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Fuji music in Nigeria: new documentary shines light on a popular African culture

Fuji music in Nigeria: new documentary shines light on a popular African culture

NIGERIAN singer Síkírù Àyìndé Barrister (1948-2010) pioneered fújì, a Yorùbá genre of popular dance music. In February 2024, historian Saheed Aderinto’s documentary on the musician’s life and times premiered. The Conversation Africa’s Wale Fatade asked Aderinto about the film and the music it brings to our attention. What is fújì music? Fújì fuses Islamic philosophy and wordsmithing with Yoruba poetry and meaning-making to create sound, idioms and recreational habits. It does this across social classes, from the wealthy in the corridors of political power to the poor at the fringe. Its messages, politics, performance styles, space and sophistication reflect a…
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Calm Down: how a Nigerian singer and a Cameroonian dancer inspired a powerful protest in Iran

Calm Down: how a Nigerian singer and a Cameroonian dancer inspired a powerful protest in Iran

ON 8 March 2023, five teenage girls uploaded on social media a video of themselves performing the Calm Down Dance Challenge. This is the choreography for the first verse of the Afrobeats hit Calm Down by Nigerian singer Rema (Divine Ikubor). Author ANANYA JAHANARA KABIR, Professor of English Literature, King's College London The girls were following people across the world who’ve made this dance challenge go viral for over a year by uploading videos of themselves dancing to it. With one difference, though: they were dancing in Iran, where it is forbidden to dance in public, especially without the mandatory…
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