Nyango Melissa wrote, "One popular past-time in our schools is games - inter-house or inter-school championships - football (called soccer in the U.S.), basketball, volleyball, track and field. So, we have quite a few victory songs.

With this first one, we use the names of the schools involved or the houses (boarding school, hostels), etc. I'll use houses in this version..."

Notes

*"Wowo" is a Pidgin English word for "ugly". So, the singers are implying that the winning house is so great/beautiful.
**"Biala" is a word that we no longer know the meaning of. It must be from an African Language, either Cameroonian or the neighboring Nigeria. And at "O Mama, shake your waist, etc." we do put our hands on our waist and dance :-)

Thanks and Acknowledgements

Many thanks to Nyango Melissa Nambangi of the Minnesota African Women's Association for contributing this song and for telling us about the singing traditions in Cameroon.

Thanks so much!