I really don’t like twerking videos. I don’t care for them. I also don’t understand them. And this quarantine period and Instagram lives have pushed the whole culture of twerking a little bit too far, in my opinion. It has also left me a bit even more confused about this whole body shaming/ body positivity/ her-body-her choice/ objectification of women – debates which I have had with some feminist friends.
I mean, asking us to respect and not objectify a woman’s body, then coming to thrust your oiled buttocks into our faces on Instagram live is the most ambiguous thing I can point out in this whole issue.
Or na say na me I no di wise ooo, I no know.
That’s why I was a little bit disappointed when two weeks ago, Blaise B hosted an IG live and this girl came on and started twerking and I found it absolutely ridiculous. This is where some woke person might jump in to say – his Instagram, his choice. If you don’t like it, go somewhere else - :but let’s not go there today.
The thing is, I just feel like it wasn’t Blaise B’s brand. He’s never been that person; publicly anyway. I have watched Tory Lanez’s “Quarantine Radio” and that of some other Nigerian musician whose IG lives are essentially built around women twerking in the most graphic manner. One of the women, in Nigeria, actually put a cucumber into her vagina. I’ve seen how these guys host these things; their mannerisms, their diction, and a whole cornucopia of things that go into it.
Blaise B, seemed ill at ease. You could tell that he was very likely asking himself why he was doing it. But hey, Everybody else is doing it, right? Why not he?
Luckily, this article is not about His Vocal Highness, Blaise B. And I'm sure other things came up during the live. I just chose to talk about this one thing.
This article is about us, Cameroonians, and our propensity to copy what is popular. I have noticed that once one person in Cameroon does something – usually a business that works well or that seems to do so, everyone else wants to do the same thing. The EXACT same thing.
Someone called it “Le Syndrome du call-box.”
That is a very befitting name. Why? Because it captures two things. The philosophy and the business model.
For the part that is the philosophy, it has to deal with the limitedness of our range of thinking – how far we stretch our mind to think about what and where we can invest our time and money into. There was a time when call-boxes were the way to go. Everyone that had a little capital wanted to do call-box business. Even when it became far less profitable, the popularity has not really waned.
As far as the business model is concerned, people do not/hardly think innovation or perhaps scalability when copying. When we do, we often overprice it and make it seem elusive and shut a lot of people out of it.
Think about it. Look at the entertainment blogs we have here, look at how everyone seems to be doing the exact same thing. And a new one adds every day. Look at how many bars are opened every day, each one looking like the next. I have a friend who once joked that every girl in Buea is either an actress, a model/video-vixen, or a make-up artist. I laughed but it wasn’t really a laughing matter
Another very recent example is the King Kong Gang. Arguably the most ridiculous thing the internet has birthed this year since the coronavirus conspiracy theories started flying around. It’s no secret that Jovi and Stanley Enow fans are at each other’s throats. But for the latter to replicate what the former has been doing, even down to basically copying the name is something which I just don’t get.
I can’t blame the call-box people, really. This country is tough. It is not easy. Investment capital is hard to come by and sometimes you are left to doing the best you can and the easiest way out is often the closest thing you can find next to you.
But the underlying principle remains the same. I think I mentioned something similar in my article n Manu Dibango when I said we have a monochromatic view of what investments are/should be; land and real estate. We don’t see culture as a very viable and profitable area for investment but that is another whole topic.
It also hurts that this is not something that you would think happens to poorer people only because of their lack of access to capital. Rich people suffer from it too. It’s a problem of mentality. We have to stop thinking laterally and start thinking more broadly.
There is nothing wrong with copying. There is a wrong when we cannot broaden the concept and innovate in a way that the copied product looks like an entirely new one.
At least, Blaise B is doing that with his productions.
- Wandji Wilfred.