Edited by Azizi Powell
This post provides a portion of the comments in a sub-set of the discussion thread for Tiwa Savage's (Nigerian) Afrobeat video "Eminado". Commenters in this sub-set wrote about the subject of the influence of African Americans on African cultures and the subject of African and African Diaspora unity.
Tiwa Savage's video is also embedded in this post.
The content of this post is provided for cultural, sociological, entertainment, and aesthetic purposes.
All copyrights remain with their owners.
Thanks to Tiwa Savage for her musical creativity and thanks to all those who are featured in this video. Thanks also to all those who are quoted in this post. Also, thanks to producer/s of this video, and the publisher of this video on YouTube.
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SHOWCASE VIDEO: Tiwa Savage Ft. Don Jazzy - Eminado [Official Video]
officialtiwasavage,Published on Nov 4, 2013
Music Video by Tiwa Savage "Eminado"
© 2013 323 ENTERTAINMENT. MAVIN RECORDS
-snip-
This video begins with the explanation that "'eminado' means
goodluck charm."
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SELECTED COMMENTS FROM VIDEO'S DISCUSSION
As of September 5, 2015 at 12:38 PM EST, Tiwa Savage's "Eminado" music video that is embedded above had 11,401,951 viewer hits and 2,667 total comments.
The thirty three selected comments that are presented in this pancocojams post are given in relative chronological order based on their posting date. It should be noted that these comments represent less than half of the sub-set of that particular discussion on the subject of the influence of African Americans on African cultures and the subject of African and African Diaspora unity. As of September 5, 2015 at 12:38 PM EST there were 63 replies to the first comment in that sub-thread. That comment is given as #1 below.
I've assigned numbers to these comments for referencing purposes only.
1. Saudi Baskerville, February 2015
"I can so clearly [see?, tell?] how African American culture influences African culture and vice versa. It's beautiful. We are one in the same. Love us all!!!"
-snip-
The words in parenthesis are my guesses about the word that is obviously missing in this sentence.
**
2.Xstolynne a, March 2015
"Sorry but Nigerian culture is different from AA CULTURE, PLEASE STOP THE COMPARISON, THIS SIMPLY CALLED AFROBEATS"
**
3. Saudi Baskerville, March 2015
"Never said it was the same. I see the difference, I hear the difference, I know they're different, however we are connected in ways more than one and it's evident."
**
4. Xstolynne a, March 2015
"Oh ok, because a lot of people try to discredit Nigerians and their music...Anyway One love."
**
5. Saudi Baskerville, March 2015
"Lol na I'd never do that."
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6. The Flying KIwi, March 2015
"[profanity deleted] off lol. In African American culture, you don't value the "light skin" counterparts of your women Blackmen seem to worship.. Never mind the dark black women. They are strippers, bi&&hes* and hoes.
African American culture is an infection and burden that has encroached on the innocent African values. If you watch African music videos they typically involve the man adorning and exalting the woman. Not a trophy, a piece of flesh or sex object to show how much money they earn.
African American music these days is a disappointment and it pains me to see so more and more African artist trying to pick up this illness just to appeal to the masses...relegating and pulverising the good in black people just to make some money. Pathetic.
-snip-
*This word is fully spelled out.
**
7. Christine Freeland, April 2015
"Lol, +Saudi Baskerville I get where you're coming from with your comment and I completely agree with you. It's truly an awesome thing to see how our arts and cultures influence each other and we're all beautiful people!"
**
8. okuomose okuns, May 2015
"+Saudi Baskerville African Americans have at least 73-85% African DNA. Well to me that makes them African.."
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9. Dulce Pero Negrita, May 2015
"+okuomose okuns African descent,yes...African, no"
**
10. The Flying KIwi, May 2015
"+okuomose okuns s "73-78%" in that case which Alien species should be held accountable for the 28-22% if DNA??
What sort of broscience is this lol..."
-snip-
"broscience" = brother science (implying that it's science that is made up by a Black man or Black men from the streets.)
**
11. okuomose okuns, May 2015
"+Jabbari A Real Ni&&a* Who Likes Hugh Jass
Neanderthal genes."
-snip-
*"Ni&&a" is my way of writing this short form of the n word. That word is fully spelled out in that screen name.
For greater clarity, I seperated the comment from the screen name.
The name "Jabbari A Real Ni&&a* Who Likes Hugh Jass" links to a page for the blogger who also posted in this discussion under the name "The Flying KIwi". I haven't found any comments in that thread which are posted under the "Jabbari" name. Those comments may have been deleted.
Okuomose okuns and The Flying Kiwi (also posting under the name "Jabbari") exchange additional comments about the DNA of African Americans. The Flying Kiwi (Jabbari) wrote that Europeans have very little Neanderthal DNA and African Americans even less. Okuomose okuns wrote that African Americans have African and European DNA, implying that his Neanderthal comments were a slur on Europeans.
**
12. okuomose okuns, May 2015
"+Jabbari A Real Ni&&a Who Likes Hugh Jass
African American music is global you cu&t*!"
-snip-
*This profanity is fully spelled out in this comment.
For greater clarity, I separated the comment from the screen name.
This comment appears to be in response to a comment from Jabbari which has been deleted.
**
13. okuomose okuns, May 2015
+Jabbari A Real Ni&&a* Who Likes Hugh Jass
"They brought nothing but weaves, stripping and swearing..To me that's bad influence.."
-snip-
Given the context of this sub-thread, I believe "they" in this sentence refers to African Americans.
I also believe that the sentence "They bought nothing but [hair] weaves, stripping and swearing" is a quote from Jabbari's comment and the sentence "to me that's [a] bad influence" is okuomose okuns' reply to that quote.
**
14. Saudi Baskerville, May 2015
"Sam, I don't appreciate your attempt at trying to make it seem like I dnt know history. Anyway, you do have a point, as far as so much of culture in general having been originated in Africa. People were stolen from Africa, so obviously that included music, language, food, everything! The diaspora is massive and so is the influence. I'm not attempting to discredit anyone or anyplace however if you were smart enough, you'd know that influence isn't a one way street"
-snip-
I'm not sure which blogger is named "Sam". "Sam" might be the blogger who posted under the name The Flying KIwi (Jabbari) or the blogger who posted as okuomose okuns.
Part of the difficulty with reading YouTube discussion threads is that bloggers sometimes use more than one name in the same discussion. Sometimes this is due to YouTube's policy or practice of encouraging bloggers to use their "real names" instead of a screen name. When bloggers consent to this change, YouTube changes all of that blogger's previous comments to his or her "real name". However, that policy or practice doesn't appear to apply to this reply to "Sam". Nor does that policy/practice seem to apply to the comments that are attributed to The Flying Kiwi (Jabbari), some of which are missing from this discussion thread.
**
15. Saudi Baskerville, May 2015
"Jabbari, me speaking my opinion was never in hopes to change yours or anyone else's. However, I find that are you defending innocence and a certain level of respect, that I too would agree is importance, meanwhile you're cursing, calling names and down talking an entire race, that one way or another stems from Africa. I suggest you open your mind to different genres of music bc right now you sound silly speaking so boardly "
**
16. Saudi Baskerville, May 2015
"There will never be peace w/ all this finger point. And regardless of what's brought to the table, you decide what you eat."
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17. DKhisa, May 2015
"+Saudi Baskerville please ignore the ignorant africans not all of us think like that about African Americans , dont forget there are over a billion people in africa and in that billion you'll always find divisive morons like dont let his race comments get under your skin either, just like you have ignorant african americans we got out ignorant disgusting rude africans too nothing personal and doesent in anyway represent the whole continent as a whole, most of us are welcoming and dont spew nonsense like neanderthal genes or whatever that clown is talking about"
**
18. DKhisa, May 2015
"+Saudi Baskerville and hopefully his disgusting comments dont shy you away from listening to more african music and learning more about your african ancestors [.] you are always welcome in Kenya and i always respect african Americans who have a yearning to learn about african culture but get pissed of when ignorant Africans attack them for no reason [.] [profanity deleted] people like him [.] remember dont feed the troll and only you have claim to your african heritage not him or anyone else and he cant take that away from you [.] its in your blood and is as much yours as it is his [.]
-snip-
I added the periods in brackets to enhance reader clarity.
**
19. BluesInMySoul, May 2015
"+okuomose okuns Who brought weaves ?? Are you kidding me. I live in a community of West Africans from many different countries 90% of them wear horrible weaves down to their butts and bleach themselves until their skin looks red, raw, and sickly. They look like the walking dead!"
**
20. BluesInMySoul, May 2015
"+Saudi Baskerville The most disgusting and despicable aspect of this thread is the amount of idiots trying to differentiate between AA and African while Europeans are destroying Africa and America. But dumbasses are so busy trying to describe why we are so different while the rest of the world depicts us ALL as savages. Stop the madness. FOOLS in the worst way."
**
21. Saudi Baskerville, May 2015
"@bluesinmysoul I'm so glad you spoke on what's real. It seems like every time I get a comment in response to my post, I'm fighting with someone just for them to understand very obvious things. You're so right. There's a war on all of us."
**
22. DKhisa, May 2015
+Saudi Baskerville
"it's not a war on yal(African Americans) black people do this to each other all the time if you look at many African Videos i am sure by now you will see theres no unity and youll always find nigerians attacking ghanaians vice versa its a black issue sadly black people in general can be each others worst enemy look what happened in South Africa"
**
23. DKhisa, May 2015
+BluesInMySoul
"blame in on Colomentality as Fela Kuti called it it's not Africans attacking AA it's black people attacking black people because even in Alot of these video threads theres lots of nationalism and hate towards other Africans by Africans from different countries .btw im African and i dont take sides"
**
24. DKhisa, May 2015
+BluesInMySoul
"and i agree here in Africa we are suffering from a bleaching self hate and weave problem in America it's hair and colorism ..black people need to wake up on both fronts"
**
25. Saudi Baskerville, May 2015
"You are correct. It's heartbreaking"
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26. Saudi Baskerville, May 2015
"And very dangerous"
**
27. Mamie Quiah, June 2015
"U are right sister"
**
28. Anthonia Orji, July 2015
"+DKhisa I love all my pan Africans all over the disporá but sometimes I get frustrated with some. We need globally unity for all black people instead of focusing on all the things that divide us. I still love them though I just keep praying for them."
**
29. Saudi Baskerville, July 2015
"Def, I feel what you're saying. And for every subculture of our diaspora, even if we are united, we have to be sure that unity is positive"
-snip-
"Def"= definitely
**
30. Anthonia Orji, July 2015
"+Saudi Baskerville
exactly"
**
31. U-n-I Survive, August 2015
"+The Flying KIwi You name all of the negative aspects of African American culture, and yes, there are negatives, but what about the positive aspects? What about Afro-Americans giving the world Blues, Jazz, Soul, R&B and Hip-Hop? What about Charles Drew (an African American) whose research on blood plasma led directly to the worlds first blood bank (many of which have been replicated in Africa). What about Jesse Russell, who's patents in digital cellular communication led to the world's first cell phone? What about our ancestors (MLK, Malcolm X, Medgar Evers) spilling their blood so that black people from all over the world could come to America, have access to a world class education, and provide a better life for their children? Oh, how quickly we forget..."
**
32. Saudi Baskerville, August 2015
"nice"
**
33. collins raji, September 2015
"Africans must units"
-snip-
"Units" is a typo for the word "unite".
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EDITOR'S COMMENT
In addition to the "Afrobeat" rhythm, the Nigerian influences in this video include the females in this video who wear traditional Nigerian clothing (including head wraps) and the males who wear traditional Nigerian clothing. Another example of this video's Nigerian influences is the custom of spraying money that the boy is shown throwing at 2:46 in this video.
Pancocojams has several post about the custom of spraying money. Visit http://pancocojams.blogspot.com/2011/09/pinning-birthday-dollars.html for one of those post.
The American influence is partly shown in some of the clothing and in the straight hair styles (wigs or weaves) that the singer wears. The large afro wig is an example of the African American influence. The inclusion of scenes in this video where Tiwa Savage wears her hair in a large 'fro demonstrates the influence that African American womens' natural hair movement is having in Nigeria.
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