Counting the hours to Paprika for Africa by Modena Kallo

 
If you happen to get in the middle of the movie, just a little recap. This year the Summer Olympics will take place in Tokyo, the popular coopted Olympic theme song is called Paprika- it is a 75 years old Japanese folk song that was worked on by the band Forin and it is buzzing on the radio and TV in Japan.


  Some African student on scholarship in Japanese Universities thought it wise to infuse a bit of African flavor to the gleeful song and a reciprocal gesture to the pleasantries from the Japanese people. The idea is creating cameo African videos of Paprika wherein African famed for rhythmic dance moves will enact the Paprika dance steps or upgrade it.

  In a no holds bar creative spree then came the idea of 'Emojis' or creating lookalike stickers of famous African Olympians to be exact. Emojis are original to Japan; it has a coherent inflexive trend of glamorizing Japan and the stars-turn-emojis: Eliud Kipchoge, Chioma Ajunwa, and Wayde van Niekerk.



  Thus far the adverts for Paprika for Africa have been in English, French, Swahili and Efik languages. The activities on the day will be the uploading of the aforementioned African Olympic stars' emojis on popular social media and chat app WhatsApp and kick start the creation of African cameo videos of Paprika- this is an autonomous version meaning anyone can do the "Paprika for Africa" challenge of creating the videos.

Watch Paprika Video here

The date of the launch is Tuesday, February 25th, 2020 by 7 pm JPT or GMT + 1. The event is via a live webinar and the link to the webinar will be out to the public on Thursday, February 20th, 2020. Do watch this space or better all information will be available on the Facebook page " Otondo in Japan".

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  It is noteworthy to mention the value of Kakehashi Africa to this endeavor. Furthermore, the work of Nigerian Musician Didee Eta who created the first African version of Paprika and dance group K7 that created the first choreographed dance to the song.

Watch more of it here