. In other words, until the economic injustices of Nigerian society, particularly for young people are addressed, women will have to live with profoundly entrenched patriarchal realities. Dance becomes the space for the expression of these insecurities caused by social problems and for 72

responding to them. Ginwright Shawn and Taj James identifies three levels of awareness

informed by the culture of hip hop: self, social, and global.

At the self-awareness level, young people use hip-hop culture to express pain, anger, and

frustration. At the level of social awareness, they use hip-hop culture to organize, inform,

and politicize at the community level… At the global awareness level, hip-hop culture

carries some possibility to unite youth through common experiences of suffering and

resistance. (91)

At the level of self-awareness, the dancers created a platform of self-redefinition and empowerment, at the social level, a blueprint for social change and collective reassertion of female agency, and at the global level, an export of Nigerian talent and a revised narrative about

African women’s docility and passivity.

It is ironic that people who call out women for being willing participants in hip hop objectification continue to uphold cultural and religious standards of female subjugation in the society. Historically, women’s resistance has remained constant but only complicated by the complexities of modernity. One complexity is how women, in this case, dancers, move in and out of the structures of patriarchy and misogyny, to create a space for themselves where they can be free—free from societal and gender expectations and financial constraints—using the unlimited opportunities availed to them by globalization, particularly social media. As a prominent feature of modernity, social media has proven to be a positive influence in addressing social issues. Porfilio et al affirms that “through social media, youth have been afforded the enhanced ability to engage in artistic performances and academic initiatives that facilitates understanding of what give rises to oppression and injustice, to build coalitions with youth across the globe who are also grappling with social inequalities, and to act inside and outside of their 73

social world in order to transform it” (101). The three dancers have a larger vision of trans

nationalizing dance and with the help of social media, their artistry has traversed the Nigerian

space. Pinkiedebbie leads dance classes in Dubai. Kaffy conducts dance classes for different age

groups on Instagram while facilitating talks on youth empowerment on her page. Jane works on

collaborating with other dancers internationally and expanding her fashion and beauty product

lines. A vexing question then would be, can the society ever be free of gender expectations? I

presume not, but absolutely believe gender expectations can become more flexible and malleable

to individual experiences and choices, rather than a rigid, one-size-fits-all template.

This thesis approaches the study of three female hip hop dancers in Nigeria using feminism to highlight ways of resisting patriarchy. Other areas remain to be explored. For further study, a wider range of ethnographic engagement with dancers across class, ethnicity and religion will give a fuller appraisal of the industry. Ethnographic research allows one to draw culturally significant insights from the people who comprise the communities under examination.

I would also suggest a comparison of male and female dances to ascertain if there is any form of inequality among them. Lastly, I would suggest a closer look into the relationship between dancers and music artists, the disparities in representation when a dancer performs for a female or male artist and modes of recruiting dancers for music videos. All these angles when combined will help set in perspective the positions of female dancers in Nigeria. In addition, by engaging dancers in academic discourses we communicate their importance. Furthermore, we highlight the social issues of greatest concern to women such as domestic violence, unemployment rates, the psychological effects of cultural confinement, the burdens of gender roles in Africa, Nigeria particularly, and dance as a form of escape. This knowledge can help in facilitating effective and 74 practicable policies for tackling various forms of social issues and injustices that youth in the country face on a daily basis.

75

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