Several accounts say Azonto was formerly known as 'Apaa' in these communities.[3] The Apaa dance, hence Azonto dance, involves a set of hand movements that either mimic everyday activities especially ones concerning people's livelihoods,[4] or moves that are meant to amuse an audience.
It began with one- or two-step movements but has been advanced to more complex and almost acrobatic movements.[5] Just like most African dances, Azonto involves knee bending and hip movements. The dance has effectively evolved from a few basic moves to miming actions such as ironing of clothes, washing, driving, boxing, praying, swimming, and others.[6]
History
Azonto is a communicative dance believed to originate from "Apaa" which literally means to work. Apaa was used to show the profession of an individual. The azonto dance has since grown further to relay coded messages. The dance later got into the minds of most Ghanaians. In the same year (2013),[7] most Ghanaian music videos were full of Azonto dance and later spread to most African countries and other parts of the world.[8][9]
Popular music researcher Jesse Weaver Shipley claims that like hiplife, the popularity of Azonto is a direct result of its interactions in diaspora. Azonto[1] is identified with Ghanaian indigeneity by those abroad and with cosmopolitanism by those at home"[10]
International popularity
Azonto can be traced as far back as one of R2Bees upcoming songs "Azonto" but was rejuvenated by Guru's Lapaz Toyota and later the producer NshonnaMusick with the song "You Go Kill Me" which had Sarkodie (rapper) and EL (rapper) on it. It was later popularized on social media by the music videos that portrayed the dance form with fast-pace tempos, home-made dance instructional videos uploaded on YouTube with no commercial intent, and group choreographers done by mostly Ghanaians and other African nationals living in UK, Germany and U.S.[11]
^Shipley, J. W. (2013), "Transnational circulation and digital fatigue in Ghana's Azonto dance craze", American Ethnologist, 40 (2): 362–381, doi:10.1111/amet.12027
