Seasoned filmmaker, Yinka Akanbi, has expressed fear at the tempo in which many people are celebrating ZaZoo Zeh, a song by reigning artiste, Portable.
According to him, the song harbours immorality, with the verse ‘Babe je’ justifying sexual violence.
Akanbi, a writer, producer and director, links the song to some of the chants herbal mixture sellers use which, he says, are ultimately counter-productive.
In a Facebook post on Tuesday, he notes:
THIS IS STRICTLY FOR MY YORUBA SPEAKING BROTHERS AND SISTERS.
When a society leaves its door open for all sorts of influence, then it can fall for anything. We presently seem to be locked in another zero-sum duel. Ordinarily even boxing is not a winner takes all game. Both the winner and the loser get to go home with something. The loser gets to go home with a swollen face and some level of psychological defeat and less amount of cash while the winner goes home with less swollen face, high spirit and more cash, but the loser still goes with something. ZAA ZOO is the new craze in the air. we wake up one day find trouble at the doorstep, speaking in a language we all do not understand.
ZA ZOO ZEH. each time he says ZA ZOO, we pretend we understand. This is not the first time we pretend to understand the language we pick from the gutters. ZA ZOO ZEH, and in no time we all begin to mouth the gibberish in tow as he leads us to an unfamiliar tarmac. ZA ZOO ZEH. till it becomes our ligua franca leaving all our moral lingo behind with all the doors to our homesteads ajar. We all can say it, we all say it with relish and dance to the tune of violence but plenty, plenty were wa ni’le o, there is madness abundant at the arena we have unwittingly followed Mr, Trouble into. Ranju! Ma rerin! Ba’be je!
True, here is not for laughing. no caution , no sentiments here o. Ba’ba je is a closet term for sexual violence, the type you find in the lingo of the alagbo Jedi that has so many afrodisiac concoctions that can make the man go the extra miles in bed. So in short, anything can happen here o. All of this is to someone’s gain. He gains it all. We have followed him to the arena with reckless abandon with a language only he understands so well. If he changes the language what do we do? we have simply followed our challenger to what Yorubas will call OJU OLOMO O TO , that is an arena where the mother is too far away to influence what happens to her child. An arena where no one is smiling. where there is an abundance of madness. drugs and sexual violence.
Our Omo elepo has followed the monster to odo aro and odo eje, the dark sea and the sea where blood flows and too far back to be able to find our way back home. If indeed, we make it out of here unscathed, though there are casualties already, what happens to the language of decency we left behind? What happens to the door we left ajar while gyrating to the rhythm of violence?
Omo elepo deyin o
me deyin.
omo elepo deyin o.
me deyin.
bo ba deyin wa kan odo aro,
deyin o, me deyin.
boo ba deyin wa kan odo eje,
deyin o me deyin.
Yinka Akanbi
