Recreation and socialization as metaphors in Africa Every Day: Fun, Leisure, and Expressive Culture on the Continent
Emeka Aniago
Department of Theatre & Film Studies, University of Nigeria, Nsukka, Nigeria
e-mail: emekaaniago@gmail.com
AGATHOS, Volume 15, Issue 2 (29): 481-487, DOI 10.5281/zenodo.13954146
© www.agathos-international-review.com CC BY NC 2024
Oluwakemi M. Balogun et al. Africa Every Day: Fun, Leisure, and Expressive Culture on the Continent. 2019. Athens, OH: Ohio University Press. Pp. 371.
In twenty-nine chapters written by thirty-six authors, this book discusses select examples of the audience (rites of passage, theatrical performances, marriage ceremonies, sports) and non-audience (livelihoods, leisure, socializing, and friendship) orientated performances and everyday life activities respectively, from parts of Africa, grouped within seven parts.
In Part One, “Celebrations and Rites of Passage”, Erin Nourse in the beginning essay ‘Hosting a First Haircutting in Diégo Suarez, Madagascar’, describes aqiqah (a Malagasy Muslim baby welcoming ceremony) as a rite of passage and a symbolic cleansing, which purges any acquired negative influence from conception to birth, as an occasion of communal togetherness, solidarity, and conviviality. Nourse discusses how cosmopolitan environment influences propels the evolution of aqiqah. In the next chapter, ‘Ekún-ìyàwó: an African Bridal Shower in Yoruba land’, Abiola V. Ayodukun and Osuolale J. Ayodokun describe ekún-ìyàwó (a passage rite marking a transition from spinsterhood to wifehood among the Nigerian Yoruba) as a ceremony for socializing and merriment. They explained how factors/forces such as individualism, syncretism, lack of language competencies, and encumbering modernist religious doctrines propel the evolutionary trends in ekún-ìyàwó’s planning and performance process, even though ekún-ìyàwó purpose remains consistent. In Chapter 3, ‘Funeral Swag: A Celebration of Death in Urban Zambia’, Prince F. M. Lamba highlights the metamorphosis of urban Zambian funerals from somber to sites of ‘funeral swag’ defined by flamboyant socializing, merriment, elaborate spending, and decoration. ‘Funeral swag’, Lamba notes is a new and evolving socio-cultural phenomenon, which portrays an evolving worldview that is relegating Zambian traditional myths and beliefs about death and funerals. In Chapter 4, ‘Beyond Religion: Food, Decoration, and Songs of Egyptian Feasts’, Hadeer Aboelnagah, highlights how religious occasions (Ramadan, Eid al-Fitr, Christmas, Palm Sunday, and Shan al-Nassem), celebrated as periodic rituals, provide atmosphere and opportunity for conviviality, festive gatherings, massive homecoming, reconnections with friends and relatives, and celebration of creative arts (songs, painting, interior and exterior decoration, and dancing). In Chapter 5, ‘New Year’s Eve in Niamey, Niger’, the last in ‘part one’, Scott M. Youngstedt discusses how New Year's Eve in Niamey has transformed into an annual commemoration. He highlights its observation as a youth-driven night of heavy merriment, conviviality, and festivity, and the factors behind its beginning in 2005 and the opposition from the elderly, which has not whittled its growing appeal.
The second Part, “Socializing and Friendship”, includes: Chapter 6, ‘Tank Park’s Children: Recreational Activities of Namibian Children in Oranjemund during the 1980s’, by Martha Ndakalako-Bannikov, which is a recollection of her delightful leisure moments with her childhood friends playing at the ‘Tank Park’ in Oranjemund in 1980s. Her recollection includes childhood pranks, improvised games, and the nostalgia that intermittently emerges as they grow and disperse. Chapter 7, ‘Have You Been to All the Mall?’ by Deborah Durham presents big modern shopping malls in Malawi’s Gaborone as sites where residents seek tourist-like feeling and atmosphere, through in-shop sight-seeing, catching crowd warmth and spontaneity, and enjoy seeing people and being seen. The malls provide residents the opportunity to make friends, appreciate trends in fashion, and exchange stress and boredom with momentary warmth and positive distractions. In Chapter 8, ‘Sociality, Money, and the Making of Masculine Privilege in Nigerian Sports Clubs’, Daniel Jordan Smith evaluates sports clubs as attractive class-defined arenas for social bonding, the building of politically and economically valuable social networks by Nigerian elite men in urban areas. He relates how these clubs are leisure sites where tacit displays of influence, affluence, and status remain obvious. In Chapter 9, ‘Let’s Turn it Up: Effervescent Night Life in Nigeria’, the last chapter in Part 2, Omotoyosi Babalola analyses ‘to turn it up’ as a colloquial suggestion of drawing quality time, in loud music in Night Clubs and leisure/hang-out spots, mostly at weekends, after a week’s work, mostly by the young working class. This adventure includes enjoying a variety of food, dancing, listening to music, and seeing people in their colorful and varied night groove attire for purposes of putting aside worries and work until the next working week.
In Chapter 10, ‘Young Love: Dancing by the Light of the Moon in Tanzania’, the first in Part 3 “Love, Sex, and Marriage”, Dorothy L. Hodgson relates how youths in a remote Maasai community in dry Rift Valley of Tanzania engage in moonlight dance for leisure and love, which prepares them for cultural initiation and wedding. She examines how these celebrations provide opportunities for familial reunion and communal merriment. In Chapter 11, ‘Love, Play, and Sex: Polyamony and the Hidden Pleasure of Everyday Life in Kaoko, Northwest Namibia’, Steven van Wolputte discusses okuyepisa, a ‘wife-sharing’ or ‘wife-swapping’ culture among Namibian Himba tribe. He discusses the Church, government officials, and NGO’s description of Okuyepisa as disadvantageous and harmful to Himba women and girls, who embrace the tradition of choosing sex and marriage partners from their cross-cousins, and how both marriage and sex involve a multilevel friendliness. He highlights Himba women’s view on ‘wife-inheritance’ as a way of securing a widow’s livelihood and engagement in polyamorous sexual relationships as beneficial to people’s beauty and moral standing. Chapter 12, the last in Part 3, titled ‘Love in and after War: Courtship (Cuna) in Rural Acoliland, Northern Uganda’ by Lara Rosenoff Gauvin relates an account of cuna in postwar and post-displacement rural Acoliland, Northern Uganda, gathered through face-to-face interactions with Acoli individuals in Padibe Internally Displaced Persons (IDP) camp, between 2006 and 2008. She highlights the negative impact of civil war displacement and the context of sustained moralization by 'born-again churches' in IDP camps to the Acoli peoples' culture (tekwaro), particularly the cuna practice. Gauvin touches on how cuna influences intergenerational adherence with tekwaro by assessing the patterns of Acoli youths’ engagement in cuna in contemporary post-displacement and post-conflict Uganda.
Chapter 13, ‘Where are all the Women who Used to be Good Athletes in their School Days’, by Jacqueline-Bethel Tchouta Mougoué, the first chapter in Part 4 “Sports and Leisure”, reflects on the evolution of English-speaking Cameroonian women’s involvement in formally organized sports and informal exercise from the 1960s to 1970s. Mougoué highlights how sports, gender, and leisure co-relate in the focused region at the time under review, and how sports is a factor propelling a change in patterns of women’s social acceptance. In Chapter 14, ‘We are Building the New Nigeria: Lagos Boys’ Clubs, Leisure, 1945-60’, Michael Gennaro discusses the evolution of the Boys’ Club in post-world War II Nigeria, primarily focusing on Lagos Boys’ Club and its expansion beyond Lagos. He relates how the Boys’ Club served as a reformation forum where delinquents and wayward youths find opportunities to re-tool their lives through sports and wholesome friendships. Chapter 15, ‘Leisure, Resistance, and Identity Formation among People with Disabilities (PWD) in Ghana’ by Issahaku Adama and Akwasi Kumi-Kyerewe looks at the utilization of leisure spaces in Ghana by PWD as a changing social dynamics and challenge to subsisting negative socio-cultural stereotypes. The authors relate the positives of communal leisure participation amongst PWD and non-PWD as a cohesion-hosting platform, which enhances the livelihood of PWD amidst entrenched marginalization and exclusion. In Chapter 16, ‘Bit and Beats from Senegalese wrestling’, Cheikh Tidiane Lo, presents wrestling as a popular leisure in Senegalese urban culture, the difference, and the intersection between amateur and professional wrestling in Dakar. In highlighting the gender dimension, Lo focuses on the celebration of masculinity and the importance of women singers during contests.
In Chapter 17, ‘Sheng: Expressivity, Creativity, and Rebellion in Nairobi’ by Mokaya Bosire, first in Part 5, “Performance, Language, and Creativity” explores the use of sheng (a distinct urban vernacular in Nairobi) as a voice for Kenyan urban youth, as manifested in genge (Kenyan hip-hop) and poetry. From a linguistic perspective, Bosire examines the evolution of sheng, its reception, appeal, and functionality. Chapter 18, ‘The Journal Rappé: Educating the Youth through Senegalese Hip-hop’, by Maya Angela Smith describes ‘The Journal Rappé’ as that which represents a critical space in continuing a hip-hop legacy of civic engagement, using humor to offer different perspectives on how to address issues such as political corruption, poverty, and unemployment. Smith examines how Senegalese hip-hop artists Xuman and Keyti utilize music to relay important information to a traditionally underserved market, the significance of multilingualism in conveying their message, and their interest in challenging the dominant misery narrative about Africa. He describes hip-hop and ‘the Journal Rappé’ as innovative methods of knowledge production made possible by new technologies, which in turn give the audience access to information they might not themselves have, through a nuanced depiction of Senegalese life. In Chapter 19, ‘Teeth Appear Themselves: Laughter and Humor in East Africa’ Alex Perullo and James Nindi, relate the place of humor as an important form of social engagement in all human communities and how comedy is an integral part of life in Eastern Africa. They highlight how people use humor to relieve the pressures of everyday life, to communicate and connect with those who hold similar views, particularly, how humor helps urban dwellers in Tanzania to endure difficult and uncomfortable bus rides. They also touch on how the comical films of Tanzania’s foremost comedian represent a medium of entertainment in buses, at home, and in public film-viewing houses. They discussed polemics of humor, culture-specific semiotic denotations, urban dress anomalies, sexuality, marriages, and labor in Majuto’s comedy films. In Chapter 20, ‘Chilimika: Dancing in the New Year in the Nkhata Bay District of Malawi’, Lisa Gilman examines the relevance of Malawian chilimika (dance of the Tonga people), the evolutionary tendencies in costumes, steps, songs, and its relocation from its traditional roots to other places for other spectators. Gilman discusses how chilimika represents fun and liveliness, and how it provides an opportunity to celebrate the entering of a New Year. She advocates the need for government to assist in promoting and preserving chilimika. In Chapter 21, ‘Portrait of a Playful Man: Mustafa, Master of Mapiko’, Paolo Israel discusses the evolution of Mozambican mapikomasquerading (a dance) through the life story of one of its practitioners. Israel looks at the communal conviviality and entertainment, and how the period of freedom fight threatened the culture and its resurrection.
In Chapter 22, ‘Mobile Malawi and Everyday Handsets’, the first in Part 6, “Technology and Media”, John Fenn looks at how mobile handsets offer ready and reliable communication of extant values, practices, and creativity in Malawi. Fenn discusses how the ways users deploy mobile handsets have given rise to emergent cultural forms and habits that can augment and/or disrupt those already in place. He describes the mobile phone infrastructure in Malawi as that which influences everyday life in a range of ways and as a vehicle for creative expressions on the economic and socio-cultural landscape of Malawi. He touches on people’s utilization of mobile phones in the documentation of cultural events, learning of forgotten songs, and communication of culturally framed information and knowledge. In Chapter 23, ‘Meeting up at the Movies in Tanzania’, Laura Fair through interviews, colonial and postcolonial government official documents, and cinema records, examines the factors that made cinema attendance in the 1950s and 1960s the most popular pastime in Tanzania. She highlights the creative ways Tanzanians engaged with global films, how young people utilized cinematic space for distinctly generational pleasures, and how cinemas figured into romantic relationships. In Chapter 24, ‘Retelling the World in Swahili: Revisiting the Practice of Film Translation in Tanzania’, Bright Englert with Nginjai Paul Moreto discuss the translation of film language, from English language to Swahili in Tanzania for use in video parlors that people visit for relaxation. The chapter also examines the evolution of film language translation and its impact in video parlor customer attraction. Chapter 25, ‘The Listeners’ City: Radio, Congolese Rumba, and the Appropriation of Urban Space in the Belgian Congo in the 1950s’ (the last in Part 6), by Charlotte Grabli explores the history of radio as a social object related to music, place and territory, through archival research. The chapter looks at early colonial radio shows, and how listeners relate with the content and entertainment.
In Chapter 26, ‘Mechanical Expression in a Broken World: Repair, Fun, and Everyday Life Tanzanian Garages’, the first in Part 7, “Labor and Livelihoods”, Joshua Grace examines the origins of (buibu) ‘mute garages and mechanics’ and why their practice help unsettle the conventional wisdom about technology in independent Tanzania. This chapter highlights Africans’ ability to appropriate, modify, and express themselves mechanically through industrial products such as motor vehicles. In Chapter 27, ‘Male Friendship and the Writing Life in Dar des Salaam, Tanzania’, Emily Callaci looks at the history of Swahili detective novellas from the 1970s, how these works creatively borrowed from James Bond, Bollywood, Spaghetti Westerns, and Kung Fu films to offer a glimpse into the imaginations of young Tanzanians of earlier decades. Looking at the authors, Callaci explores the shades and nuances of the bond and friendship they shared and how their friendship bolstered their shared network and attendant gains. In Chapter 28, ‘Work and Happiness: Songs of Indigenous Ghanaian Fishermen’, Eric Debrah Otchere discusses how the music that accompanies the Ghanaian canoe fishermen’s work is of immeasurable value to their daily activities. Otchere elaborates on the poetic dimensions of the songs/music lyrics and their combination of linguistic and paralinguistic devices for social commentary, worldview projection, and leisure. Lastly, in Chapter 29, ‘Leisure at the Edge of Legality: Cannabis in Twentieth-century Swaziland and South Africa’, Bill McCoy discusses the sneaky growing of cannabis (dagga) in Mbuluzi Leprosy Hospital in Swaziland during the colonial era and its smuggling into South Africa. McCoy outlines the factors behind the cannabis cultivation in Swaziland, and the efforts of South African and Swazi governments to curtail the trade and consumption of cannabis, even though the usage of dagga during leisure and entertainment remains entrenched in both countries.