Dictionary definition of “roforofo fight”

roforofo fight

n. a political battle in which no participant is unsullied; a mud-slinging contest. Subjects: Nigeria, Politics

Etymological Note: This was popularized by, if not originated by, the 1972 song Roforofo Fight by Nigerian musician Fela Anikulapo Kuti. The first part of the term is apparently the reduplicated Yoruba word rofo ‘mud.’

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Citations: 2000 Mideno Bayagbon Vanguard Daily (Lagos, Nigeria) (June 21) “13% Derivation War Coming”: The war gongs are already primed, trenches are being dug, and the various troops are moving into positions. Nothing, it seems can stop this fight that promises to be what the late Afro beat musician, Fela Anikulapo Kuti, described as roforofo fight. Happily, however, this time, gunrunners and all those who specialize in fanning the embers of war for their own, selfish interest, will not be needed. 2000 Sufuyan Ojeifo @ Abuja Vanguard Daily (Lagos, Nigeria) (Nov. 5) “Na’Abba vs. Obasanjo: The lingering blackmail”: Nigeria’s Lower Legislative Chamber is involved in what the Yoruba call roforofo fight with the Executive arm of government headed by President Olusegun Obasanjo. Participants in such fight cannot escape being badly messed up or roundly stained. It does not matter the justification or innocence to which a participant lays claim. 2001 [Aiyekooto] Tempo (Nigeria) (Feb. 15) “Of Under 50s And Veterans”: I just love reading them—I mean the young ones lambasting the old ones and the old ones almost raining curses on the young ones. That is the politicians and aspiring politicians.…The genesis of this rofo-rofo fight, to my mind, is simply frustration. 2003 Trevor Schoonmaker Fela: From West Africa to West Broadway (July 4) p. 192: In Roforofo Fight (1972), Fela Anikulapo-Kuti sings about a very angry friend who, against all the remonstrations of his colleagues, engages in a nasty brawl in a pool of mud with an unspecified assailant. Consequently, the mud (roforofo) claims both assailant and defender as the two brawlers come to “look like twins,” their spearate identities indistinguishable in their grotesque, muddied appearance. 2005 Funke Aboyade This Day (Lagos, Nigeria) (June 23) “An Ill Wind…”: They are taking no prisoners and what is known in local parlance as a roforofo fight is the only way they know.

Posted 24 Jun 05 | Permalink | Tell a Friend