Popular Dance
Popular dance is within the purview of urban bars, nightclubs, and private parties, although it has grown more popular in rural areas. DJs provide the music as dancers move about and drink beer or palm wine. Unlike traditional dances, popular dancing allows the sexes to mingle. Cameroon's most popular native musical genres, bikutsi and makossa, are styles of dance music. Cameroon has imported a number of popular dances from abroad, including the maringa from Ghana in the 1850s, the ashiko from Nigeria in the 1920s, and the abele from Nigeria more recently. Popular non-Cameroonian dance music includes Nigerian highlife and American hip-hop. In 2000, the government of the Southwest Province banned mapouka, a dance imported from Côte d'Ivoire, for its sexual nature. European dance, such as ballet, is popular among wealthy urban Cameroonians.
Dance has become an important vehicle of social commentary and political protest. While the popular press can be muzzled by the government, dancers in the street are freer to express their discontent with—or support for—government policies or political parties. Opponents of Cameroon's first president, Ahmadou Ahidjo, danced to show their disapproval. Other popular dances commemorate historical events from Cameroonian history.
Read more about this topic: Dance In Cameroon
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