tag:theconversation.com,2011:/us/topics/master-kg-95211/articlesMaster KG – The Conversation2021-05-06T13:27:59Ztag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1567752021-05-06T13:27:59Z2021-05-06T13:27:59ZThe #JerusalemaDanceChallenge showed how Pan African styles can be forged<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/398995/original/file-20210505-19-13vr53b.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Fenómenos do Semba from Angola.</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">Courtesy Fenómenos do Semba/Facebook</span></span></figcaption></figure><p>A year has passed since an Angolan dance troupe called <a href="https://www.facebook.com/fenomenosdosemba/?ref=page_internal">Fenómenos do Semba</a> released a <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=613A9d6Doac">video</a> of themselves dancing in a courtyard in Luanda to the South African hit song <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fCZVL_8D048"><em>Jerusalema</em></a> by Master KG. </p>
<p>With over 16 million YouTube <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=613A9d6Doac">clicks</a>, the <a href="https://theconversation.com/the-angolan-dancers-who-helped-south-african-anthem-jerusalema-go-global-148782">#JerusalemaDanceChallenge</a> swept the planet as social media users posted their own versions of the dance. </p>
<p>Its success has inspired me to offer some further reflections on the importance of the cultural meaning of this dance and its contribution to the creation of a Pan African aesthetic.</p>
<h2>How Angolans celebrate</h2>
<p>The dance video’s success is related to deep-rooted elements that might go unnoticed at first sight. But, taken together, they convey the joyous and proud expression of a collective identity.</p>
<p>Despite not being danced to Angolan music and using steps that stem from different kinetic codes, the video is still representative of the main elements of the Angolan way of celebrating: food, music, dance … and <em>brincadeiras</em> (joking around).</p>
<p>The dance takes place in a communal courtyard situated between Luandan buildings. This open but protective space in itself represents a specific way of living in a community. In the recent past of civil war, these places of mutual exchange allowed people to preserve family units, overcome collective trauma and protect local languages and cultures from the threat of colonialism. </p>
<figure>
<iframe width="440" height="260" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/613A9d6Doac?wmode=transparent&start=0" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen=""></iframe>
<figcaption><span class="caption">Angolan troupe Fenómenos do Semba’s Jerusalema dance challenge.</span></figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Writing on <a href="https://www.facebook.com/fenomenosdosemba/?ref=page_internal">Facebook</a> about their video challenge, Adilson Maiza, the leader of Fenómenos do Semba, said: </p>
<blockquote>
<p>There is always a reason to be happy, always a reason to celebrate. </p>
</blockquote>
<p>This same spirit of gratitude found more concrete expression in the now famous troupe’s promotion of social initiatives. They have done things like distributing food in disadvantaged areas and promoting the foundation of the Angolan Dance Association for the promotion of dance in the country.</p>
<p>In this sense the presence of food is very relevant and it has surely contributed to the video’s success. It reveals the genuine character of the reunion and the spirit of contentment through the symbolic act of eating. Indeed, in Angola, getting together with family and friends has a social, political and spiritual value. This was pointed out by Angolan writer <a href="https://www.britannica.com/biography/Oscar-Ribas">Óscar Ribas</a> in his 1965 book <em><a href="https://books.google.co.za/books/about/Izomba.html?id=UXoKAQAAIAAJ&redir_esc=y">Izomba</a></em>, about the importance of recreational centres in Luanda. </p>
<p>The value of gatherings gained even greater importance during the long night curfews that were at times common during the <a href="https://www.sahistory.org.za/article/angolan-civil-war-1975-2002-brief-history">civil war</a> (1975 to 2002). During this time dance and music seemed the only remedy to soothe a permanent fear. To the people who experienced the Angolan and South African reality of those years, the <em>Jerusalema</em> video is surely a reminder of the joy of being able to celebrate togetherness under any conditions.</p>
<h2>The dance</h2>
<p>The dance displayed in the video is commonly known as <em>Dança da Familia</em> (the Family Dance). It is not a traditional Angolan dance with a semiotic code. Nevertheless, it’s frequently danced at weddings and parties. It mainly consists of a short sequence of steps, repeated within the same structure. Anyone can introduce variations and personal touches (<em>toques</em>) to the sequence. In other words, it is not a choreography but rather the repetition of a scheme. </p>
<p>The idea of a choreography does not belong to the Angolan conception of dance. Rather, dance is improvised and repeated with simple variations answering to specific rhythmic calls. It’s never linked to a specific song.</p>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/hip-hop-and-pan-africanism-from-blitz-the-ambassador-to-beyonce-151680">Hip hop and Pan Africanism: from Blitz the Ambassador to Beyoncé</a>
</strong>
</em>
</p>
<hr>
<p>Angolan dance is a performative act rather than a product. It is always the result of the encounter of new movements with a traditional but permeable frame, and it represents a specific conception of society and life. </p>
<p>Angolan dance stems from the expression of a circumstance. Songs register popular dialogues and events of daily life. Gestures come from activities such as drying wheat, tilling the land or, in more urban scenarios, imitating a crippled man (<em>o coxo</em>) or defending the value of gender diversity. </p>
<p>The peculiarity of the <em>Jerusalema</em> dance lies in its sequence, proposed by one of the participants and repeated in the same way in four directions. It does so with the same steps and the same rotation at the end of any sequence, while able to be embellished with any specific groove proposed by the main dancers. </p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/399000/original/file-20210505-13-1q72bzj.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="A television studio, a large camera foregrounded. In front of the cameras, a group of young men dances." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/399000/original/file-20210505-13-1q72bzj.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/399000/original/file-20210505-13-1q72bzj.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/399000/original/file-20210505-13-1q72bzj.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/399000/original/file-20210505-13-1q72bzj.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/399000/original/file-20210505-13-1q72bzj.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/399000/original/file-20210505-13-1q72bzj.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/399000/original/file-20210505-13-1q72bzj.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">The troupe became well known in Angola, appearing on TV and working on social and dance initiatives.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Courtesy Fenómenos do Semba/Facebook</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>The dance’s character demonstrates the focal point of the dance transmission technique in many African contexts. This takes place in a playful context, without any formal teaching. It derives from a logic of movement developed over centuries and passed on through imitation and innovation.</p>
<p>Commonly danced in Angola and South Africa, but also in the Democratic Republic of Congo, the Congo Republic, Cameroon and Zambia, <em>Dança da Família</em> could be defined as a “neotraditional” cultural product, borrowing the definition of British-Ghanaian philosopher, cultural theorist and novelist <a href="http://appiah.net/">Kwame Anthony Appiah</a>. </p>
<h2>The music</h2>
<p>The “dance structure” of <em>Dança da Familia</em> can be performed on different rhythms. During family celebrations this pattern is danced on more traditional rhythms like <a href="https://daily.redbullmusicacademy.com/2018/12/the-roots-of-soukous">soukous</a> (or sakiss) and <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/stage/2018/oct/08/pantsula-dance-south-africa-via-kanana">pantsula</a>, but also on <a href="https://edition.cnn.com/2016/11/30/africa/coup-decale-ivory-coast/index.html">coupé decalé</a>, <a href="https://www.redbull.com/int-en/music/a-history-of-afropop-dance-crazes">azonto</a> or <a href="https://www.wonderlandmagazine.com/2020/05/21/best-afrobeats-dances-lockdown/">Afrobeat</a> songs, by those who do not know each rhythm’s dance code. </p>
<p>All these music styles are appreciated by different generations in various countries. This dance structure embeds their specific vocabularies, reshaping them into a new cultural product. <em>Dança da Familia</em> can be adapted to all these rhythms, which is why it is often used at West African weddings in the south of the region, where continuous exchanges between ethnic groups have created mixed family units and multicultural traditions. </p>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/the-angolan-dancers-who-helped-south-african-anthem-jerusalema-go-global-148782">The Angolan dancers who helped South African anthem Jerusalema go global</a>
</strong>
</em>
</p>
<hr>
<p>Similarly, contemporary styles like Afrobeat or <a href="https://theculturetrip.com/europe/portugal/lisbon/articles/a-brief-introduction-to-kuduro/">kuduro</a> travel across the globe via TV and social networks, carrying symbols and proposing modes of self-representation that drive cultural legitimacy and recognition. In this context the creation of codes is often based on the recreation of traditions – reinforcing what Cameroonian philosopher and author <a href="https://wiser.wits.ac.za/users/achille-mbembe">Achille Mbembe</a> affirmed by <a href="http://calternatives.org/resource/pdf/African%20Modes%20of%20Self-Writing.pdf">defining</a> African identity as mobile and reversible. </p>
<p>This has now achieved the dignity of specific aesthetic criteria, nourished by improvisation and by freedom of expression.</p>
<p>Through these elements, <em>Jerusalema</em>’s dance spontaneously promoted a more conscious concept of Africanity and sowed feelings of tolerance and contentment that have conquered international audiences.</p>
<p>This reminds me of the words of <a href="https://theconversation.com/how-kwame-nkrumah-used-metaphor-as-a-political-weapon-against-colonialism-129379">Kwame Nkrumah</a>, former Ghanaian president:</p>
<blockquote>
<p>All the fair, brave words spoken about freedom that had been broadcast to the four corners of the earth took seed and grew where they had not been intended.</p>
</blockquote><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/156775/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Dr. Francesca Negro is an independent researcher in Comparative Literature and Performance studies. She is affiliated researcher with The Centre for Comparative Studies at the University of Lisbon while collaborating as consultant and teacher with various international institution.</span></em></p>A year later, it’s clear that the dance promotes a conscious concept of Africanity – sowing feelings of tolerance and contentment that have conquered international audiences.Francesca Negro, Associate research scientist, Universidade de Lisboa Licensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1487812020-10-29T15:34:36Z2020-10-29T15:34:36ZHow viral song Jerusalema joined the ranks of South Africa’s greatest hits<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/366522/original/file-20201029-19-1q6i13g.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">A group of colleagues taking up the viral #JerusalemaDanceChallenge in Cape Town.</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">NIC BOTHMA/EPA-EFE</span></span></figcaption></figure><p>There’s something seemingly novel about a song from South Africa going viral to the extent that the 2019 house music song <em><a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fCZVL_8D048">Jerusalema</a></em> has done in 2020. The song is performed by musician and producer <a href="https://briefly.co.za/32929-master-kg-biography-age-real-awards-songs-albums.html">Master KG</a> and vocalist <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/world/2020/oct/07/nomcebo-the-voice-behind-jerusalema-south-africas-global-hit">Nomcebo Zikode</a>.</p>
<p>Apart from the song’s omnipresence on the sound systems of a cross-section of socio-economic neighbourhoods across South Africa, it has become a <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/global-development/2020/sep/24/jerusalema-dance-craze-brings-hope-from-africa-to-the-world-amid-covid">viral dance phenomenon</a>, drawing in a diverse global audience. Internationally, politicians, sports stars, priests, nuns and monks, shop attendants, healthcare workers and infinite other global citizens have posted countless videos of themselves participating in group dancing, accepting the <em>Jerusalema</em> dance challenge. </p>
<p>As much as the song has captured <a href="https://scroll.in/article/975720/jerusalema-why-a-south-african-song-has-become-the-soundtrack-to-a-world-in-lockdown">global attention</a>, it has also inspired curiosity among those already familiar with the repetitive, slower, four-to-a-bar beat of <a href="https://www.okayafrica.com/south-african-house-songs-10-best/">South African house</a> music. Many are trying to figure out what makes <em>Jerusalema</em> so exceptional in its popularity. A frequent question in my social circles is, why this song? </p>
<p>Why, when there have been so many other similar uplifting local dance hits, does this song have such a potent viral capacity that’s broken download <a href="https://ewn.co.za/2020/09/10/master-kg-s-jerusalema-now-most-shazamed-song-in-the-world">records</a> and received over 200 million clicks on the official music video to date?</p>
<figure>
<iframe width="440" height="260" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/fCZVL_8D048?wmode=transparent&start=0" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen=""></iframe>
<figcaption><span class="caption">The official music video for Jerusalema.</span></figcaption>
</figure>
<p>The song also befuddles because it seems to have fallen outside of the traditional South African summer dance release trajectory, which usually means that such songs get endless airplay throughout the holidays and then their ubiquity dies down. Instead <em>Jerusalema</em> kept growing in popularity during the national COVID-19 lockdown. This should give us a clue about its particular significance.</p>
<h2>South Africa’s greatest hits</h2>
<p>Few South African songs have achieved this kind of global status and these have been tied to political or historical moments that enabled their popularity and spread. Three other songs come to mind. </p>
<p>The first is <em><a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mrrQT4WkbNE">Mbube</a></em>, written by <a href="https://www.sahistory.org.za/dated-event/solomon-popoli-linda-singer-and-composer-dies">Solomon Linda</a> and performed with his troupe the Evening Birds in the 1930s. <em>Mbube</em> was misinterpreted as <em>Wimoweh</em> almost at once by American folk singer Peter Seeger. Since then it has become a multi-generational staple in stage productions and Hollywood <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=I82PFHKgY2c">films</a> and covered by numerous bands around the world. The success of what is now known as <em>Wimoweh (The Lion Sleeps Tonight)</em> was possible because of its <a href="https://www.rollingstone.com/feature/in-the-jungle-inside-the-long-hidden-genealogy-of-the-lion-sleeps-tonight-108274/">exploitation</a> of Linda’s labour and intellectual property rights. </p>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/the-angolan-dancers-who-helped-south-african-anthem-jerusalema-go-global-148782">The Angolan dancers who helped South African anthem Jerusalema go global</a>
</strong>
</em>
</p>
<hr>
<p>Another prominent song was Miriam Makeba’s infectious dance hit <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lNeP3hrm__k"><em>Pata Pata</em></a> during the height of <a href="https://www.sahistory.org.za/article/history-apartheid-south-africa">apartheid</a> in the 1960s. Its popularity in Africa, Europe, North America and other parts of the world was enabled not only by her fame as a singer but also by her <a href="https://www.npr.org/transcripts/96869377">political activism</a> and networks against the apartheid regime. </p>
<p>The South African hits emanating from Paul Simon’s <em>Graceland</em> album – like Ladysmith Black Mambazo’s <a href="https://theconversation.com/of-strong-winds-heavy-hearts-and-joseph-shabalala-telling-the-south-african-story-131848"><em>Homeless</em></a> – were incredibly popular in Europe and North America. But they were similarly riding the wave of rebellion. By making the album with black South African musicians, Simon defied apartheid, but also disregarded the <a href="https://www.sahistory.org.za/article/south-africas-academic-and-cultural-boycott">cultural boycott</a> of South Africa. So Simon’s fame plus <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/music/2012/apr/19/paul-simon-graceland-acclaim-outrage">cumulative factors</a> helped make <em>Graceland</em> a hit album.</p>
<h2>The art of crossing over</h2>
<p><em>Jerusalema</em> is in good company. Its popularity comes not only at a time when songs with a dance sequence often have a viral life, like Drake’s online hit <em><a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DRS_PpOrUZ4&list=PL0bYCsuYO8hg28V_EcMDziM5p7V65ieYU&index=554">In My Feelings</a></em> or the pre-internet <em><a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MMRVbhbIkjk">Macarena</a></em> by Los Del Rio. Beyond this, <em>Jerusalema</em>’s message of seeking guidance and protection towards a spiritual <a href="https://www.theelephant.info/ideas/2020/10/16/another-now-why-the-jerusalema-dance-challenge-reveals-a-longing-to-re-imagine-the-world/">home</a> in a turbulent time is also relevant for this historical moment.</p>
<figure>
<iframe width="440" height="260" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/Dp7aVYPa6QM?wmode=transparent&start=0" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen=""></iframe>
<figcaption><span class="caption">#JerusalemaDanceChallenge in Italy.</span></figcaption>
</figure>
<p><em>Jerusalema</em> went viral during the isolation and loss caused by <a href="https://theconversation.com/africa/covid-19">COVID-19</a> lockdowns world-wide. It has resonated with people who may not <a href="https://www.rollingstone.com/pro/news/jerusalema-global-dance-hit-south-africa-spotify-1076474/">understand</a> the isiZulu lyrics, but understand its inherent religious theme, because of associations with the biblical city Jerusalem. This translates anywhere Christianity plays a social or institutional role, making the song resonate beyond its danceability.</p>
<p>And this makes <em>Jerusalema</em> another successful crossover – a popular house music song that also manages to be a gospel song. Many crossover songs go viral because they straddle target audiences in different genres. What is interesting is that in South Africa, gospel music traditionally outsells most other popular music genres. The song has essentially penetrated this large market but also had an impact on local music market benchmarks. It not only offers catchy dance music and a relatable message, it also makes local market history for gospel-dance fusion.</p>
<h2>A bridge to soft power</h2>
<p>It is also not entirely surprising that the viral dance sequence associated with <em>Jerusalema</em> came from <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=613A9d6Doac">Angola</a>. Dance music is popular in Angola, with local styles like <a href="https://www.euronews.com/2019/05/29/kizomba-dance-an-angolan-celebration">kizomba</a> and <a href="https://www.npr.org/sections/therecord/2012/12/26/167628341/kuduro-the-dance-that-keeps-angola-going">kuduro</a>. Angola also has well-established European networks due to its political history. So, the #JerusalemaDanceChallenge became a bridge to the rest of the continent, the African diaspora and Europe. The viral life of the song has given Master KG access to elusive global music markets.</p>
<p>This serves up another question over the song: what does <em>Jerusalema</em> say about South Africa’s <a href="https://www.foreignaffairs.com/reviews/capsule-review/2004-05-01/soft-power-means-success-world-politics">soft power</a>? For the moment, the song has made the country prominent on the world map. But soft power is earned and not achieved overnight. Governments build networks over time through recurring formal and informal cultural diplomacy programmes to nurture an attractive image of their nations abroad. </p>
<figure>
<iframe width="440" height="260" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/ZrgND_lHIQ0?wmode=transparent&start=0" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen=""></iframe>
<figcaption><span class="caption">#JerusalemaDanceChallenge in Kenya.</span></figcaption>
</figure>
<p>South Africa also has soft power intentions it pursues through the Department of Sports, Arts and Culture’s occasional <a href="http://www.dac.gov.za/content/cultural-diplomacy-pillar-our-international-relations">cultural diplomacy</a> programmes. The department often sponsors big-name local house deejays to travel to international industry conferences. Cultural diplomacy involves artists actually interacting with foreign audiences and not only building networks with institutions. Musicians need to be supported through infrastructure in building consumer audiences abroad. </p>
<p>Some questions remain. How will South Africa capitalise on the popularity of <em>Jerusalema</em> for its soft power-related goals? Is it enough to simply name the musicians responsible for the hit as our cultural ambassadors abroad? </p>
<p>The viral popularity of <em>Jerusalema</em> is interesting on a number of levels, but mostly because it has superseded expectations of what a local house music song can do.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/148781/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Through the University of Fort Hare, Akhona Ndzuta receives funding from the NRF.</span></em></p>Like Pata-Pata, Homeless and Mbube, the song Jerusalema is elevated by a historical moment in time and has the power to cross over to different audiences.Akhona Ndzuta, Postdoctoral Researcher, University of Fort HareLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1487822020-10-29T15:34:23Z2020-10-29T15:34:23ZThe Angolan dancers who helped South African anthem Jerusalema go global<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/365725/original/file-20201027-17-l9jbrg.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Angolan dance troupe Fenómenos do Semba.</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">Courtesy Adilson Maiza for Fenómenos do Semba</span></span></figcaption></figure><p>In February the Angolan dance troupe Fenómenos do Semba created the <a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/jerusalemadancechallenge?f=video">viral</a> #JerusalemaDanceChallenge <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=613A9d6Doac&feature=emb_title">video</a> that showed off their dance moves to the South African <a href="https://www.rollingstone.com/pro/news/jerusalema-global-dance-hit-south-africa-spotify-1076474/">hit</a> song <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fCZVL_8D048&feature=emb_title"><em>Jerusalema</em></a>. Their video is set in a backyard in Luanda, where they break into a group dance, all the while eating lunch from plates in their hands. </p>
<p>In the age of coronavirus, the #JerusalemaDanceChallenge video <a href="https://scroll.in/article/975720/jerusalema-why-a-south-african-song-has-become-the-soundtrack-to-a-world-in-lockdown">generated</a> a counter-contagion. Almost overnight everyone from police departments in Africa to priests in Europe were posting their own <em>Jerusalema</em> dance videos that repeated the choreography. </p>
<p>The challenge videos were swept along in a message of <a href="https://www.theelephant.info/ideas/2020/10/16/another-now-why-the-jerusalema-dance-challenge-reveals-a-longing-to-re-imagine-the-world/">hope</a> condensed in the single word “Jerusalema” and amplified through an electronic beat that its creator, Johannesburg-based musician and producer <a href="https://briefly.co.za/32929-master-kg-biography-age-real-awards-songs-albums.html">Master KG</a>, describes as “<a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hWzu9REdiz8">spiritual</a>”.</p>
<p>Putting together this beat in November 2019, he invited South African gospel vocalist <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/world/2020/oct/07/nomcebo-the-voice-behind-jerusalema-south-africas-global-hit">Nomcebo Zikode</a> to interpret it lyrically. The magic isiZulu phrase “Jerusalema, ikhaya lami” (Jerusalem is my home) arose through their jamming. Then the Angolans provided an irresistible choreography, and the rest is history. </p>
<p>The Angolan dance routine is both just repetitive enough to be picked up and just varied enough to tease. Videos flew around the world on <a href="https://www.tiktok.com/tag/jerusalemadancechallenge?source=h5_m">TikTok</a>, <a href="https://www.instagram.com/explore/tags/jerusalemadancechallenge/?hl=en">Instagram</a> and <a href="https://www.facebook.com/watch/?v=2653686454852808">Facebook</a>. Like the urge to dance to “the earliest Ragtime songs” described by Ishmael Reed in his novel <em><a href="https://www.theguardian.com/books/booksblog/2017/aug/01/mumbo-jumbo-a-penguin-classic-2017-ishmael-reed">Mumbo Jumbo</a></em>, the dance challenge, too, “jes grew”. </p>
<figure>
<iframe width="440" height="260" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/613A9d6Doac?wmode=transparent&start=0" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen=""></iframe>
<figcaption><span class="caption">Angolan troupe Fenómenos do Semba’s Jerusalema dance challenge.</span></figcaption>
</figure>
<h2>The gift of moving collectively</h2>
<p>So how did it “just grow”? </p>
<p>“We are happy to bring the joy of dance to the whole world through this marvellous dance,” (Estamos felizes por levar a alegria da dança para o mundo inteiro atraves desta dança maravilhosa) Fenómenos do Semba declare in Portuguese on their Facebook <a href="https://www.facebook.com/fenomenosdosemba/?ref=page_internal">page</a>. </p>
<p>What they call “alegria da dança” (the joy of the dance) can also be read as “alegropolitics” or joy pressed out from trauma and dehumanisation. Historically, enslavement, colonialism, commodification and a continuing threat to Black life brings forth Afro-Atlantic <a href="https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/14788810.2019.1708159">expressive culture </a>. </p>
<p>This is seen from <a href="https://www.riocarnaval.org/rio-carnival/what-is">carnivals</a> to the viral <a href="https://medium.com/@travelinghopper/what-is-dont-rush-challenge-7bb392c7095b">Don’t Rush Challenge</a>, started during coronavirus lockdowns by a group of <a href="https://techpoint.africa/2020/04/17/interview-with-nigerian-co-creator-of-the-dont-rush-challenge/">African heritage</a> women where each dances to a hip-hop song and uses technology to “pass” a makeup brush to another. </p>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/how-viral-song-jerusalema-joined-the-ranks-of-south-africas-greatest-hits-148781">How viral song Jerusalema joined the ranks of South Africa's greatest hits</a>
</strong>
</em>
</p>
<hr>
<p>This gift to the world is the secret of moving collectively. Not in cookie-cutter unison but through individual response to poly-rhythmic Africanist aesthetic principles that are held together by a master-structure. Dancing in this way is resistance, incorporating kinetic and rhythmic principles that circulated initially around the Atlantic rim (including the Americas, Europe, the Caribbean and Africa). It connects and revitalises by enacting an embodied memory of resistance to enslavement. </p>
<p>The <em>Jerusalema</em> dance challenge is an example of how dance enables convivencia (living together). It is a line dance (animation in French, animação in Portuguese, animación in Spanish) that enlivens parties through simple choreography that makes people dance together. Routines involve directional movement enabled by switching of feet, with dancers turning 90 degrees to repeat the choreography. Syncopated steps create enjoyable tension, and more and more people can join as the routine repeats itself till the song ends.</p>
<h2>Viral African line dances</h2>
<p>Many internet-driven <a href="https://www.redbull.com/za-en/music/a-history-of-afropop-dance-crazes">line dances</a> have emerged in response to songs such as <em>Jerusalema</em>. Created by popular music producers in Africa, they are often operating with limited resources and responding to national music trends that also have a pan-continental appeal. Think of Ghanaian <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/world/2012/sep/03/ghana-azonto-dance-craze-world">azonto</a>, Nigerian <a href="https://www.wonderlandmagazine.com/2020/05/21/best-afrobeats-dances-lockdown/">Afro-beat</a>; Angolan <a href="https://www.npr.org/sections/therecord/2012/12/26/167628341/kuduro-the-dance-that-keeps-angola-going">kuduro</a>; South African <a href="https://www.okayafrica.com/south-african-house-songs-10-best/">house</a>. </p>
<p>The dances that develop from the music start out local but can spread from country to country. Choreographies to Ghanaian azonto hits, for example, are taught by dance instructors from Accra when they’re visiting dance clubs in Cotonou in Benin – as I experienced during years of <a href="http://www.modernmoves.org.uk/ouidah-memory-movement-pythons-mermaids-ananya-kabir/">dance research</a> in West Africa.</p>
<figure>
<iframe width="440" height="260" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/fCZVL_8D048?wmode=transparent&start=0" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen=""></iframe>
<figcaption><span class="caption">The official Jerusalema video, viewed over 200 million times to date.</span></figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Videos shared via WhatsApp also enable such “urban” dance styles to jump borders. This is how a member of Fenómenos do Semba received a sample of <em>Jerusalema</em> from South African friends and shared it with his team. According to group leader Adilson Maiza, they loved it as soon as they heard it. To create a line dance choreography to a song from Johannesburg, these dancers from Luanda dipped freely into the vast reservoir of different African accents of dancing to Afro-beat music.</p>
<h2>Angola’s rich dance culture</h2>
<p>These accents include their own. Angola’s rich social dance culture has gone global through the couple dances <a href="https://medium.com/dance-card/what-is-kizomba-b6700eaa063d">kizomba</a> and the more upbeat <a href="http://socialdancecommunity.com/9-reasons-you-should-be-dancing-semba/">semba</a>. A DJ will periodically break up dancing couples with a track that unites the crowd through line dance routines that gesture to the Angolan music and dance style <a href="https://theculturetrip.com/europe/portugal/lisbon/articles/a-brief-introduction-to-kuduro/">kuduro</a>: hyper-exaggerated, angular, dexterous, sardonic. Kuduro steps are hard. To make the routines easier to pick up, they’re mixed with generic Afro-beat dance steps.</p>
<p>Maiza asserts that the <em>Jerusalema</em> choreography mixes kuduro and Afro-beat. Others in the Angolan dance scene disagree, pointing to videos of South African <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/stage/2018/oct/08/pantsula-dance-south-africa-via-kanana">pantsula</a> and <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/music/2011/aug/11/kwaito-south-africa-house">kwaito</a> that reveal similar footwork. Master KG himself <a href="http://www.novojornal.co.ao/cultura/interior/jerusalema-tornou-se-um-fenomeno-musical-planetario-gracas-a-um-video-feito-por-jovens-angolanos-reconhece-o-autor-94679.html">declared</a> that what the Angolan group made viral was a South African dance style popular at celebrations. <a href="http://www.novojornal.co.ao/cultura/interior/jerusalema-tornou-se-um-fenomeno-musical-planetario-gracas-a-um-video-feito-por-jovens-angolanos-reconhece-o-autor-94679.html">Citing him</a>, magazine <em>Novo Jornal</em> observes that the <em>Jerusalema</em> choreography nonetheless transmits an undeniable Angolan touch. It’s what Maiza interprets as signature “ginga e banga Angolana” (Angolan sway and swag).</p>
<p>Ginga, banga, kizomba, semba, kuduro: all Angolan words for dance styles and attitudes that, like line dances, emerge from long circum-Atlantic conversations. Line dances criss-cross the Atlantic, complicating the line between recognition and appropriation. The Danza Kuduro dance was set to a Spanish-language song responding to a Puerto Rican hit. There was the Macarena dance (Spain and Venezuela) and the <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/stage/2020/jun/11/how-the-electric-slide-became-the-black-lives-matter-protest-dance">Electric Slide</a> (US and Jamaica).</p>
<h2>A way to build community</h2>
<p>Instead of understanding the <em>Jerusalema</em> dance challenge as an intra-African phenomenon, it’s maybe more useful to understand it in terms of ongoing <a href="https://www.tate.org.uk/art/art-terms/c/creolisation">creolisation</a> processes – a mixing of cultures – that spiral around the Atlantic rim. Multi-directional, unpredictable, but always innovative, creolisation is the motor of the “alegropolitics” of African-heritage music and dance. If the Angolan video popularised the South African anthem, this is a collaborative and competitive creolising phenomenon.</p>
<p>As Fenómenos do Semba morph effortlessly from eating together to dancing together, they draw on deep and resonant reservoirs of Afro-Atlantic survival through joy. The dancers’ hangout is the Angolan quintal or backyard, a hub of activity during long, curfewed nights of unending <a href="https://www.sahistory.org.za/article/angolan-civil-war-1975-2002-brief-history">civil war</a>. However, they are eating cachupa, a typical Cape Verdean dish frequently used as a symbol for creolisation. </p>
<p>Like the <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/stage/2020/jun/11/how-the-electric-slide-became-the-black-lives-matter-protest-dance">revival of line dances</a> during the Black Lives Matter protests, <em>Jerusalema</em> went viral during the coronavirus pandemic because the dance challenge enacted a simple way to connect and build community: especially at a time when people were hungering for these possibilities. </p>
<p>A South African singer’s call, “Zuhambe nami” (join me) was realised through an Angolan dance group’s brainwave to use cachupa to demonstrate that, in Maiza’s words: </p>
<blockquote>
<p>It is possible to be happy with little: we party with very little.
(É possível ser feliz mesmo com pouco: com pouco fizemos a nossa festa.)</p>
</blockquote>
<p>And, with just the resources of the body, the locked-down world partied too, for the duration of the dance.</p>
<p><em>Obrigada to Nikolett Hamvas, Adilson Maiza, Rui Djassi Moracén.</em></p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/148782/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Ananya Jahanara Kabir receives funding from the European Research Council, the Alexander von Humboldt Foundation, and King's College London. </span></em></p>During the coronavirus pandemic the Jerusalema dance challenge enacted a way for communities to connect - repetitive enough to be picked up and varied enough to tease.Ananya Jahanara Kabir, Professor of English Literature, King's College LondonLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.