African pop has always been made to be danced to, but some songs go further: they come with a move, and the move becomes bigger than the song. Long before TikTok, African dance crazes were spreading from Kinshasa to Accra to London. Today one viral clip can make a dance global in a week.
Here are ten African dance crazes and the songs that started them, from the 1960s to the 2020s.
1. Kpanlogo (Accra, 1960s)
Kpanlogo grew up among the Ga people of Accra in the 1960s, in the years just after independence. It is both a drum and a dance, and it became the sound of a young, newly independent capital. Read the story of the Ga drum and dance.
2. Kwassa kwassa (Congo, 1980s)
Congolese guitarist and singer Kanda Bongo Man sped up soukous, cut the long slow introductions and put guitar solos after every verse. His style gave birth to the kwassa kwassa, a dance in which the hips move back and forth and the hands follow them.
Kwassa kwassa swept dance floors across Africa and into Europe. Vampire Weekend even named a song after it decades later. More in our Kanda Bongo Man story.
3. Azonto (Accra, 2011)
Nobody agrees exactly where the azonto came from, but by 2010 songs such as Gafacci’s “Kpo Kpo Body” were built for it. In 2011 Sarkodie‘s “U Go Kill Me”, produced by EL and Krynkman, turned it into a national craze.
Then British-Ghanaian singer Fuse ODG found the dance on a trip to Ghana and took it back to London with his song “Azonto”, which helped bring Afrobeats onto daytime British radio. His follow-up “Antenna” reached number 7 in the UK. We told the full story in Azonto: the Accra dance craze that spread across the world.
4. Etighi and “Kukere” (Calabar, 2011)
Iyanya noticed something on a trip home to Calabar: the popular Etighi dance did not have a signature song. So he made one. Produced by D’Tunes and released on 23 November 2011, “Kukere” (Efik for “don’t worry”) gave the Etighi a soundtrack and made Iyanya a star.
The CEO Dancers later performed to it on Britain’s Got Talent.
5. “Skelewu” (Lagos, 2013)
Davido did not wait for a dance to go viral. He made it happen. On 18 August 2013 he uploaded an instructional “Skelewu” dance video to YouTube and announced a competition: learn the moves, film yourself and post it. Footballers Emmanuel Adebayor and Samuel Eto’o backed it.
Fans uploaded dance videos that together drew more than 100,000 views, which was a lot for Nigerian YouTube in 2013. It was a TikTok strategy before TikTok existed.
6. Alkayida (Ghana, 2013)
The same year, Ghanaian rapper Guru launched his own dance with “Alkayida (Boys Abrɛ)”. It was part of the wave of dance-led Ghanaian hits that followed azonto.
7. Shaku shaku (Lagos, 2017)
Nobody knows exactly who invented shaku shaku, but it is believed to have been popularised by street kids in Agege, Lagos, in mid-2017. It first appeared in a music video in Olamide‘s “Wo”, and it grew into its own sound, with artists such as Mr Real, Slimcase and Idowest building songs around it.
Read the shaku shaku story.
8. Zanku (Lagos, 2018)
Towards the end of 2018, Zlatan released “Zanku”, with a dance routine of the same name, often called “legwork”. It took off so fast that he named his label Zanku Records and his November 2019 debut album Zanku. The title is an acronym for “Zlatan Abeg No Kill Us”.
9. “Jerusalema” (South Africa and Angola, 2020)
Master KG and Nomcebo Zikode’s “Jerusalema” was already doing well when a group of Angolan dancers filmed themselves dancing to it while eating lunch. In the middle of the 2020 lockdowns the #JerusalemaDanceChallenge went worldwide.
The song went to number one in Belgium, the Netherlands, Romania and Switzerland, and its video passed half a billion views. Read the Jerusalema story.
10. “Buga” (Lagos, 2022)
Kizz Daniel released “Buga” with Tekno on 4 May 2022 and started a dance challenge the same day, offering ₦1,000,000 for the best video, with fans as the judges. The winner was Chionye Elvira, who was one year old at the time.
The challenge spread across TikTok, and Music in Africa’s Gabriel Myers Hansen called “Buga” “Afrobeats’ leading song”. Our TikTok songs list shows how the formula has continued since.
What makes African dance crazes spread
The pattern across 60 years is the same. A simple, repeatable move, a song with a clear beat and someone willing to show everyone how to do it. Davido’s tutorial video and Kizz Daniel’s competition were planned. Kpanlogo, azonto and shaku shaku came from the streets. “Jerusalema” was pure luck.
What has changed is the speed. Kwassa kwassa took years to travel from Kinshasa to Paris. In 2023 Tyla’s “Water” challenge went round the world in weeks, and it helped her win a Grammy.
