Nawodè -By Kehinde Oluwatosin Babatunde

“Ìyàwó n foso dabo , ìyàwó n dáná dabo, ìyàwó wà ínu yàrá dabo” This is a snippet from a jingle regularly played by sellers of sexual performance enhancing drugs. This jingle simply encourages men to consistently have sexual intercourse with their partners in all circumstances to proof sexual prowess.

The connection between masculinity and sexual performance in Africa’s context cannot be over emphasised. It is painted in pictures, spoken in movies, warped in myths and folklore and waxed in songs. If you are raised in Yoruba land, popular lingos such as ‘Nawodè, Nawoya, olómi ló ma rè, aso múséyá” all paint to certain degree images of lucre and erotica which often place pressure of performance on parties involved.

To the African, longevity in sexual performance is everything, if he doesn’t last long his masculinity is put under scrutiny. His access to pornography has also complicated his dilemma as he often crave to be like the porn stars both in genital size and length of time spent in the act.

Kehinde Oluwatosin Babatunde

Given the aforementioned background, the sales of sexual performance drugs has been on the high. I hardly pass by any junction without seeing a sales outlet and you need to hear the jingles.

The jingles are the next most scary thing after the imagery of hell and brimstone painted to Christ rejects.

An instance is when the jingle beseech you as a man to patronize their products and prevent the gateman or driver from “servicing” your partner. This imagery of heightened sexual performance consciously or unconsciously speaks to a man, women also raise their sexual expectations from these monologues.

Historically advertising has been discovered to create stories to appeal to fear so that they can capture our attention. It is an emotion the human mind finds hard to resist or control hence the promulgators of such jingles are constantly shifting our focus to new possible sources of anxiety.

With the increasing sophistication of the media and the visceral quality of the imagery, they have been able to give us the feeling that we are fragile creatures in an environment full of danger.

May be somebody will read this and discover that sexual longevity is a suppliers convergence technique to increase sales, may be somebody will read this and see that pornography is choreographed and purposely done for commercial purposes and not necessarily a depiction of the reality, may be somebody will read this and find out that sexual inadequacies are not the only reasons for infidelity, may be somebody will read this and grow beyond fears and see his sexual prowess as the gold standard.

Kehinde Oluwatosin Babatunde is a prolific writer and public speaker based in Lagos.

Kehindeobabatunde@gmail.com