The African Roots Of "The Dozens" & Other African Diaspora Verbal Insult Games (2024 Article/Book Excerpt)

Edited by Azizi Powell

This post is part of an ongoing pancocojams series about "The Dozens" and other African and African Diaspora verbal insult traditions.

This post presents excerpts from a March 22, 2024 article by Tanure Ojaide entitled "African Battle Traditions of Insults".

The content of this post is presented for socio-cultural, linguistic, and educational purposes.

All copyrights remain with their owners.

Thanks to Tanure Ojaide for his writing, research, and publication of this book and this online article.
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Click https://pancocojams.blogspot.com/2013/07/nigerians-insult-traditions-yabbing.html for Part I and http://pancocojams.blogspot.com/2013/07/nigerian-insult-traditions for Part II of a 2013 pancocojams series on "Nigerians' Insult Traditions (Yabbing)".

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ARTICLE EXCERPT

From https://capoeirahistory.com/general/tanure-ojaide-african-battle-traditions-of-insult/ 
Tanure Ojaide – African Battle Traditions of Insults

The challenges that exist in capoeira and in Brazilian popular culture fit into a larger African tradition of battles of insults and performances. The book organized by Nigerian poet Tanure Ojaide tries to establish the uniqueness of this performative tradition in Africa and its diaspora. Here are excerpts from his introduction to the book African Battle Traditions of Insult. Verbal Arts, Song-Poetry, and Performance, published by Palgrave Macmillan, 2023.

"One of the cultural practices Africa shares with its diaspora is the battle of words, songs/poetry, and performance. In this tradition of highly competitive verbal arts, song-poetry, and performance, the audience is enthralled by its wit, poetry, and spectacle. [Cultural practices in the diaspora enable and affirm identity with the mother continent.] What this book attempts to establish is the uniqueness of a tradition of insult or abuse couched in verbal exchange, songs or poetry, and performance in Africa and the African diaspora. Usually, the battle of talents involves organizing rival sides or groups, individuals, quarters of the same town, or towns against towns. In the United States, in addition to individual against individual contests, there are colleges against colleges in Greek Step Shows and bor­oughs against boroughs, and even East Coast engaging the West Coast in Battle Rap. It is a form of verbal and performance combat between desig­nated sides. It is interesting that the metaphor of battle is used in their respective places to describe the Nigerian Urhobo Udje; the Ghanaian, Togolese, and Beninois Halo; the African-American Battle Rap; the Trinidadian and Tobagonian Calypso; and the Afro-Brazilian Jongo. These battles could be prepared for or take place instantaneously. Africa has many of such traditions as the Udje and Halo which need months of preparation and the Zulu and Tswana Izibongo oral poetic performance which is done ex tempore. In the diaspora, there are also performances such as Calypsos and Greek Step Shows that need preparation while African-American Dozens, like the Nigerian Yabis and “bad mouth,” tend to follow the off-the-cuff method. The artists thus have to train to respond instantaneously and with wit, humor, and strong images to take part in their competitions or when challenged to do so.

In most of the African battle traditions, there are meticulous and elabo­rate preparations of the songs and their performance. The groups keep their songs and performance or dance steps secret until the public outing to produce a sense of surprise and novelty of their artistic work. With vary­ing differences, two known opposing or rival sides are established. In the Udje tradition of the Urhobo people of Nigeria, the battle of songs and performance between Iwhrekan and Edjophe is legendary, as is that between Ekrokpe and Ekakpamre. The Ewe people who live in the southern parts of Ghana, Togo, and Benin also have the Halo tradition. In the Ewe Halo battle of songs and dance, the subjects of the satirical butts are invited to the arena to witness what is composed against them performed. It is said that for the subject of the song to express anger, nervousness, or disquiet shows that the song has succeeded in its objective of destabilizing its sub­ject. For this reason, the subjects of Halo songs often laugh with the audi­ence as if the songs have had no effect on them. There are continuities and manifestations of the African genre of insult in the diaspora. Like the Ewe Halo, in the Dozens, the two opponents keep a bold face and whoever gets angry or flares up is adjudged to have lost the contest. The Trinidadian Calypso during Carnival also demands weeks or months of preparation from its participants. Like the Udje, the participants keep their songs and performance secret until the time of pub­lic performance. That legendary rivalry between Oloya of Iwhrekan and Memrume of Edjophe is comparable to the calypso war (picong) between Sparrow and Kitchener and also between Sparrow and Melody.

The tradition of artistic insults or abuse in Urhobo and Ewe societies originates from similar socio-cultural and political objectives of deploying language as a weapon to fight the enemy or rival and concluding with performance to so enrage the other side as to humiliate it. The songs and performance in the form of dance are composed as highly imaginative poetry meant to “wound” the other side. While this is taken as a purely artistic contest in most parts of Africa and the African diaspora, in some of this tradition of insult or abuse, as of Halo in its heydays, it assumed a violent confrontational nature. This turned to violence in many places and might have led to its suppression or abolition as among the Anlo-Ewe of Ghana. The social unrest it caused might have led Kwame Nkrumah to ban its practice as a matter of law and order decision. Among the Urhobo, the colonial government used customary and magistrate courts in Warri/Delta Province to suppress Udje songs and their performance with stiff penalties against those sentenced for libeling with their songs. In all the regions of the African world where the battle of insults is practiced, the style allows or allowed exaggeration, choice of fictional materials, and underhand techniques to describe the subject in such a way as to humiliate him or her. Among the Ewe and Urhobo even the dead are still subjects of biting songs. A major objective is to describe somebody or the subject of the song so as to be laughed at; hence there is copious use of humor, cari­cature, burlesque, irony, and other techniques that achieve the objective of being laughed at and humiliated. The attributes of Udje and Halo are carried over into Jongo, the Dozens, and Calypso.

A major characteristic therefore of this tradition is a formally or infor­mally arranged schedule of song-poetry performance in which one side has its turn and the other side watches and listens and then the roles are reversed the next time.

One can infer from the openness of the performance with known provokers or challengers as a mark of boldness that is related to masculinity as practiced in such societ­ies. Udje, Halo, Capoeira, the Dozens, and Battle Rap seem to be used to express masculinity in their respective societies. [Nothing is hidden or taken as personal as such but seen as a communal or social responsibility to attack and be attacked with satiric songs.] It is a utilitarian artistic genre with moral and ethical objectives to not only deter folks from breaking established socio-cultural codes but also maintaining normalcy in society where deviants could cause disharmony and chaos.

As a result of listening to insults against oneself or one’s side, one is provoked to compose another song or songs to respond or retaliate to so hurt the other person or side as to deter from further verbal assaults. Thus, many songs are responses to earlier provocations in songs and this cycle goes on and on till one side springs a surprise that becomes the beginning of another thread of songs. The tradition has at its roots a dialogic ten­dency of responding to the latest insult, verbal abuse, or song which itself elicits further responses. So the tradition is self-growing as each song takes off from or builds upon an earlier song as the Urhobo, Ewe, Swahili, and Trinidadian/Caribbean, and Afro-Brazilian song-poems testify.

Summary of the book

[…]

Both Halo and Udje, from their respective histories, trace the origin of the artistic battle traditions to social and human efforts to channel their anger, rivalry, competitiveness, and hostilities from the physical to the artistic. Instead of rivalry to be exhibited physically, they surmised it would be better done artistically. The sparring of partners through the resources of the imagination ennobles the two sides in their pursuit of artistic excel­lence and entertainment. Which of the parties is more quick-witted, poetic, humorous, and performative? The audience always seems to know the rules of the artistic practice and adjudges one side winner of the two-side contest.

[…]

Similarly, the battle traditions of insult in the diaspora play a role in the societies. For example, the Dozens is a rite of passage for young blacks. “The Dozens trains a participant in the art of self-control; to remain calm and unfazed when a form of violence is being enacted upon you. Participants learn the value of self-respect and self-love; they learn the value of a sharp mind in order to defend themselves as well as how to dis­guise their vulnerability and insecurities. The engagement in the verbal game readies the participants to the experiences that are inherent in the oppressive society in which they live.” The Greek Step Show, Calypso, and Jongo also teach discipline and self-control in the face of pressure.

[…]

A performance of these battle arts without humor is dubbed a failure. It is not surprising about the stretch of facts and the imagination in Calypso, Udje, Halo, the Dozens, and Capoeira and Jongo to deploy so much that would make the audience or spectators to burst out laughing. No wonder, too, many of these practices take place during festivals when folks are expected to be relaxing and having holidays. Laughter, after all, is a good communal medicine to avert physical and violent confrontations.

A lot of mediations have entered these battle traditions of verbal arts, song-poetry, and performance. As would be expected of diasporic tradi­tions, diverse experiences of history, geography, environment, social adap­tations, and innovations have diversified the unique African tradition. Even within the African homeland, colonialism, modernity, and globaliza­tion have transformed things to change within the indigenous languages and local settings of verbal and artistic practices.

[…]

This unique tradition that exists in Africa and its diaspora in various forms affirms artistic excellence in the verbal arts, poetry, song, and per­formance. Its practice raises the stakes in its competitive nature to always heighten the tempo. In that way, there is increasing intensity as each side sharpens its wit for maximum impact of attack and counter-attack. The objective of each rival side’s words is to either wound the opponent’s psyche or ego or provoke and challenge so brazenly to elicit a sharp hostile response. Duels such as between Ekakpamre rivals and also between Oloya of Iwhrekan and Memerume of Edjophe in the Udje practice show the dialogic nature of this artistic practice. The same nature of combative rivalry is exhibited among the Anlo and Aja Ewe people of Ghana, Togo, and Benin. The composers of the poems or verbal forays are insistent on not using the same images twice but always keeping their words fresh, poetic, and memorable.

There is an enduring contemporaneity to this tradition of insults. What is significant is using artistic, verbal, and performance resources of the past to address contemporary challenges''…

[Information about Tanure Ojaide]
"Tanure Ojaide is the Frank Porter Graham Professor of African Studies at the University of North Carolina at Charlotte, USA. Educated in Ibadan and Syracuse, Tanure Ojaide has published twenty-one collections of poetry, as well as novels, short stories, memoirs and academic works.

He has won the Association of Nigerian Authors Poetry Prize four times: 1988, 1994, 2003 and 2011. His other awards include the Commonwealth Poetry Prize for the Africa Region, the All-Africa Okigbo Poetry Prize and the BBC Arts and Africa Poetry Prize. In 2016 he won both the African Literature Association’s Fonlon-Nichols Award for Excellence in Writing and the Nigerian National Order of Merit Award for the Humanities. In 2018, he was co-winner of the Soyinka Prize for Literature in Africa. He has won the National Endowment for the Arts grant, twice the Fulbright grant and twice the Carnegie African Diaspora Program grant."

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