Expert: Bernard Ting - 12/11/2009

Question
QUESTION: hi, i'm a 17 year old girl and i'm in grade 12 in high school. i'm doing a school project on booty shaking in african dance (obviously, i chose the topic). i thought that it would be a really interesting topic because i'm african american and because i love booty shaking... also, we're supposed to present our project so i thought that it would be a good way to teach the people in my class that booty shaking isn't slutty. i looked on wikipedia for stuff about booty shaking in african dance but i couldn't find anything... so, can you please give me some information and links to articles about booty shaking in african dance if you have any? all i know is that booty shaking is very popular in african dance... but everyone already knows that women in africa booty shake a lot in their dances! i need to know way more information about it than that... so, please give me some good links to websites with information about booty shaking in african dance if you have any. anyways, if you want me to be more specific, some information about similarities and differences in how african girls booty shake compared to how american girls (like me) booty shake would be really helpful... anyways, my project's due in about 2 weeks so please reply quickly! i really wanna make sure that my project is perfect because i have a lot of haters at school and i wanna show them that booty shaking isn't a slutty dance and that there's nothing wrong with booty shaking. whenever i booty shake for my guy friends at school, i always hear girls saying mean things about me (like calling me a slut)... but there's nothing wrong with booty shaking! all of my female friends booty shake and my mom told me that she also used to booty shake for my dad when she was a younger. so, i wanna make sure that my project is really good so that i can teach the people in my class that booty shaking is a sexy and natural and empowering dance for women (and the fact that it's very popular in african culture would prove that). so, please help me with my school project!

ANSWER: Wow ! What a question. Although this is really out of my area of expertise, I will try to answer it based on my general impressions.

From what I understand, booty shaking is a form of dance originating from Cote D'Ivoire (next door to Ghana's west) called the Mapouka so you may want to try and google mapouka for videos and more information.

Dance in under developed villages in Ghana  is pretty much all booty shaking (for men and women) and it is definitely very sexy, looks natural when they do it (probably due to their body shapes and the fact that they have a booty to shake), and certainly empowering.

As far as I'm concerned, being an old African (meaning I've lived in Africa a long time but am not black), there is nothing slutty about booty shaking when done well - although there are some very erotic versions of mapouka where the dancers dance naked. Perhaps the reason why some people consider it slutty is because they have no booty to shake !

Anyways I'm not sure where I'm going with this answer so I will end it here. Good luck on your project.

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QUESTION: okay... thanks for the help! huh? men in ghana booty shake, too? i've never heard of a guy booty shaking before... but i think that it would be pretty hot! lol! yeah, booty shaking is very sexy and empowering... my dances are pretty much all booty shaking! i mean, whenever i do any type of dance, i always incorporate booty shaking into it... i know! there is nothing slutty about booty shaking... well, i always booty shake in a really erotic way and i've booty danced naked in front of my guy friends lots of times before! but i hate it when people call booty shaking slutty just because it's sexual... anyways, i'm supposed to have an example of what my project is on and i was originally planning to show a video of booty shaking in african dance... but now, i've decided that i wanna actually do booty shaking in class for my example of booty shaking in african dance (i'm planning to booty shake in an african style and not how i usually do it). do you think i should do this? i think that it would be much more fun this way and that more people would be interested in my project if i did this... and i haven't asked my teacher if i can do this yet but i will. what do you think? should i booty shake in an african style when i present my project? i really wanna do it!

ANSWER: Hmm... I'm not sure how I should advise you about shaking your booty a la African style in front of your class. I've been to a couple of clubs where they do the Mapouka and I certainly would not want my 17 year old daughter doing this in front of a class as it is a bit too erotic ! Personally I would advise my daughter to research Mapouka, download a video or 2 and show that in class as the origin of booty shaking North American style.

Anyway this is getting a bit too far away from my area of expertise. Good luck on your project.

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QUESTION: okay... well, why don't you think i should shake my booty in an african style in front of my class? okay... well, i'm pretty sure that my mom would be okay with me doing it in front of my class! my mom knows that i booty shake in a really erotic way for my guy friends and she has no problem with it! she understands that booty shaking is just an erotic dance that teases guys and turns them on and makes them horny and gives them boners and it's not like you're actually having sex with the guy you booty shake in front of. okay... anyways, i know that this is kinda off-topic, but how is it like living in africa? is it a good place to visit? i've never been to africa before... i've actually never been out of the u.s. before! so, my family is not much of a traveling family... but we've been to other states before! but we've never gone to another country as a family (so, i've never been on a plane before).

Answer
Ah ok finally a question that I'm sort of an expert on - life in Africa.

Africa is an experience like you've never had before. I've met many people who have come here as a USAID or CUSO volunteer and they have all taken something back that they will remember for the rest of their lives. It is what you make of it yourself.

Basically, Ghana is a poor third world country where the electricity is always going off and on, where the tap flows when it wants to rather than when you need it, but the people are nice, do things at their own pace and it is relatively safe.

If you want to see Africa, you should get on an international exchange program of sort or volunteer with an international NGO.