If you are offended by the derogatory term used in the title of this article, please forgive me. I understand that some people are quite squeamish about this and though the word itself has now been bastardised to the point that its coarseness has attenuated, one cannot erase the origin of the word and the misogynist cloak of invisibility under which it is wrapped.
Unfortunately, it sits so well in the title and apart from elucidating the double-entendre which you will find out soon in the article, it also evokes the title of one of my favourite TV shows.
I’ve known Maahlox since 2008/2009. Long before “ça sort comme ça sort” hit the airwaves and turned him into a household name. Back then, he was still growing his dreadlocks and his videos, alongside that of a certain “Ninja de Bonas,” were shown regularly on Vision 4. Vision 4 was at the time a struggling TV station; a far cry from the Anti-Anglophone slash propaganda machine and the CPDM vuvuzela it is today.
But let’s not get into that.
We were living in the same neighbourhood and I saw him from time to time. His music at that time, like that of most Francophone rappers, was mostly an anti-system outcry. And then there was a long silence, and out of nowhere and without warning, a new Maahlox emerged - a brazen, provocative, outspoken and I daresay quarrelsome persona who says he uses the depravity in his music videos to mirror the vices of the society we live in, and also as a medium to cry out against these societal ills.
Let me repeat that: He says he uses the depravity in his music videos to mirror the vices of the society we live in, and as a medium to cry out against these societal ills. He considers his form of art as some sort of metaphor aimed at inspiring rather than considerably asphyxiating us more in this raw tobacco parlour we call a country.
Non mais, quel culot! Il ne faut pas qu’on se voilent la face.
This ideological stance is what I have a problem with. To me, that is straight-up intellectual dishonesty. The truth is, Maahlox found a formula that works fine for him. He has been able to capture an audience that revels in lascivious lyrics and for whom ‘un bon plantain’ snaps the picture of where they are intellectually.
I’m not saying everyone who listens to Maahlox is intellectually handicapped. No. I caught myself at a party dancing to ‘un bon plantain’ before I even knew what was happening to me. And as part of me was struggling with my personal convictions against that particular song and its crass lyrics, another part of me was caught in the fray of the devilish rhythm of that song as well as the closeness of the young lady who was gleefully grinding on my erect plantain.
It was as if I had a mutiny going on in my body.
What I am saying is; it is a mentally handicapped stance to support his claim that you are showing what is wrong with the society by actively taking part in it and that his music just simply strips down what goes on around us and shows it full frontal naked for all to see. And there are quite numerous, the people on his Facebook posts, who seem to blindly follow his ideas and constantly ‘like’ their way in support of him.
It is the one-two step approach that Maahlox seems to proclaim that I am totally against. If you are going to fight against something, then go out and stand against it. You cannot treat cancer by injecting a patient with polonium.
You cannot say you are leading the fight against the woes of society and yet hoe-ism is a central part of the product you package and sell.
Accepting that kind of rhetoric is dangerous. It has the potential to permeate and coalesce with every other thing that holds the fabric of our society together, and we know how much that fabric is worn-out and depleted already thanks mostly to the sweaty armpits of the CPDM people who do not know the use of soap.
Again, I am veering off the course.
The likes of corruption and nepotism might as well just continue if we fold our hands and say that is the way the Cameroonian society is set up and we should take part actively in it because we are showing the bad side of things and that a change should come quick.
Say na who go then bring about the change? Abeg wona tell me.
The truth is, Maahlox has found a niche market that works fine for him and pays him handsomely. At this point in our country, I don’t even know if I should call it a niche. Whatever the case, he has it going for him now and he has found an audience in the people who watch the videos and constantly write comments under his YouTube videos of the sort: Qui a mis un like avant meme de regarder la video?/ Maahlox je te donne les mains/ Le gars-ci a encore appuyé sur le bouton derangé.
The only thing I want from him at this point is to accept that that is how his bread is buttered and he can keep on splaying the slices of his audience’s ears (who so desire) with that musical spread.
I, on the other hand, am not fooled. And neither should you.
Ironically his artist name sounds like a medication one might find at a pharmacy. Something that could bring about some pain relief. But instead, it is NOT the panacea that we would want its tablets (music) to be. It is the other panacea - you know- African Panaxia, sold to us by dubious salesmen also playing the game of w(h)oes and ultimately giving us a product that will purge us to our intellectual and physical death.
- Wandji Wilfred
P.S: This article was originally posted on March 21st 2018. We have gained many new followers within the 8 months that have passed and since today is Thursday, we said why not throw it back a little.