Hugo Robin de Celis
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The Cameroonian lyrics for this song are included in this video's summary.
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Statistics as of February 2, 2022 at 8:54 AM ET
total # of views-1,088,389
total # of likes - 25K
total # of dislikes -This feature is no longer working.
total # of comments -2,048
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SHOWCASE VIDEO #2:
Shakira - Waka Waka (This Time for Africa) (The Official 2010 FIFA World Cup™ Song)
Shakira, June 4, 2010
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The lyrics for this song are included in this video's summary.
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total # of likes - 16M
total # of dislikes- This feature is no longer working.
total # of comments- 1,182, 860
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Edited by Azizi Powell
This is Part I of a three part pancocojams series on the Cameroonian song "Zangalewa".
This post showcase a video of the original 1986 "Zangelewa" song and video of the 2010 "Waka Waka (This Time For Africa)" song.
This pancocojams post also presents some information about the songs "Zangalewa" and "Waka Waka (This Time For Africa".
Click https://pancocojams.blogspot.com/2022/02/what-1986-cameroonian-song-zangalewa.html for Part II of this pancocojams series. That post showcases a clip of the original Zangalewa video and documents some online comments that provide English translations for some of that song's lyrics.
Click https://pancocojams.blogspot.com/2022/02/some-childhood-memories-of-song.html for Part III of this pancocojams series. That post showcases a video of Kenyan comic Zangalewa entertainers. That post also presents a compilation of comments from various YouTube discussion threads about commenters' memories about the original "Zangalewa song" or covers and reinactments of that song prior to Shakira's 2010 performance of the song that she calls "Waka Waka" (This Time For Africa)".
All copyrights remain with their owners.
Thanks to all those who are associated with these videos. Thanks also to all those who are quoted in this post.
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INFORMATION ABOUT THE ORIGINAL ZANGALEWA SONG
Excerpt #1
The original article that is quoted below includes a YouTube video and two illustrations. However, a YouTube video that was embedded in that article is no longer available (as of Feb. 2, 2022).
From https://afropop.org/articles/anatomy-of-a-song-zangalewa-from-african-protest-into-multiplatinum-pop
dj henri, November 5, 2020
Anatomy of A Song: “Zangalewa” From African Protest into
Multiplatinum Pop
“Think “I-Feel-Like-I’m-Fixin-to-Die Rag” by Country Joe
McDonald in 1967--a broad satire unleashed at America’s Vietnam War. Transpose
that to Cameroon, and a satire aimed at the Eurocentric legacy in independent
Africa: “Zangalewa.” Performed by Cameroon’s Golden Sounds in 1986, the song
became an anthem across Africa, crossed the pond to Latin America, and ended up
with its core message inverted in Shakira’s multiplatinum hit “Waka Waka: This
Time for Africa.”
The Golden Sounds (Jean Paul Zé Bella, Dooh Belley, Luc Eyebe and Emile Kojidie), oddly enough, were active members in Cameroon’s presidential guard. The song’s lasting success stems largely from its very infectious military-march rhythms. The lyrics, due to the multilingual nature (up to 600 languages) of Cameroon, skip around between French, Douala, Pidgin English, Fang and perhaps Ewondo. Of course, there are “left, right, left right” marches, but then the song is really about the grievances of the ordinary recruit: lousy pay, bad food, punishing training, etc. And they also really lay into the brass: their fat and abusive drill instructors who scarf down a yummy assortment of sugary beignets while threatening to shave recruits’ heads and send them to prison.
Music video caught on quickly in Africa in the ‘80s. The full meaning of “Zangalewa” was actually realized in the remarkable video, which superimposes the band lip-syncing the song over Cameroonian military parades, apparently using bluescreen. The band members are wearing uniforms stuffed with pillows to create comedically large bellies and behinds, with “big belly” repeated in the lyrics. At one point a band member whirls around and appears to be hectoring a vast formation of soldiers assembled down below him.
The satiric look takes three very significant steps further: the band members are wearing pith helmets, brandishing bâtons swagger, or swagger sticks, and are in half whiteface. Bâtons are totally obsolete. They come from ancient times, Napoleon thought they were essential, and they resurfaced as hot items for Generalfeldmarchallen in the Third Reich. Swagger sticks, too. They were largely abandoned after World War I, and only egomaniacs like Patton used them after that.
The pith helmet you see on “Zangalewa”’s record label was headgear the colonial powers issued to their soldiers in the “hot tropics.” Neither swagger sticks nor pith helmets have anything to do with Cameroon’s military. So, along with the whiteface, “Zangalewa” becomes a protest against Cameroon holding onto too many pernicious colonial practices. Swagger sticks, pith helmets, and especially whiteface, strongly signal collaboration. After a nation is subjugated by a foreign power, that’s really the worst crime you can commit.
[….]
The infectious beats of “Zangalewa” were covered across
Africa, from South Africa, to Nigeria, to Cote’d’Ivoire, to Ghana, to Senegal
(Momar Gaye and Zaman’s being the best. Marchable, and also very danceable.
Across the Atlantic, it would be heard in Suriname, the Dominican Republic, and
especially Colombia.
Blacks in Cartagena, Colombia responded enthusiastically to African styles including soukous and highlife in the 1980s, developing their own champeta style. “Zangalewa” was a natural there, recorded by Los Condes. But Latin American covers of “Zangalewa” were retitled “El Negro No Puede,” with lyrics about a Black man who cannot sleep, presumably impeded by nonstop partying. No soldiers in videos for these covers, either – just women writhing in lingerie, ubiquitous in early MTV days.
[…]
No smaller controversy erupted earlier when FIFA announced
superstar Shakira, backed by the South African multiracial fusion band
Freshlyground, would perform the latest cover of “Zangalewa,” entitled “Waka
Waka (This Time for Africa).” The song is beloved across Africa, so why isn’t
an African artist performing it? Shakira is half Lebanese, her name means
“grateful” in Arabic, and she uses Arabic scales--but that was not close
enough. Like the “telephone game” in which children in a circle whisper
something into the ear of the child sitting next to them, the original
historical perspective and satiric thrust of “Zangalewa”’s lyrics and video
were long gone in a blur of lingerie by the time Shakira got to the song. Her lyrics
do not question authority in the military. Quite the opposite. From “You're a
good soldier” to “You're on the front line,” they nakedly equate soccer
performance with an unquestioned and unquestionable military duty.
Despite mixed reviews, “Waka Waka (This Time for Africa)” inevitably went multiplatinum, the second success for the diva since her “Hips Don’t Lie,” and its video, with Shakira in skimpy, fringy, “African” dancewear, also topped the charts. Surviving members of Golden Sounds in Cameroon did not receive a penny from this, but they did not sue Shakira for plagiarism; one bandmember had admitted the chorus came from Cameroonian “sharpshooters who had created a slang for better communication between them during the Second World War.” A rumor circulated that the lyricist behind “El Negro No Puede” was suing Shakira, but he later denied it.
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Excerpt #2
14 Apr 2021 by Jasmine Stone
"There’s a solid chance that I can turn around an average day
by watching Siphiwe Tshabalala’s magical left foot rocket home the opening goal
of the 2010 FIFA World Cup.
Throw in some K’Naan, with ‘Wavin’ Flag‘, and a few chords from Shakira’s ‘Waka Waka’, and I’m transported back to those magical days.
Just a minor detail to point out, though – calling it Shakira’s song isn’t exactly on the money, given that ‘Waka Waka’ is an almost identical copycat of ‘Zangalewa’, a song by The Golden Sounds, a Cameroonian group comprising mostly military members.
The song is inspired by a popular training and rallying cry used by soldiers, policemen, and others in parts of Africa.
I was alerted to this via a TikTok video that did the rounds on Twitter, which has since been deleted, but here are the basics.
In an interview with Cameroon Tribune, which ran a special report on the controversy, Ze Bella, the leader of the defunct group declared that while they were proud that a “world music icon” had remixed their song as the World Cup anthem, they nonetheless expected to be properly credited and adequately compensated….
Faced with the barrage of worldwide negative publicity Sony and Shakira (probably with the prodding of FIFA which did not want anything that could mar the World Cup) quickly settled.
They agreed to credit Zangalewa and began working out details for a financial compensation.
The song was renamed ‘Waka Waka (This Time for Africa)’, with FIFA making the announcement that it was the tournament’s official song on May 5.
When doing so, FIFA stressed that “the song was written by
Shakira, the world-famous singer from Latin America…The chorus is similar to
that of a popular Cameroon song made famous by Golden Voices in particular.”
That May 5 announcement was far from the final word on the matter:
On May 11, some members of Zangalewa held a press conference in Douala, Cameroon, to inform the media that negotiations were well underway with Sony and Shakira who had agreed to an out of court settlement and that Sony mauling over the possibility of including the single on Shakira’s next album scheduled to be released at the end of the year.
Didier Edo, the group’s manager conceded that it had not been easy to negotiate with Shakira’s manager, Sony Music, and all other interested parties.
A classic ‘out of court’ settlement, so that everyone can quickly move on.
In a 2010 interview, reports Refinery29, Shakira admitted that ‘Waka Waka’ was based on Golden Sound’s song:
“I decided to bring a little bit of my culture too which is attached to Africa with an umbilical cord…I was raised listening to music that was heavily influenced by African music.”
There’s heavily influenced, and then there’s a settlement which involves FIFA crediting Golden Sounds with the chorus.
The origin of the song wasn’t its only controversial element as the tournament loomed large:
The choice to have her perform was met with protest. It was the first year that the World Cup was ever held in Africa, with South Africa serving as host.
The South African artist’s union called for a boycott of the opening concert where Shakira performed, and after much outrage and conversations with FIFA officials, several African artists, including FreshlyGround, were added to the concert’s lineup.
Shakira addressed the controversy in an interview, saying, “I thought that in that way we could create a song that’s more emblematic of what the World Cup spirit is — that spirit of tolerance, integration, and that melting pot that South Africa is right now.”
Bingo – I can’t believe we went this long without hearing the phrase ‘melting pot’.
I don’t mean to ruin your 2010 World Cup recollections, and you can still show off your hip swaying skills whilst listening to ‘Waka Waka’ as you please, but remember to give a little credit to the song’s Cameroonian roots when you do.”…
This concludes Part I of this three part pancocojams series.
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