Nana Yaa Jamican Pushes the Envelope in ‘Awurama’

Two lovers are locked in an embrace on the sofa, their dewy bodies clinging to the leather. He’s kissing her tenderly, eventually drawing his lips between the space between her navel and her thighs. She responds with her back arched, ready…receiving.
Unable to contain his desire, he hoists her onto his hips and carries her towards the bedroom, pausing only to crush his weight against her, his hands roving over her ample bosom and full lips.
In a flash, their clothes lay on a heap on the floor. Their lovemaking alternates between moments of tenderness and unbridled urgency. She’s captured him with her magic, her ornate locs entrancing him and her supple ass entangling him in a vortex of sexual passion as she forces his rigidity deeper into her…

Awurama is officially up and coming musician Lord Paper’s music video, however his muse – played by Ghana’s Nana Yaa Jamican – so ferociously commands the attention of the eye that it’s difficult to give him the credit for the artistic work. Like, Nana Yaa snatched this video and made it hers.

It’s pretty fair to say that nothing like Awurama has been seen in Ghana before… and for that reason, people are losing their collective minds. Condemnation of the video has been swift and aggressive, with some people dismissing it as porn and/or filth. That’s to be expected from a society that hides its perverse sexual notions (and actions) behind church doors. These detractors are just playing their rehearsed part. What nobody expected was for 19-year-old Nana Yaa to deviate from the script…and THAT’S why she has found an admirer in me. This young padawan will go far. She’s part of a new vanguard who will lead our young women into the Land of Promise!

In a recent radio interview, she was asked a series of bizarre questions by a male radio host, all in an attempt to shame her for a job that she contractually agreed to, was paid for and delivered stunning results. However the interviewer (whose name I don’t know) couldn’t understand WHY she would agree to this shoot in the first place. Among the other insipid questions asked were:

Did you get wet? *No
You were caressed and fondled and you did not get wet? *I said ‘no’. It was acting.
Who is your pastor? *Ain’t gonna tell ya.
Do you attend church? What church do you attend? *Yeah. I go to church on occasion, but where and when ain’t none of your business.

The transcript of the conversation made me queasy: One because it was on daytime radio, but more importantly because of the false code of morality that the interviewer was attempting to shove down her throat. I don’t know how many women, let alone a 19 year old, could have held their own against this sort of judgmental onslaught. Clearly, the journalist was flummoxed as well.

Him: So you are not bothered?
Nana Yaa: No. I am not because nothing out there was real. It was all acted. As I said before, it was all work. That’s all.

This girl is the GOAT!

It takes a certain sort of strength to bare your body for art. It takes a special kind of skill to make a filmed intimate encounter believable. What has so many hot and bothered around the collar (the steamy video aside) is not that they saw a young woman in a state of undress on their devices, but rather that she was fully in control during the entire encounter. If the video had showed her being conned into sex by some frat boy guy-guy, then it would be more palatable. Unfortunately for our sexually repressed patriarchal society, Awurama is a visual explosion of female sexual agency and liberty.

I don’t know what Nana Yaa intends to do with her career after this, but I certainly wish her the best. She deserves nothing less. She’s beautiful, she’s intelligent and she’s absolutely fearless. Hopefully, Ghanaians will become more progressive before we lose another budding artist to social cowardice and pretense.

YouTube took the video down because it “violates its nudity clause.” That’s how it is with Black bodies and art. Michelangelo’s ‘David’ showcases full frontal nudity (short n’ curlies and all), but bare black backs and legs is considered “porn”? There’s a lot to be said about the politics of that, perhaps on another day. Maybe Kanye will carry it on Tidal. Who knows? In the meantime, you can watch it here.
…Not in the office. This one, watch it in your house.

“All the juice dey here, Lord Paper ft @nanayaa_jamican ????” pic.twitter.com/P2JutB8hZf

— danny® (@dannygh_) September 1, 2016

*Answers paraphrased and redacted

Have you heard any chatter about this video? What do YOU think of it?