The Relationship Bubble Problem in Temi DollFace's "Pata Pata" - Norient
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The Relationship Bubble Problem in Temi DollFace’s «Pata Pata» | norient.com20 Dec 2024 03:11:42
The Relationship Bubble
Problem in Temi DollFace’s
«Pata Pata»
E S S AY by Kay Thompson
In her videoclip «Pata Pata» Nigerian singer Temi DollFace
makes fun of women who escape from their stuck
relationship by throwing themselves into consumption,
creating their own bubble of materialist desires. By
advertising fantasy products, DollFace encourages them to
finally break up. In her clip (dir. by James Slater) she refers to
Nigeria in the 1970’s: A time, where the economic boom
introduced the possibility of material prosperity. Was the
relationship between the government and the Nigerian public
similarly damaged as the partnership of the woman in the
clip?
The tangible signs of progress and abundance ratified
[Nigeria’s] new prosperity with visible evidence, producing
a national dramaturgy of appearances and
representations that beckoned toward modernity and
brought it into being. Or so it seemed. In what became the
magical realism of Nigerian modernity, the signs of
development were equated with its substance.
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(Apter 2005, 41; emphasis added)
In her delightfully retro-styled video for «Pata Pata», Temi DollFace bats her
eyelashes and hawks whimsical household products designed to aid women
whose romantic relationships have gone stale. At the same time, she declares
«it’s over, pata pata» (completely) with her own significant other. While the
song’s commentary on fizzled-out romance is both relatable and relevant, the
stylistic and musical references to 1970’s Nigeria can also spell out a critique
of the oil-driven development of the Nigerian nation-state. Like lovers who
refuse to acknowledge problems in their relationship, the Nigerian state’s
dependence on oil revenue silently exacerbates the economic and political
challenges its people face. The commodity fetishism on display in «Pata
Pata» parodies the commodity fetishism, real and symbolic, of Nigerian
governance.
Temi DollFace begins Pata Pata with a provocative question: «Pour me a
drink and I’ll tell you a lie, baby, what would you like to hear? That I’m in love
with you and all the things you do? You know that wouldn’t be sincere.» The
speaker in the song has had it with her partner: the relationship is boring, «the
thrill is gone,» the speaker is fed up with the trouble her partner has given her
(«I dey tire for your wahala»), and she «can no longer compromise.» Though
they have been stuck for some time, the speaker has hesitated to approach
her partner because «I don’t wanna make you cry.» She sarcastically offers,
«We can go on pretending, baby it’s all right,» but she realizes that «it’s over
(over pata pata).» By the end of the song, the speaker is sure that she wants
to end the relationship, altering the lyrics slightly: «I’ll tell you a lie, baby,
what would you like to hear? We can go on pretending…» In other words, it
has become a lie to say that the speaker can continue the masquerade of the
relationship.
Alienation, Advertisement and Alerts
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The Relationship Bubble Problem in Temi DollFace’s «Pata Pata» | norient.com20 Dec 2024 03:11:42
The music video for «Pata Pata» addresses not the speaker’s partner but
rather women who find themselves in similar situations. Using a series of
advertisements for Pata Pata brand products, Temi DollFace encourages
women to respond to their relationship problems directly instead of letting
them fester. The video advertises eleven products, ranging from washing
powder («e dey commot all doti stain, including de man sef» – it gets out all
the dirty stains, including even the man himself) and shampoo («Wash dat
man commot for your hair» – wash that man out of your hair) to the Patavac
(a vacuum cleaner that «sucks up bad vibes») and the Pata Pata Getaway Car
(«Make your move, pack your bags, it’s over»). Some of the products are
typical household items that have been repurposed for dealing with
relationship problems, such as the Pata Pata Knife, which pledges to «cut off
your wahala sharp-sharp» (cut off your troubles immediately). Other
products are new inventions specifically for dealing with stuck relationships:
the Pata Pata Bedsplitter is for women whose partners no longer satisfy
them sexually, and the 5D television offers «escape to a new world» beyond
that of the relationship. Throughout the video, Temi DollFace and her dancers
entice viewers to participate in the Pata Pata Dance, which comes with its
own tutorial in three volumes and includes the popular Azonto moves.
As Derica Shields astutely points out (see post at Okayafrica.com), Pata
Pata’s music video uses these mini-advertisements to poke fun at materialist
desires for instant gratification by way of consumer products. The Pata Pata
Knife claims to be sharp, but as far as Temi DollFace shows us, it can only cut
a banana. Thus, the video humorously reminds us that material objects can
only go so far (that is to say, not far at all) in helping navigate the
complexities of human relationships. In Pata Pata, the speaker’s relationship
has become a bubble with no interior substance, in which the partners
deceive each other and themselves into believing that «it’s all right;»
similarly, the Pata Pata products become a bubble in which the consumer can
deceive herself that her relationship problems can be resolved completely
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The Relationship Bubble Problem in Temi DollFace’s «Pata Pata» | norient.com20 Dec 2024 03:11:42
and immediately with face cream or «Shake Flakes» cereal. Instantaneous
solutions appear attractive, but closer examination reveals that they do not
hold up under the demands of complicated human problems.
Paying Reverence to Fela Kuti
In addition to its Western retro-styling, «Pata Pata» contains a number of
references to Nigeria in the 1970’s, a period of rapid modernization
(according to the standards of the colonial powers) and economic boom.
Those references include the «pata pata» choral response throughout the
song that sounds like a sample from one of Fela Kuti’s tracks (for example,
here starting from 0:33), and the elaborately costumed dancers whose face
paint and accessories resemble Fela’s Kalakuta Queens (backup
dancers/singers/wives).
Fela’s influence can also be heard in Temi DollFace’s Pidgin lyrics – Fela’s
Afrobeat was some of the first popular music in Nigeria to intentionally use
Pidgin. This allowed him to broadcast his messages across the newly
independent, linguistically diverse nation. When we turn our attention to the
1970’s Nigeria referenced by these elements – call and response, costuming,
and language – we find that a strikingly analogous bubble was forming
around the strained relationship between the government and the Nigerian
public. As in «Pata Pata», consumer products masked the strain of this
relationship.
Damaged Relationship with the Government
The modernizing bubble promised all the comforts that the colonial powers
enjoyed – provided on the slippery surface of petrodollars and petronaira
(Apter 2005). Following the discovery of oil in southeastern Nigeria, the
government joined OPEC and enjoyed the benefits of high oil prices (even as
Americans went through a recession). The initial spectacle generated by
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The Relationship Bubble Problem in Temi DollFace’s «Pata Pata» | norient.com20 Dec 2024 03:11:42
Nigerian oil was that of economic takeoff…based not on the accumulation of
surplus value…but on a specific form of excess – one of oil rents and
revenues that underwrote the importation of staples and luxury goods, as well
as various white elephant projects that produced only negative returns (Apter
2005, 14).
Although oil money introduced the possibility of material prosperity, Nigerian
consumers bought consumer products from abroad, and the Nigerian
economy leaned heavily on oil rather than developing a manufacturing sector
that could sustain the economy through fluctuations in the price of oil. The
consumer goods dangled the possibilities of immediate gratification before
Nigerians’ eyes: Apter writes of the popularity of a Korean-manufactured
television («The picture’s so real – you’re part of the action») and the
Polaroid camera, the «instant picture camera that produced push-button
images of tomorrow’s world electronically and automatically ‘before your
eyes» (Apter 2005, 41). The presence of such modern appliances built up an
illusion that the Nigerian economy could sustain this level of consumption,
and that the nation-state, renting out its single resource, would remain
politically and economically viable. «The magic of Nigeria’s oil-fueled
modernity, like the self-developing Polaroid picture, was instant, effortless,
and above all spectacular,» Apter concludes (Apter 2005, 42).
However, the influx of petrodollars and the renting-out of the nation’s only
resource to oil companies led to a body politic driven by dubiously-elected
leaders (and dictators) distributing spoils to ethnic, religious, and geographic
clienteles. As the nation-state centralized, the oil money was consolidated at
the federal level and trickled down at all levels of government. Added to the
political instability of successive dictatorships and coups, endemic corruption
eroded the trust of the Nigerian public in the government. This continues
today – the Nigerian economy and government are still dependent on oil, and
people have little faith in the ability of the state to provide for its citizens.
Just like the speaker’s relationship in «Pata Pata», the relationship between
the people and the government is substance-less and for show only – and, as
in «Pata Pata», consumer products cannot bring about instantaneous repairs.
Pata Pata’s critique is especially relevant in light of the increasing urgency of
Boko Haram’s advances in the northern part of the country, as well as the
impending (and just-postponed) 2015 elections, which pit the ineffectual
incumbent President Goodluck Jonathan against former military dictator
General Muhammadu Buhari. However, popping the increasingly perilous
bubble with «it’s over,» as Temi DollFace does, is not an option. In the
absence of a Pata Pata Getaway Car for (most) Nigerians to escape the
damage done by their troubled government, the problem of the bubble will
have to be solved independent of quick material fixes.
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→ list of references
Apter, A. 2005. The Pan-African Nation: Oil and the Spectacle of Culture in Nigeria.
Chicago: University of Chicago Press.
In Fela’s time, of course, the phrase «ginger your swagger» did not exist – I
believe this phrase is a merger of the work of Terry G and the emergence of
swagger in American English in recent years.
It’s unclear to me exactly where Temi DollFace is promoting – she’s a Lagos
native but this MV was made in the UK (and I understand she grew up there as
well). Interestingly, much of the press she’s getting seems to be from American
and British commentators who compare her to Solange Knowles, Janelle
Monae, and Nicki Minaj (the eyes!), rather than her Nigerian counterparts like
Tiwa Savage.
Kay Thompson runs the blog Radio Palava. She graduated from Harvard College in
2010 with a concentration in African Studies and a secondary field in Government.
For her senior thesis, Katherine used a linguistic anthropology perspective to study
the micropolitics of language and identity among urban youth in northern Nigeria,
with a focus on the ways that local hiphop artists mobilize linguistic resources to
build identities, critique society, and advocate for social change. After serving as a
National Teaching Fellow with Citizen Schools in Boston, she obtained a master’s
degree in higher education at Iowa State University. She currently serves as
Student Development Coordinator for the Upward Bound program at Central
College, where she supports first-generation students as they prepare for success
in college and beyond.
→ published on june 11, 2015
→ last updated on june 06, 2024
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