TWERKING BANNED IN KENYA

After Tanzanian diva Sarah Kaisi aka Shaa released her somewhat raunchy Sugua Gaga chakacha track last year, her video became one of the most watched as the song took Africa by storm. The video is filled with dancers shaking their bottoms in a sexually provocative manner with suggestive writhing of bodies filling the dance floor. It is the twerk dance, the popular club rhythm that has every girl posting photos of herself doing the ‘wiggle wiggle’. But now, Shaa, and other Tanzanian artistes promoting the dance style have found themselves at loggerheads with the law after the country banned the dance last week. With the dance having become popular in Dar es Salaam and other major urban areas, the government is said to have become uncomfortable as some claimed it was too raunchy for innocent eyes. In fact, as early as last year, police in Dar es Salaam started a crackdown in entertainment joints, hunting for anyone doing a twerk, claiming that those doing the twerk were being targeted by rapists, muggers and criminal groups. “This has become a serious danger to our culture as it threatens the original dances which are our identity. The new generation will be filled with what they see now and may not be aware that there has been a real Baikoko for instance,” the country’s Director of Culture Development Prof Herman Mwansoko told The Citizen, referring to the name of a traditional dance from the northern Tanga region, which has also since turned raunchy. However, youngsters are turning defiant saying that twerk has always been there in Tanzania, the country many believe it actually originated from. Locals do claim that the dance is a new version of the old kigodoro dance. Twerking in Tanzania is said to be as old the country itself especially in Dar es Salaam and Tanga where it has been the show-stopper during weddings. Critics wonder why the government would blacklist the dance, a move said to have frustrated some showbiz stars, saying twerking has never been a big deal in Tanzania. In fact, a source claims that the original kigodoro had women stripping in entertainment joints and outings, something that passed for people having a good time. According to Shaa, the dance was originally performed by women, who usually wore shukas or kangas around their breasts and waists during weddings and other ceremonies. She says there is nothing new about the dance that involves the winding of the waist, which is common throughout Africa. However, Shaa’s modern twerking version has women putting more emphasis on their bottoms, just like is the case now with young people all over the world.

Locally, a Kenyan musician by the name of Blaqy, last year released a sexually provocative twerking video for his song ‘Show Me’ that the media has since declined to play. The video had semi-nude images of the then popular video vixen and socialite who regretted featuring in the video after she got saved recently. Since last year, twerking has become a showbiz phenomenon in pop culture with some critics saying that the dance promotes the objectification of black women’s butts. We see it in Taylor Swift’s Shake It Off’video as well as Nicki Minaj’s Anaconda video where she is seen doing nothing more than jiggling her flesh. According to The Guardian, a new report on sexism and racism in music published recently cites experimental research where viewers who watch hyper-sexualised music videos become more tolerant of racist and sexist attitudes; some are more likely to excuse a rapist’s actions. However, it remains a big debate as to whether twerking should be condemned as a whole.