Editor’s Note : This article was written in 2004 by T, Staffer of De Birhan Media. It is taken out from our files. Lots must have changed since then, our partner in Addis Abeba, Derese Tariku would enlighten us with the 2012 day-parties in Addis Abeba soon.
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By T, Staffer of De Birhan Media
September 2004, Addis Abeba
She bounces.
Bounces and re-bounces again.
Shakes it, wines and shakes it again.
And she is only a teenager; the boy is a teen too. He is almost to unzip his locker- her temptation was so high on his nerves. In the dimming room of a bunch of teenagers and few adolescents, people dance like no one is in the room except themselves and them. The mixture of the colognes, sweats and hard drinks and drugs at times turns you upside down and shows you everything kaleidoscopic.
Seemingly very petty misdemeanors but with awfully lots of negative consequences on the generation are being manifested in the so called day parties that currently seem to have taken the teenage world by storm.
Partying has been with us since time immemorial but day parties of the sorts in clubs by teenage students are a foreign introduction. If we recollect back to the 1930s and have a glance at how prostitution began in Ethiopia for instance, there are references which indicate that during the five years of Italian invasion of Ethiopia, Ethiopian women were required for sex by Italian soldiers and presented with money. Through this progression, prostitution also brought about nightclubs, brothels, bars and strip dance clubs to attain today’s intensity.
Professor Bahru Zewde in his book “A History of Modern Ethiopia 1855-1974” writes on page 164 “The ban on marriage of Italians with Ethiopian women (nicknamed Madamismo by Italian officialdom) remained a legal fiction. Given the enormous numerical imbalance between Italian males and females, this was inevitable; further, there was the fact that those of open-minded Latino temperament were largely impervious to the racist policy. The sizeable mixed population bequeathed to Ethiopia was a result of these marriages. On an informal plane, initially sponsored by the officials through the importation of European practitioners of the trade, prostitution assumed a wide spread character. It has often been cited as one of the legacies of Italian rule in Ethiopia.”
The above excerpt paves the picture into how the introduction of “modern prostitution” by the Italian occupiers led to the brothels and clubs of today that played their own part in the transmission of HIV/AIDS.
Nowadays we are forced to encounter in our day to day life behaviours that are either unhealthy or alien. Of these, day parties are becoming the day to day lifestyle of the youth and teenagers in Addis. Once or twice a week, it is easy to find at least one party in a bar or hotel by high school teenagers who rent bars hold their day parties. It is good to have fun, but what is bad is what really goes down there and the novelty comes in the ‘who’ are the part takers of those clubs.
They are entirely teenagers, teenagers between the ages of 13-19.
These teens begin the business by selecting a DJ; it can be anyone with a good number of CDs, then they prepare fliers which will be distributed in different high schools in the city with information on the entrance fee (frequently 10 or 20 birr per individual) and encourage the participation of couples saying “Discount for couples; only 12 birr”, the rest of the tips will be on who the DJ is and where it’s going to be and the like. And of course, the group leaders have to pay for the rent of the dance hall. The two most hotels used are Cottage in Ghion Hotel and Ibex Hotel in Bole. The best place to get the flyer and posters is either in schools or cafes in Piassa mainly around Hermon Cafe. That is where the plain folks of Addis hangout unlike Wube Bereha and Eri Bekentu in the days of our parents.
They leave no stone unturned to make this event successful at any cost; they usually succeed in having over attendance and profit.
Some three years ago party cultures were not as rampant as they are today (2005). Radically, things got tainted and the city has now become crowded with teenagers that are much “Americanized”.
Without a doubt, these teenagers are influenced by African American songs, styles, cultures and what and what not. FM Radio DJs must have played a part too. The new grounds being broken by the young people would surely make the public see how passionately they are affected by foreign culture. This age group which may be put as early youth time is the best age group to mould ideologically or routine. Children within this age if skilled, cultivated and treated with ethics, end up in being a wise and hopeful generation tomorrow.
What in the end would be the fate of these dance infatuated children?
Let’s once again tag on our view of those dance halls. These teens cut (forfe) their classes to join the parties with their uniforms hidden in bags and wearing real cool dresses.
For instance, boys wear hats, bandanas, earnings, t-shirts that have numbers and pictures of eminent rappers, necklaces with big letters, and wild trousers. Girl dancers on their side wear bandana, attach plasters on their faces, smear their body with perfumes and cosmetics, and wear sweat shirts, tops, hip hugging pants and miniskirts.
The dance floors blaze with ear-splitting songs. Everybody in the room then dances with pleasure. Music from all around the world: Reggae, raga, dance hall, samba, salsa, slow love songs, African music, hot rap, R&B and etc are the kinds of songs featured in the house.
All acts performed from dancing, stroking, kissing and what have you. But the scene that catches one’s eye especially are couples deeply kissing on the sofa, deliberately made for that purpose, smoking drugs, drinking alcohols (all these the timeless things that never fail to excite teens). Rape cases have been reported in various occasions. Beginning from around 2pm in the afternoon, they get down until 5pm. Hotels don’t mind renting their halls for underage, selling drinks to them and so on. Finally, when the closing time of the party approaches, they head to the bathroom, wash up and go home, but not before changing back into their uniforms as if they were sticking with the black and whites. As it can be assumed these teens are lured by the perky and nihilistic impression of these boogie floor indisputably, and their outcomes are easy to prophesize.
“I feel elegant when I dance. I mostly appear in parties that cost a lot and competent dancers are present. For instance, I have frequently won rap dance competition. I have a high regard for rappers like 50 cent, Eminem, Usher and the like,” says a 16 year old regular dancer who talked to this writer on an anonymous basis.
Coughing due to over smoking, this teen who aspires to be a famous dancer in the future, says his addiction to cigarettes started while going to day parties. “I do not think that dancing and partying cast a bad spell on us, they are excellent pass times,” said the young fellow.
During my short visit of the day parties, I came across very exasperating gestures which are far from Ethiopian culture and norm, like same sex relations ships; oh dudes, what’s goin on? Ask yourself!
Alemu Abeba, a social psychologist, and researcher believes that human personalities are shaped by social, environmental, current situational factors, peer pressure, genetic and imitational factors. So the teen’s behaviour is affected by all of the above and especially peer pressure and current situation which can be a reflection of the information-age.
They imitate their peers as they extremely want to fulfill their psychological, physical needs, such as the gang character. External aggravating factors such as drinks, bare dressings during the dance, can clearly be seen from a psychoanalytic view, it forces them to unwanted sex.
“The consequences are like social, economic and health. Socially, they inject such behaviours in to the community and stand distinctively from the accepted social norms. Economically, as they get scarce of money to enter the party, they will begin thieving and hooliganism. In the context of health problem, due to the tributes of the above stated atmosphere in the dance room, uncontrolled sex leads them to STDs (Sexually Transmitted Diseases), unwanted pregnancy, abortion and other health problems and most of all HIV/AIDS.” the psychologist added.
He presents the following as a solution: One, the hotel owners should stop running such parties for the sake of grabbing money and rather find an end to it. The mass media have a great role to play in changing their attitude, the hotels and teenagers. But, the best means is Focus Group Discussion (FGD), in which these teenagers are brought into groups and made to discuss on the matter.
pary all time
