Interestingly, both dance moves have come on the back of two disruptive sounds in their respective countries of origin; the Agege-originated street hop from Nigeria and the South African House/Gqom, a direct offspring of the South African Kwaito.

You might have seen the very hilarious viral videos where people suddenly fall down or ‘fake-faint’ while dancing before they get up and then fall again moments later. You might have laughed for hilarity or simply looked on with angry cynicism. The dance is called the Idibala and it originates from South Africa.

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In fact, Eye Witness News has called it the new global obsession and it is not farfetched. Coincidentally, it comes at the same time as the Chinese trend, the “Falling State Challenge” which rich kids use to flaunt their wealth. Interestingly, to participate, you also have to fall down and scatter your expensive accessories around you, then take a picture for Instagram.

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Asides coinciding with a trend that also looks like it and they can coexist on some artistic way, the dance is fast taking over social media and it has started as a challenge, with a hashtag #IdibalaChallenge.

Origin

The dance started off a song titled Malwedhe (Not Idibala) by South Africa act, King Monada which looks set to defeat House/Gqom as the tune of the festive period in South Africa. EWN reports that popular South African Disc Jockey, DJ Tira has accepted defeat to the virality of King Monada’s ‘Idibala’ as the tune for Christmas.

King Monada - Malwedhe (Idibala Dance)

The very origin of the song is from the meaning of King Monada’s song, Malwedhe which addresses a lover that if she leaves him, he will faint. Thus, when the song gets to the hook around the rhythmic chants of “Idibala… Idibala…,” people mimic fainting to practice was the song preaches. That was how the dance started.

The #IdibalaChallenge and the age of social media hashtags

Currently, the song has created a challenge, the #IdibalaChallenge which enjoins people to create videos of themselves dancing to King Monada’s Malwedhe and post videos on social media and we know what happens when songs are used to created #Challenge or flash mobs.

The idea of viral trends off hashtags and dance routines became popular around 2010/2011 with the emergence of the electro-pop group, LMFAO and the release of their hits, Party Rock Anthem and Sorry For Party Rocking which introduced the idea of their dance routine called, shuffling.

Soon after, Korean superstar, Psy dropped the superhit, Gangnam Style. They all became Billboard Hot 100 Number one singles.

Then, it became Bauuer and his single, Harlem Shake which also got to Number one. The idea of these dance trends then morphed into flash mobs, which encouraged people to perform choreographies in horizontal or vertical lines, numbering in hundreds around 2012.

The flash mob idea was then popularized by movies, Friends With Benefits, starring Mila Kunis and Justin Timberlake and the Step Up movie franchise.

Viral flash mobs then morphed into viral social media hashtags that encouraged global participation by the internet with the #IceBucketChallenge which people created for the disease, ALS or Lou Gehrig’s disease. Then, it became the #MannequinChallenge which propelled the Rae Sremmurd single, Black Beatles into a Billboard Hot 100 Number one song.

In between those, we had global dance routines like dabbing,Nae Nae or Bobby Schmurda’s Schmoney Dance or the Dougie before they also had immeasurable effects.

The world then got awakened to the #InMyFeelingsChallenge started by Shiggy of theshiggyshow from Drake’s song, In My Feelings. This propelled the song to become the song of summer 2018 and another Billboard Hot 100 Number one single.

Currently, with the #IdibalaChallenge now colliding with another viral trend like the #FallingStarsChallenge from China and far-easy Asia where people are also required to fall down, King Monada’s hit looks set to become the song of Christmas 2018.

We don’t have good charts that adequately track song success across Africa, but we know when routines have gone viral, because they usually aid song success and get beyond Africa.

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Before Idibala, there was the Azonto from Ghana, Alanta from Nigeria, Shoki from Nigeria, Ololo from Tanzania, Kizombafrom Angola and Skelewu from Nigeria. Before then, there was Yahooze from Nigeria and Makossa from the Francophone Soukous.

Interestingly, some of these dance routines never really collide whenever they get to that premier position of the №1 dance obsession for the continent and the larger black community that usually infects the European people of African descent or citizenship.

That position looks set to be Idibala’s, and it might just become a global phenomenon. How long it will last, nobody knows. Here is a cross section of some Idibala videos for you;

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