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ABSTRACT
This essay recounts both the intertwined history of the hip-hop appropriation and the identification to the figure of Michael Jackson in Gabon, from the 1980s to nowadays. It questions how transatlantic musical dialogues have provided the African youth with a way of representing a black subject freed from (post)colonial complexes. Drawing on historical and ethnographic data, this paper focuses on several imitators of Michael Jackson, and mainly on the case of Michael Anicet, a dancer who built his career and his fame on the imitation of Michael Jackson choreographies. It describes his pathway, his performances and how he transformed Michael Jackson’s dances in order to ‘gabonize’ it, focusing mainly on his reception and appropriation of the song and choreography of the track ‘They don’t care about us’. This essay finally proves how the identification to global black icons has constituted the lever for an identity construction which combines nationalist claims and connections with a transnational blackness.
Acknowledgements
I thank the reviewers of this paper, the editors of this issue and my colleagues Magali De Ruyter and Cara Stacey for their remarks on a first version of this text.
Disclosure statement
No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author.
Notes
1 PK10 is a popular district of Libreville periphery, whose name follows from the expression ‘Kilometric point 10’, that identifies the distance from the centre of the town. Also known by the name ‘Bangos’, PK10 is a cosmopolitan area gathering diverse ethnic and national origins, like many other areas of Libreville (Kwenzi-Mikala Citation1992).
2 His real name is Jean-Anicet Ngadi, but he chose this pseudonym when he became famous, referencing his idol Michael Jackson.
3 ‘Gabonizer’ is the expression employed by Michael Anicet himself in several discussions and interviews, but it is also used by other artists who attempt to create a Gabonese adaptation of global genres.
4 All the interviews quoted in this paper are translated from French by myself.
5 The concept of blackness here refers to an identity category drawing on historical and social categorizations, and to a cultural product (Clarke and Thomas Citation2009). Studies about the black diaspora have proven how this identification was drawing on circulations and hybridizations (Gilroy Citation1993), and how it was negotiated with various meanings depending on contexts. As described recently by Manning Marable and Vanessa Agard-Jones, the notion of ‘transnational blackness’ also refers (as it does here) to people, movements or organizations who contribute to challenge the global colour line and its oppressive structure of racial inequality (Marable and Agard-Jones Citation2008, 7), through a form of ‘racialization by below’ (Marable and Agard-Jones Citation2008).
6 Une vie en Black or White, Alice Aterianus-Owanga, Princesse M. Prod./IGIS, 2013.
7 This information comes from the ethnohistorical research realized for my PhD (Aterianus-Owanga Citation2013).
8 In 2009, France was still Gabon’s main economic partner, and the country where most Gabonese students went to for their university education.
9 The ideology of modernity or modernization has been at the core of the construction of African nation-states, relating to the idea of ‘development’. It has also strongly influenced the cultural policies and social dynamics of African countries after the independence, in the aim to create a modern African man (see, for example, White Citation2006). Critical studies have analysed this ideology of modernity as a colonial paradigm that postcolonial African elites followed, ‘mimicking Western values in the name of Africa’s modern progress’ (Araeen Citation2010, 277).
10 Zaïko dance was practised across the whole of central Africa during the 1970s, promoted by the famous band Zaïko Langa (White Citation2008, 214). Soukouss dance comes from a musical genre of the Democratic Republic of Congo, and consists of swaying hips and turning the pelvis.
11 This mix of different dance styles, during the 1980s, allowed for the invention of a local dance style in Libreville’s streets, composed of pop dance moves, hip-hop moves and Michael Jackson’s dance style: the so-called classic (not to be confused with classical dancing).
12 About Michael Jackson’s skin polemics, read the press articles of Greg Tate (Citation1987) and more recently, Susan Fast’s paper (Citation2010).
13 He was acquitted of these two accusations in 2005 and it is proved that this scandal was more related to media propaganda and financial extortion (Jones Citation2007; Thomson Citation2010; Fast Citation2010) than to solid proof.
14 After the release of ‘Thriller’, Michael Jackson’s albums marked disappointing sales and received reserved criticism. For some statistics about Jackson’s albums sales, see Boegborn (Citation2012).
15 Michael Jackson, Bad, Epic Records/Sony, 1987.
16 Michael Jackson, Thriller, Epic Records, 1983.
17 Michael Jackson, Dangerous, Epic Records/Sony, 1992.
18 In the original music video of the piece, Egyptian pharaohs were represented by black actors, a sign of the influence of Egyptocentrist Afrocentrism on this creation. About this piece, see Gilroy (Citation1993, 207) and Fast (Citation2015).
19 ‘They don’t care about us’, Michael Jackson, HIStory, Epic Records/Sony, 1995; ‘Black or White’, Michael Jackson, Dangerous, Epic Records/Sony, 1991.
20 “All pictures are screenshots from the movie Une vie en black or white (Alice Aterianus-Owanga, 2013, Princesse M. Productions), mentioned previously”.
21 The first lyrics which generated the polemics were the following: ‘Jew me, sue me, everybody do me. Kick me, kike me, don’t you black or white me’. They have been transformed into that version: ‘Do me. Sue me. Everybody do me. Kick me, Hike me. Don’t you black or white me’. About this controversy, see the paper of the New York Times published at the release of the album HIStory in 1995: http://www.nytimes.com/1995/06/15/arts/in-new-lyrics-jackson-uses-slurs.html.
22 Among the dances of the 40 different ethnic groups of Gabon, lingwala is a dance performed by men and women during traditional ceremonies, often in lines.
23 About the history of displacement of ceremonial and ritual dances on modern stages, see Aterianus-Owanga, Citationforthcoming.
24 The category ‘afro-contemporary dance’ in Gabon (and in Africa or in some cultural networks) refers to a kind of dance that appeared during the 1990s and that is inspired by European contemporary dance.
25 The Obamba are an ethnic group present in the East of Gabon and in the Republic of Congo.
26 See, for example, the following blog of a Gabonese journalist, which reproduces this common consideration while recounting Michael Jackson’s coming in Gabon: ‘Ngwata is a traditional Gabonese dance which comes from Batéké plateau […]’. After his meeting with the pygmies (Bantu people living in Gabon), Michael Jackson has decided to create a hit with this cadence, whence the track ‘They Don’t Care About Us’. URL: <https://reymouk.wordpress.com/2016/06/29/gabon-quand-michael-jackson-dansait-sur-du-ngwata/comment-page-1/> Consulted 3 August 2016, my translation.
27 I thank the ethnomusicologist Magali Deruyter for her musicological analysis.
28 A rhythmic ambiguity between binary and ternary can indeed be recognized in Michael Jackson’s song, a technique that appears to be also extremely frequent in batéké songs of the High-Ogooué (not exclusively in of the ngwata) (Le Bomin Citation2004).
29 This quotation is my translation of an extract from the documentary movie about Michael Anicet mentioned earlier.
30 Coupé-décalé (literally ‘cut’ and ‘leave’) is an Ivorian dance and music style that celebrates economic success and consumption (Kohlhagen Citation2005).