The video itself is an optical feast straight out of and reminiscent of a late eighties/early nineties era. It projects Awu, his buddies and ladies in old-fashioned gear, grooving and living it up in an archaic Peugeot 504 on the streets of Douala, in a place which seems to be around the old buildings in Akwa. They move into a vintage bar where people down bottles of beer and others play those now forgotten video games in vending machine-sized boxes placed in small public rooms and managed by katikas.
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The partygoers unleash slow Soukous like moves, ladies teasing, and they all flaunt a repertoire of impressive old-school fashion.They don those unmistakable jackets (Kawear), Wrangler Jeans, baggy Jeans skirts, long pairs of socks, FILA snickers, tallons, giant Kiwi polished shoes, Kangol caps, Panama hats, baggy suits, Apagas, suspenders (pinafour), weird necklaces and stylish sunglasses.
It makes the well-shot video by Geraldrico Guevara a rare and colourful celebration of old, raining down in me memories of my parents’ pictures of that era. It is still a wonder how Brice Toukam (Brisse Style) pulled off that costume feat for the video. Also, Geraldrico sometimes alternates the mostly coloured images with black and white ones to deepen the eighties feel of the song – not to forget the two funny men jogging near the Peugeot 504 with rolled-up trousers who add a Miché Kang Kang like twist to their clothing for comic effect.
The director really gets the video concept right, but sometimes the visuals feel like too much of an exhibition of the eighties swagger and fashion, rather than a projection of plot. Overall, the video of “Yayayo” dey tchak and it delivers in its attempt to blend the priceless imagery of a bygone era with a contemporary song that has got an eighties oomph.
NkiachaAtemnkeng is a Cameroonian Writer and Music Journalist. His work has been published in The Africa Report, Culture Trip, Bakwa, Saraba and Gyara magazines. He is a Goethe Institut/Sylt Foundation writing residency fellow.
