Edited by Azizi Powell
This pancocojams post provides information about the Ivorian singer/songwriter Meiway and showcases a YouTube video of his hit song "Miss Lolo".
Selected comments from the discussion thread of this video are included in this song, with particular attention to comments about Meiway's ethnic group Nzema (Nzima), also known as Appolo, and the traditional language of that ethnic group.
Some information about the Nzema language is included in the Addendum to this post.
The content of this post is presented for cultural, entertainment, and aesthetic purposes.
All copyrights remain with their owners.
Thanks to Meiway for his musical legacy. Thanks to all those who are quoted in this post and thanks to the publisher of this YouTube example.
NOTE: This song is about women with big breasts. For this reason and because of some scenes of dancing that would be considered "twerking" in the USA, this video may not be considered suitable for viewing in some public schools in that nation.
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INFORMATION ABOUT MEIWAY AND INFORMATION ABOUT HIS MUSIC GENRE "ZOBLAZO"
From https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Meiway
"Frederic Desire Ehui , best known as Meiway (born 17 March 1962 in Grand Bassam), is a singer from the Ivory Coast.[1] He is most notable for pioneering the Zoblazo style.[1] His hits include "Miss Lolo".
Meiway
Birth name: Frederic Desire Ehui
Born: 17 March 1962 (age 55)
Grand-Bassam, Ivory Coast
Genres: Zoblazo
Occupation(s): Singer/Songwriter
Years active:1989–present
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From https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Zoblazo
"Zoblazo is a musical style from Abidjan, Côte d'Ivoire, created in the early 1990s. It is a cosmopolitan popular dance music with simple up-tempo rhythm and high tech instrumentation and contains a mixture of traditional dance rhythms from southern Côte d'Ivoire.
Zoblazo's best known exponent is Freddy Meiway, who has released a series of Zoblazo records starting in 1989 with the record "Ayibebou" with his group Zo Gang. An ethnic N'Zema from Grand Bassam, Meiway integrated folk rhythms from Côte d'Ivoire and Ghana with and is danced to with a white handkerchief. From his second album in 1990 entitled 200% Zoblazo, Meiway became the second best known Ivorian and N'zema musician after Alpha Blondy, and has released a steady stream records, the most recent 9ème commandement –900% zoblazo released in 2007."
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SHOWCASE VIDEO - Meiway - Miss Lolo
Melynga Published on Dec 1, 2012
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SELECTED COMMENTS FROM THIS VIDEO'S DISCUSSION THREAD
These comments are presented in chronological order with the oldest comments by year given first, except for replies. Numbers are assigned for referencing purposes only.
1. Jennifer Peter, 2012
"Me and my sister listened to this when we was 2 years old"
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2013
2. Patrick Kwame Ankamah
"Abrobea star, dis guy throu his ghanaian background he's got our knowledge more without limited bcos he's got knowledge of both countrys ghana and cote d'ivoire.Anyway i like his music he's talented,.gud job bro."
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3. Ganiwu Dey Ymcmb Boss
"A Dey Feel This Song Soo Much"
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4. janetkissjanetkiss
"I like the fact that he singing about how much he likes women with big breast but yet it hasn't been sexualised . . . (if you know what I mean)"
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2014
5. OyOdiMe
"I'm Nigerian. I enjoy this song, but not sure if my ears are deceiving me, why does some of what he's saying sound like Twi (Ghana language, that I understands too)...."
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Reply
6. Denyse Adom
"its nzema and a lil french"
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Reply
7. LaKarwie94
"It's actually apollo. It's an akan group. The akans originated from ghana. That's why it may sound like twi a lot of akan people can understand twi because it's similar and vice versa. But there are differences though"
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Reply
8. LaKarwie94
"And some french in there because it's from Côte d'Ivoire and we speak french as the national language"
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Reply
9. Denyse Adom
"Apollo is the same as nzema"
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Reply
10. LaKarwie94
"+Denyse Adom are you aboure? because I'm aboure and when we talk about Apollo we say nzima. But most people know them as apollo."
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Reply
11. Denyse Adom
"I am an akan from Ghana specifically nzema my grandmother used to call it Apollo that's why I think it's the same"
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Reply
12. Modeste Faton
"+Denyse Adom ada ada"
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Reply
13. Marvel Hammond
"He is actually Ghanaian Ivorian ))"
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Reply
14. ThaCuteOne __
"+Marvel Hammond you're right i think he is im ivorian"
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Reply
15. James Dadzie
"He was born in a part of ghana where the language spoken is Nzema. That language is a dialect of the Akan language which includes twi.....so there u go"
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Reply
16. ThaCuteOne __
"+LaKarwie94 im aboure aswell!!"
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Reply
17. A. Lionel C. Kouadjani, 2015
"+OyOdiMe
It is the same linguistic root even there share the same tradition. Ashanti empire"
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Reply
18. ThaCuteOne __
"ohhh thanks. I was wondering why i could understand some of their words."
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Reply
19. R.G.A.vlogs, 2016
"He's Ghanaian and Ivorian"
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Reply
20. Nick Pop, 2016
"Meiway is purely Ivorian, it's just that some ethnic group in Ivory Coast are Akan and have a similar culture as Ghanaians and are originally from the Ashanti Kingdom."
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21. shona rose
"Iam from DRC ,but i love this song so much even if i don't understand what they are saying ,but whenever i listen to it i feel goose pimples and i do believe as they say that music has no border"
-snip-
"DRC" = Democratic Republic of the Congo (Congo Kinshasa)
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Reply
22. Manni Dennis, 2015
"That's that African Pride...we ALL have them 😂 1⃣❤️Mama Africa"
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23. saneba whyte
"Ghanaian based in ivory coast...
.the language is French and Nzema mostly"
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Reply
24. pinkrose4446
"We all know he's Ivorian"
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Reply
25. Yaw Antwi, 2017
"Meiway dad is Ghanaian"
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Reply
26. BAM BOUM, 2017
"NO MEIWEY A DAD IS BéTé and MOTHER IS APPOLO is CONTRY in IVORY COAST 100%"
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27. isaac owusu ansah, 2015
"Ghanaian from kumasi ashanti Region but currently Live ASIA...i am understand some on this language...onyame nhyira wo paa...ghana twi language, mean may god bless you alway,s love it."
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2016
28. Joseph Amosu
"What country is this man from 😊 can some one please tell me?"
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Reply
29. Félix Dasylva
"Ivory Coast"
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Reply
30. beats lover
"he is ivorian born from nzema tribe of ghana and ivory coast.. the akan nzema ppl stretch thru ivory coast too."
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31. Sekou Sacko
"Super cool je aime ça"
-snip-
"je aime ça" = (French) "I like this".
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32. romuald dadios
"good song bro meiway
lolo is breast"
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33. griiffin wafula
"am from Kenya but I love this song, even though I don't understand the words. what is lol?"
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Reply
34. Julien
"griiffin wafula they are Talking about Boobs of the ivorian womens"
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35. Kwame Nyame
"It's funny how colonialism can separate groups of people and families. Ivorians say Niamen (something like that) Ghana say Nyame
Kouasi = Kwesi
Koffi = Kofi
I can go on and on. And for a while i thought we were completely different people, because they are heavily influenced by France and Ghana Britain .
I can pick out some words that he is saying (not the French though)"
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Reply
36. BRENDA BROWN
"kwame while I agree with you,I think there is still a difference between Asantes and Nzema concerning words so even if there were no partition of Africa ,there would still be that difference😊"
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Reply
37. Kwame Nyame
"BRENDA BROWN totally agree but definitely can say that we are all Akan people and for a while I thought only Ghana had Akans"
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Reply
38. BRENDA BROWN
"+Kwame Nyame haha ohk yeah. it is just that the akans makes a bigger part of the population"
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Reply
39. Malika Silla, 2017
"Kwame Nyame
We say kouamé, Kouao, Kouassi, Kassi, Yao, assemoi, assamoi...
Do you Ghanaians have a word like yako?"
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Reply
40. Kwame Nyame, 2017
"Malika Silla I'm sure we do, but I probably have to hear the pronunciation to determine. We read things in an English way and Ivorians in a French way. Like Assamoi = Asamoah
Yao = Yaw
Kouamé = Kwame (my name 😁)"
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Reply
41. Kwame Nyame, 2017
"Malika Silla like my name would be Kouamé Niamen = Kwame Nyame"
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Reply
42. Malika Silla, 2017
"Kwame Nyame
In Ivory Coast we say yako to someone who is feeling or felt pain. It may be physically as well as inside."
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Reply
43. Kwame Nyame, 2017
"Malika Silla hahaha yes we actually do say that to someone not feeling well. Mainly used when someone has lost a loved one we say it Yaako.
I am totally loving this."
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44. AY Blackie
"😂😂😂😭 Am I the only one hearing twi words in this song? "wo nofo bebrebe"."
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Reply
45. ahmmsh
"The whole east half of Ivory Coast speak Nzema (Nkrumah's people), Anyin, Baule and Fanti, so they are definitely Akans. Believe me, they can understand Twi but they pretend in front of Ghanaians haha. Like Togolese people all speaking Ewe, or Burkinabe people speaking Mole-Dagomba and Frafra.. It's just colonial borders, they used to all be under Asanteman and Dagbon Empire before Britain and France colonised the place and divided it."
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Reply
46. AY Blackie
"+ahmmsh Good info. Thanks."
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Reply
57. beats lover
"this language is the akan nzema of ivory coast and ghana.. he is nzema man of ivory coast.. from akan tribe that stretches thru ghana and ivory tribe.. nice one"
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Reply
48. beats lover
"nzema ppl are akans.. most part of ivory coast was for gold coast till french bought the lands from british.. which means many ghanaians living on that land became ivorians .. thats why nzema ppl r in ivory coast too.. freddy is on nzema man"
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49. George Obah
"What year was this video shot, noticed all the ladies are on wrapper, no trouser, not even one lady"
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Reply
50. Rachel van der Acquah, 2017
"George Obah 2002"
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2017
51. Marise Mendes
"J'aime bien cette chanson mais j'ai ne suis pas de la côte d'ivoire qlqu'un peut il me dire ce qu'il est entraint de dire merci beaucoup"
-snip-
(Google Translate from French to English)
"I like this song but I'm not from the Ivory Coast ql can anyone tell me what it is he has to say thank you very much"
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Reply
52. kassy ebah
"Marise Mendes il dit qu'on va pas à la chasse pour chercher des os mais plutôt de la chair ou viande si tu veux..."
-snip-
(Google Translate from French to English)
"Marise Mendes says that we do not go hunting to look for bones but rather flesh or meat if you want"
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Reply
53. Marise Mendes
"kassy ebah merci beaucoup de la part de congolais de la RDC👋👋👌👌"
-snip-
(Google Translate from French to English)
"Thank you very much from the Congolese part of the DRC"
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54. aaye aaye
"il chante en quelle langue? c'est quoi son groupe ethnique?"
-snip-
(Google Translate from French to English)
"He sings in what language? What is his ethnic group?"
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Reply
55. kassy ebah
"aaye aaye en apolo akan"
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ADDENDUM - INFORMATION ABOUT CENTRAL TANO (AKAN) LANGUAGES AND THE NZEMA LANGUAGE
From https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Central_Tano_languages
"The Central Tano or Akan languages are languages of the Niger-Kongo family (or perhaps the theorised Kwa languages[2]) spoken in Ghana and Ivory Coast by the Akan people."
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From https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nzema_language
"Nzema (Nzima), also known as Appolo, is a Central Tano language spoken by the Nzema people of southwestern Ghana and southeast Ivory Coast. It shares 60% intelligibility with Jwira-Pepesa and is close to Baoule."
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