A 400-strong crowd gathered in Abidjan's Yopougon-Selmer neighbourhood to witness biama dance battles. Performers, some as young as five, transformed a public square into a vibrant dance arena. The event commenced approximately six hours after its advertised midday start, a common occurrence in local cultural gatherings.
Sauce Graine, a 15-year-old dancer whose real name is Arnold, began his biama journey six years ago. "This [is a] small ceremony so that people can see the talent we have… a talent that God has given to each of us to share with the whole world," he stated. He acknowledged the dance's current local perception, adding, "Since many people aren’t very familiar with the dance yet, they think it’s just a neighbourhood thing. All we have to do is create the dance so that more people can see it and love it."
The Cultural Origins
Named after an Ivorian palm nut delicacy, Sauce Graine competed in street dance battles set to biama. This frenetic style is an offshoot of coupé-décalé, a percussive dance music popular across west Africa that originated in Côte d’Ivoire around the turn of the century. Audience members, some enjoying skewered meat or drinks, frequently joined in as competitors displayed intricate footwork and dramatic chest pops. This genre stands as a testament to the resurgence of Ivorian pop culture over the past decade, alongside maïmouna, a local hip-hop strain described as a fusion of coupé-décalé and rap Ivoire.
While the exact emergence of biama remains debated, its popularity exploded after the coronavirus pandemic. Young people leveraged TikTok, posting and responding to dance challenges that combined acrobatics with a distinct goofiness, pushing physical limits. Cédric Kouamé, a music producer and chief archivist at Baoulecore Archive Center in Abidjan, described biama as "coupé-décalé 2.0, like at 200% speed." He noted its origins in Yopougon, stating, "Like maïmouna, it comes from Yopougon. Most trends start [in] Yopougon. It is basically where a lot of artists started their career."
For decades, Yopougon has dictated the cultural zeitgeist of both Abidjan and Côte d’Ivoire, shaping national cultural continuity. Stéphane Doukouré, known as Douk Saga, grew up there. He founded coupé-décalé with his Jet 7 crew after returning from Paris in the early 2000s. In Paris, he had gained notoriety in a nightclub frequented by wealthy young partygoers, notably by setting light to thousands of euros. Their genre championed the philosophy of sagacité, emphasizing the shrewdness needed to outwit authority, alongside farotement, the flamboyant display of wealth. This free-spending hedonism offered escapism for many Ivorians living through the country's civil war. Doukouré died from lung disease 20 years ago, in 2006, at the age of 32.
A New Generation's Ascent
Ange Didier Houon, born in Yopougon to a prominent Ivorian sound engineering figure, further propelled the genre. His Lebanese friends gave him the stage name DJ Arafat in his teens, after the Palestinian political leader. One of his earliest breakthrough hits, "Jonathan," released 23 years ago in 2003, paid homage to a DJ friend killed in a motorbike crash. Over time, he increased his music's tempo to match the high-energy, acrobatic roukaskas routines devised by his dancers, drawing on traditional Ivorian dance. These dancers, with their feet shuffling quickly in lêkê, the ubiquitous Ivorian water-resistant plastic sandals, continued a long tradition of audience participation in Ivorian popular music. Arafat's following grew so large that fans referred to themselves as "the Chinese." After his death in another motorbike collision 7 years ago, in August 2019, many believed the genre, already showing signs of decline, was nearing its end.
Today, a new generation of artists vies to become the next megastar of Ivorian pop. Didi B, who has gained international recognition, and the more street-famous Himra, are among those championing maïmouna. Their rivalry intensified last year when both filled stadiums weeks apart in different parts of the country. Biama remains the more popular of the two subgenres, particularly among children and young people, who proudly call themselves biamaseurs and eagerly accept dance challenges shared across social media.
Defining Identity
Popular dancer Kalomaman stated, "Biama is, first of all, a dance for the immature." Midway through the event in Yopougon, Kehou Mousso, a biama dancer and one of the genre's few female musicians, took to the stage to loud cheers. Known to her 2.6 million TikTok followers as the "queen of coupé-décalé," she and four of her dancers appeared as special guests, wearing a waist-length orange wig and a frilled green outfit. She explained that the frenetic biama choreography demands constant improvisation. "You have to be improvising every second," she said. Some cultural observers in Côte d’Ivoire dismiss the genre as little more than "street music," but biamaseurs remain undeterred. Sauce Graine expressed confidence, stating, "People will love us. They will dance [and] little by little, they will spread the word through their social networks. Then it will take off."