Tanzania’s Shaa Shows Where Twerking Came From

Tanzanian artist Sarah Kaisi, a.k.a. Shaa (pictured with mouth open), recently released “Sugua Gaga (Chakacha),” which is already taking the African music scene by storm. Shaa’s latest hit features the aforementioned chakacha, which is the traditional music and dance style (also called “ngoma”) of the Swahili speakers of Kenya and Tanzania. Originally performed by women, who usually wear kangas around their breasts and/or waists at weddings, the dance involves the winding of the waist, which is common throughout Africa. In Shaa’s version, though, the women put more of an emphasis on the backside, which makes it instantly recognizable as the popular twerking that is being done by young people everywhere. With twerking being all the rage these days, Shaa’s recent video shows that twerking — as with everything else — clearly originated in Africa. Enjoy!