How Davido's Song "Fem" Started As A Part Of The Feud Between Davido & Burna Boy & Became The Anthem For Nigeria's End Sars Protest Movement

Davido, September 10, 2020

****

Watch How EndSARS protesters shut Sanwo-Olu up with Davido's FEM, As They Block The Street

Gboah TV, October 14, 2020

****

Edited by Azizi Powell
This pancocojams post showcases the official YouTube video of Nigerian singer Davido's 2020 hit song "Fem" which was released on September 20, 2020.

This post presents some information about how that song was recorded as part of the feud between Nigerian singers Davido and Burna Boy and how that song became the anthem for the Nigerian youths' End Sars protests. The Addendum to this post presents information about End Sars.

The content of this post is presented for socio-cultural purposes.
All copyrights remain with their owners.
Thanks to Davido Boy for his musical legacy and thanks to all those who have been involved in the End Sars protest movement. Thanks also to all those who are quoted in this post and thanks to the publishers of these videos on YouTube. -snip- Click https://pancocojams.blogspot.com/2021/09/nigerian-singer-davido-fem-video.html for the closely related pancocojams post entitled "(Nigerian Singer) Davido - FEM (video, information, lyrics, & explanations)"

****
ARTICLE EXCERPT ABOUT THE BEEF BETWEEN DAVIDO AND BURNA BOY From https://clacified.com/entertainment/16/the-feud-between-davido-and-burnaboy-explained "FEM: The beef/feud between Davido and Burna Boy" by Franklin Izuchukwa, 2021-06-21 
"The relationship between Davido and Burna Boy has soured andis seemingly spiralling out of control. Find out what wrong between Davido and Burna Body, two top Nigerian singers.

There has been tension between Davido and Burna Boy, which has resulted in a series of beef and feud between the two. Davido and Burna recently clashed and exchanged blows in a Ghanaian club.

Many believe that Davido released the single FEM because of his haters, targeting Burna Boy.

Why Davido sang and released FEM

Obviously, Davido's latest hit song, 'FEM', is a direct reply to Burna Boy. The relationship between Davido and Burna Boy has been volatile for a while now.

Davido and Burna Boy have been quarrelling, and Davido's latest release, 'FEM', aims to reply to Burna Boy and score some points on the Davido and Burna Boy scoreboard.

Davido has been absent from social media since 3rd June 2020. He returned with his hit song 'FEM' on 20th September 2020.

In Yoruba language, Davido's native language, 'FEM' means 'Shut up.' Before the release of 'FEM', a short clip from the music video emerged on social media prompting fans to assume that the song will be titled 'Para'.

The anticipation was high because 'Para' means anger, reflecting the current climate - the beef or feud between Davido and Burna Boy.

Davido's 'FEM' targets Burna Boy

In 'FEM', Davido sang, “E be like you don dey talk too much, small talk you don dey talk talk, fem. O boy, you don dey do too much, small talk you don dey look who talk, fem…"

The obvious line that confirmed the song 'FEM' was a reply to Burna Boy was, “Then Odogwu say we ‘Like To Party’ just call me...” Burna Boy’s first single was the smash hit, ‘Like To Party.’ Burna Boy is also known as Odogwu about one of his single titled 'Odogwu.'

Burna Boy Calls out Davido

After Davido released 'FEM', Burna Boy had no plans of going numb; Burna Boy may have called out Davido on two of his songs, 'Way Too Big’ and ‘Nor Fit Vex.’

Burna Boy also appeared to reference Davido on two songs, ‘Way Too Big’, 'Real Life' featuring Stormzy and ‘Nor Fit Vex.’ The lyrics were filled with rants about a perceived unknown enemy he accused of being jealous of his success."... -snip- This article continues by citing various incidents that occurred between Davido and Burna Boy that supposedly caused or reflect these Nigerian singers' feud. **** EXCERPT OF AN ARTICLE ABOUT DAVIDO'S "FEM" SONG AND THE END SARS MOVEMENT From   https://www.okayafrica.com/protest-in-nigeria-davido-fem-anthem/ "How Davido's 'FEM' Became the Unlikely #EndSARS Protest Anthem" by Wale Oloworekende, Oct. 20, 2020 "When Nigerian youth shout the line "Why everybody come dey para, para, para, para for me"* at protests, it is an act of collective rebellion and rage, giving flight to our anger against the police officers that profile young people, the bureaucracy that enables them, and a government that appears lethargic.

Some songs demand widespread attention from the first moments they unfurl themselves on the world. Such music are the type to jerk at people's reserves, wearing down defenses with an omnipresent footprint at all the places where music can be shared and enjoyed, in private or in communion; doubly so in the middle of an uncommonly hot year and the forced distancing of an aggressive pandemic that has altered the dynamics of living itself. Davido's "FEM" has never pretended to not be this sort of song. From the first day of its release, it has reveled in its existence as the type of music to escape to when the overbearing isolation of lockdown presses too heavily. An exorcism of ennui, a sing-along, or a party starter, "FEM" was made to fit whatever you wanted it to be.

However, in the weeks since its release, the song has come to serve another purpose altogether. As young Nigerians have poured out into the streets across the country to protest against the brutality of the Federal Special Anti-Robbery Squad, known as SARS, "FEM" has kept playing with the vigour of a generational protest anthem. From Lagos to Abia to Benin and Abuja, video clips have flooded the Internet of people singing word-for-word to Davido's summer jam as they engage in peaceful protests. In one video, recorded at Alausa, outside the Lagos State Government House, youths break into an impromptu rendition of the song when the governor of the state, Babajide Sanwo-Olu, tried addressing them; chants of "O boy you don dey talk too much" rent through the air, serving as proof of their dissatisfaction with his response to their demands—and the extortionist status quo.

[…]

But the music of the protest is determined by the protesters and "FEM," itself an acerbic retort to questions of Davido's music credibility, keeps playing as youth march, demand, and disrupt to get a credible response to their demands for an end to police brutality. The reason comes down to its catchy rhythms and the song's unique ability to open its doors to young people everywhere as a vehicle for their own cathartic releases. When I ask Ugo Akachukwu why he thinks "FEM" has been playing at the protests he has been attending for days in Lagos, he opines that it is because Davido had been vocal about police brutality. "He has not hidden," Ugo tells OkayAfrica. "He has come out to contribute to #EndSars and he's said things that young people have found comforting and things like that give you cult status."

Ugo, crucially, also mentions the hook of the song and how it encapsulates the resentment of a generation of Nigerians who have grown up in a country on the brink of collapse with music and youth culture being one of the few saving graces. Buried deep into the biting chords and defiant messaging of "FEM," are hints of the author's own passive-aggressive resentment at factors beyond his control. Vexation at being slighted by his peers that straddles the lines of seriousness and over-thinking. When Nigerian youth have bellowed the line, "Why everybody come dey para, para, para, para for me," at protests, it has been an act of collective rebellion and rage, giving flight to our anger against the police officers that profile young people, the bureaucracy that enables them, and a government that appears lethargic, seemingly unmoved by the specter of death that looms over young people everywhere in Nigeria. Much like Davido keeps going back to that hook on "FEM," we return to it over and over, humming it, raising the question in our minds, feeling its potency percolate in our throats, and, finally, opening our mouths to sing it once again because the crimes and the censure Nigeria commits against its youths are too many.

To be young and alive in Nigeria, right now, is to be perpetually suspicious of self-displays that shatter the image of multi-dimensional poverty that the wider world—and some in the country—have of the country. To always recheck that you're not living in a way that calls attention to yourself. That is why "I dey live my life/ man dey turn am to shoot on sight" changing gear to "I dey live my life/SARS dey turn am to shoot on sight" feels like a release, an admission of how despite all attempts to thrive, Nigeria finds a way to strike a mortal blow.

Yet, for all of its unintended embrace of the #EndSars movement, "FEM" does not conform neatly to the hallmarks of the traditional Nigerian protest chants: it is a whirl of many emotions, joy and elation inclusive. And that is the true genius of "FEM" as a protest chant: giving unencumbered space to the fury of young people on one hand and acting as a salve to their hurt on the other. Not many songs from Nigeria in 2020 have done this on that transcendental level, and no song as seemingly unrelated to the subject matter of police brutality as "FEM" comes close to this feat of protest co-option.

Even Davido's closed-door meeting with the Inspector-General of the Nigerian Police Force last week, an avowal of the decentralised structure of engagement that has made #EndSars protests an unpolitical tool, has not diminished the sheer punch of "FEM." Admittedly, it wasn't made for times like this but it continues to, in the Nigerian protest music tradition of giving people words to line their mouth and something to keep spirits up when the physical exhaustion of protesting threatens to overrun them. In all of the videos of young Nigerians singing along to "FEM," the air becomes charged. There's elation. There's resistance. But there's release too, always release.".
-snip-
*Para is a Nigerian Pidgin English word that means "to get angry"

http://naijalingo.com/words/para#:~:text=Naijalingo%3A%20para-,Para,no%20wan%20para%20me%20o

**
"Fem" is a Nigerian Pidgin English word meaning "Be quiet! / "Shut Up!"
Read this comment from  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lta5go9P-go&ab_channel=DavidoVEVO [discussion thread comment]

Misidee, September 2020
"Fun fact: the word “fem” which was on the lips of every primary school teacher in the 80s and 90s in Nigeria is a shortened form of “ferme la bouche” - French for “Be quiet”. Teachers yelled “fem” at a sea of innocent young children with the customary finger on a lip to which the children yelled back the same.  I imagine most of the teachers didn’t know the origin. One of those things that became a part of the system without proper credit to its origin...🤣🤣🤣"
-snip-
Notice that during a scene in the official video for Fem (around ,24) , Davido and the other people on stage holds a finger in front of their mouth in the worldwide gesture for "Be Quiet" . 

****
ADDENDUM: INFORMATION ABOUT THE END SARS PROTEST MOVEMENT Excerpt #1 From https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/End_SARS "End SARS is a decentralised social movement, and series of mass protests against police brutality in Nigeria. The slogan calls for the disbanding of the Special Anti-Robbery Squad (SARS), a notorious unit of the Nigerian Police with a long record of abuses.[2][3] The protests which takes its name from the slogan started in 2017 as a Twitter campaign using the hashtag #EndSARS to demand the disbanding of the unit by the Nigerian government.[4][5][6] After experiencing a revitalisation in October 2020 following more revelations of the abuses of the unit, mass demonstrations occurred throughout the major cities of Nigeria, accompanied by vociferous outrage on social media platforms. About 28 million tweets bearing the hashtag have been accumulated on Twitter alone.[7] Solidarity protests and demonstrations by Nigerians in diaspora and sympathizers occurred in many major cities of the world. The protests is notable for its patronage by a demographic that is made of entirely young Nigerians.[8][9] The movement has since expanded to include demands for good and accountable governance."...

**
Excerpt #2 From https://www.amnesty.org/en/latest/campaigns/2021/02/nigeria-end-impunity-for-police-violence-by-sars-endsars/ "THE “SORO SOKE” GENERATION WON’T GIVE UP"
"The notorious Special Anti-Robbery Squad (SARS) in Nigeria has enjoyed impunity for the continued use of torture and other ill-treatment to execute, punish and extract information from suspects. More and more victims of the SARS have made the news these past years sparking each time a lot of indignation on social media and sometimes protests.

In recent years, the Nigerian authorities made promises to take care of the issue and disband SARS. However, the members of SARS continued to extort, rape, torture, and kill.

On 4 October 2020, a video went viral showing SARS officers dragging two men from a hotel and shooting one of them outside. A few days later, protests erupted across Nigeria. On 11 October, SARS is disbanded. But it was the 5th time since 2015 that the Nigerian authorities pledged to reform the police and disband SARS. Protests continued demanding more than empty promises.

On 20 October, the Nigerian army violently repressed a peaceful protest at the Lekki toll gate, shooting at the protesters and killing at least 12 people. Since that day, the Nigerian authorities have tried to cover up the events of the Lekki Toll Gate Shooting. They froze protests leaders’ bank accounts and fined news agencies who diffused videos of the shooting.

But the “Soro Soke” (“Speak up” in Yoruba) generation won’t give up the fight for justice. They demand answers."...

****
Thanks for visiting pancocojams.

Visitor comments are welcome.