Monday, November 09, 2009

Where did Ghana's 80's Go, or Reminisces of a No-Style Rookie High on Neneh Cherry!

Friday 6 November will go down in the annals of my personal history as a day of profoundly serious reminiscing.

I blame the BBC Worldservice for its daily reminders of the fall of the Berlin Wall, which ghanablogger Nana Abena has done well today to be one of the first bloggers to blog about this important and significant event.

It had to be purely serendipitous that I check out Nenneh Cherry's hit song of that year; in fact, I only found out a few days ago that it was indeed 1989 that the song became so popular. Whether it was my sub-conscious working over-time is moot. In November 1989, when the wall came down, I was only almost a year into writing a personal journal.

Twenty years later, I still write a journal of daily and weekly accounts and do not quite get how I am still chronicling my life! But I digress!

When "Buffalo Stance" came out, I re-call Samuel--my older late brother-- and I dancing to the song like the two goons in the background of the video. I know it was so cool then to do so.

The eighties was also the time of "cool"--funny dances a la Afro-American; usage of slang like "fresh", "cool", "wicked", etc--mostly to impress and let your friends know you were with it.

Upon reflection, I can say this song was one of many that possibly epitomized coolness. A quick look at the lyrics just brings it all home:


* no style rookie
* don't u mess with me
* who's looking good in every way?
* money-man
* bomb the bass


In all this, I could not help but wonder how Ghanaians were celebrating 1989 when I was busy giggling and jumping foolishly up and down with my brother (who was the quintessential cool guy, when I remained the classic dork) like I was in an American 'hood with homies on a chill-pill.

If you can feel me, drop me a comment to this no-style rookie, but just don't mess with me!

8 comments:

Abena Serwaa said...

*LOL* Now you have me reminiscing about 1989!
It was the first year of boarding school for me. I loved Buffalo Stance, Bobby Brown's "Don't be Cruel", Milli Vanilli's "Girl you know its true" and had a serious crush on a guy called Omar. Ahhh good times! Life was so simple back then.
BTW; who is Ghanablogger Nana Ama?

Emmanuel.K.Bensah II said...

Abena, am on a roll for mistakes:-( my leave is caling!!! It was so sad when it was found out that Milli Vanilli were fake in the way they mimed their songs. That just cut so deep, you feel me?:-))

Mike said...

That was my girl! I could O.D on Neneh Cherry & Monie Love videos. lol

Emmanuel.K.Bensah II said...

Mike, Neneh is hot, hot, hot. This BUFFALO STANCE video cracks me up too much. The 80s were such a KEWL period!!

Daniel Hoffmann-Gill said...

Cool, well now I know I'll link and read this one.

You've too many blogs man!

Daniel Hoffmann-Gill said...

PS: How to turn off music on your blog, it's bugging the shit out of me comrade.

Emmanuel.K.Bensah II said...

Daniel, great to see you here! You will see what looks like a volume indicator on the bottom left corner of the slide. Simply click it once, and it should go off--the sound that is.

I appreciate the "compliments" about the blogs!!:=))

Daniel Hoffmann-Gill said...

Cool, found it, awesome, I'll be here often now.

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