Moment of Clarity, April 6, 2015: Nigerian (?) Soldiers Dance Skelewu

Screengrab from the Video

“Soldiers in Maiduguri, the embattled capital of Borno state, which has been under constant siege by Boko Haram, celebrate Nigeria’s election to music by Nigerian recording artist Davido” (via CCTV Africa):

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LIKH0IlBGdc

CCTV Africa sites top African footballers like Emmanuel Adebayor (is he still around?) and Samuel Eto’o for popularizing Skelewu beyond its Nigerian base. Davido’s official music video–posted on Youtube–has had more than 10 million views thus far when we checked earlier today). Skelewu “is variously said to refer to money, love or elation.” In any case, the video (UPDATE: which may be a few weeks old) is a neat bit of–unintended?–propaganda for Nigeria’s army assailed by the people it claims to protectin Western media media and by its neighbors for its seemingly inept reaction to Boko Haram. UPDATE: We were just informed those can’t be Nigerians–the patterns on their uniforms either indicate Cameroon or Niger and in any case, “no Nigerian would dance Skelewu so badly!”

Further Reading

The Mogadishu analogy

In Gaza and Haiti, the specter of another Mogadishu is being raised to alert on-lookers and policymakers of unfolding tragedies. But we have to be careful when making comparisons.

Kwame Nkrumah today

New documents looking at British and American involvement in overthrowing Kwame Nkrumah give us pause to reflect on his legacy, and its resonances today.

Goodbye, Piassa

The demolition of an historic district in Addis Ababa shows a central contradiction of modernization: the desire to improve the country while devaluing its people and culture.