Neo-liberal Missionary Prayer Beads

Media-made Sacrificial Lambs

There is a theory in dominant Neo-liberal thinking that the few Innocent Sacrificial Lambs lost for the greater Good of the many is morally justifiable. So it is apparently acceptable for regular use of sacrificial lambs to speed up their ideological Hegemony.

The last time I know it being reported almost a decade ago was in Ukraine, during which the significance test for rejecting the Null Hypothesis on random democracy protest deaths was apparently 100 Lambs, and the minute that number was reached Regime Change rolled in.

It mattered not that the case for also rejecting a Type II error was not found because the reported population was not as random, with ANOVA-like purposeful social engineering treatments actively pursued at the same time by ostensibly neutral but like-engineered NGOs. When editorial funding is tilted in one direction editorial samples eventually reflect what statisticians called Biased sample observations which eventually agree on shared hegemony ideals.

There is never enough time for Science to decide the facts from the Field; as we have seen these past two years on a theory that mRNA pharmaceuticals constitute Vaccines (with a 3 to 6 months booster shot to remain 'vaccine-effective' as such). So the anti-vaxers lost to the pro-vaxers in the available policy choices; even though they were not arguing the same issues.

The one was on individual rectitude in interpreting science data whereas the other on imperative proof of expected profitability in Lamb selection and its optimisation under extant science and technology. Any doubts thereto are delegated anti-moral for the greater Good and profitability.

Mission

So this week, we've been told of wanton deaths by unconfirmed perpetrators but distinctly attributed to War Crimes by prime Hegemony Denialist with corpses strewn in walk in the park fashion, fallen in most cases from road centre towards roadside purportedly from the same unaccountable lethal source. There's no time for confirming facts just lay on the policy screws per current statistical inference.

The Missionary Flocks

So again this week a strange meme was trending over intellectual property in the music and performing arts. A clip referred to the FIFA 2010 World Cup Theme Song 'Waka Waka' by Shakira, the queen of Latin Music, who apparently coined the lyrics during another walk in the park years before. But now exposed as a straight rip of a Camerounian group break-away of the country's military Presidential Guard music band.

In that Head of State's mind, the band was to give civilians a sense of calm and it apparently worked for the strong man ruled for many a year while the subjects danced to their work. Here's a contemporary Congolese video rendition on the Military Order the locals are still happy to dance to https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=kWFyACgtAtY. And this was only for the Tune, the Rythm and the Lyrics.

The Rosary Wars

So how about the Dance Moves? Well, Shakira again was 'Queen' of Latin Music as they say and confuses anyone who watches from North of the Mediterranean. They usually just call it Belly Dance, made famous by a few early and very cheesy Hollywood commercial-cum-entertainment flicks subsidized by the Tobacco industry; where a good smoke was always the reward for good sex provided to slinky dressed Harem dwellers who would dance for it in Belly twirls.

I have a different take of them though, especially in the context of 'Latin' pop. You see there has always been a diffusion of music and dance with the mass migrations of the past six hundred years or so. Mostly from the West African and Central African human exports. They took with them their modes of expression which included dance and song. But the involuntary migrants have never been allowed prime time airing, except by the heirs of their captors; so the media always portrays it as migrated from the Mediterranean or other acceptable sources. Certainly not Africa.

At best it is Afro-Cuban, or if you're more denialistic person, then its Porto-Rican. Never African. So there's a whole string of genres aired in the Carribbean and Latin America and even the erstwhile Congo Square of New Orleans credited with an entire Blues, and Jazz undercurrents historically known to be of newly landed Congolese in the American North. Nonetheless you get all the variations, be they Rhumba, Chachacha, Charanga, Merengue, Pachanga, Samba and whatever else are all Latin beats sung and danced by Hispanics - no 'African' in sight.

A History of One Dance Trend

Come the end of WWII and the relentless decolonization that followed across the globe, Portugal decides to go into denial an calls colonies metropoles. In due course its populations get restless and begin agitating, especially in port towns and plantations. The workers agitators get rounded up and many flee north to Tanzania. In time more refugees follow, and the displaced workers union organizers eventually form the Front for Liberation of Mozambique (FRELIMO).

This is at the height of the Cold War, and as Portugal is a member of NATO the Liberation movements get no help from any Western powers and turn to USSR for material support. But it soon became apparent that the best training for them could be found in Cuba, so youthful Frelimo guerilla war recruits began streaming to Cuba for training.

So what was these Mozambicans' mark wherever they went. For one, the favourite of their many dances at the time was the ChimaKonde Chindimba, which their Tanzanian host promptly termed Kimakonde Kindimba. It was a dance for the physically fit. You danced vigorously to the beat, but with the twist of lowering oneself into a crouch. This made for very fluid pelvic movement for which the dance is visually distinct.

In any event, the same move emerged out of Cuba when the the Cold War ended and Cuban artists began touring the world - the venerable Havana Buenovista Social Club included - and with a repertoire that featured this visually very distinct Chindimba dance refrain. The hip twirl took off as a next Afro-cuban beat dance from the US and across the continents, bearing the trademarked Cubano flag of origin.

The Missionary Spirit

So can we finally answer that rhetorical question on whither Shakira's moves came? True to form Wikimedia sustain the hegemonic narrative and she got it anywhere from India, Middle-East and the many Mediterranean lands like Romania and Turkey and it is seemingly good form to show that creative genius to a thankful flock of Africans at the world cup opening by this worthy Gypsy of performing arts.

I can remember that World Cup opener performance vividly, and was bemused by the commentary of how good she was at showing Africa a unique dance. I also remember the wistful look of her co-performer - the Lead singer for FreshlyGround - also on stage as she deferred the lime light to the Great Shakira.

So there we were, Song by Cameroun Presidential Gaurd to the Beat and Verse 'composed' by Shakira; and Danced to in FRELIMO Kindimba style showcased by the Queen of Latin in front of African people who had been dancing the same thing all their lives as children, and spread half way across the world by them seeking their liberation and training in Cuba, of all places, to become guerilla fighters against Missionaries who insist on Prevailing over them.