Azonto dance gained international recognition from 2010 onwards
Ghana and Nigeria have long shared cultural ties across food, music, and sports, and dance is no exception.
Dr Terry Bright Ofosu, a lecturer in the Department of Dance Studies at the University of Ghana, has explained how Ghana’s Azonto dance, which gained international recognition in the early 2010s, inspired Nigeria to develop dance styles such as Alinko, Shoki, and Shaku Shaku.
In an interview with Kafui Dey aired on March 20, 2026, Dr Ofosu noted that Nigeria sought to annex Azonto because of the global attention it received.
As a result, P-Square released a song titled Alinko with an accompanying dance, though it failed to achieve the same international impact.
According to him, Ghanaian artiste Samini (then known as Batman) challenged P-Square’s move, arguing that Alinko carried an Azonto feel, making it unclear why they attempted to rebrand it.
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“Ghana had been involved with Nigeria in the issue of Azonto; the Nigerians wanted to annex it and call it something else. So they did a song called Alinko. And then Batman, or Samini, rebutted and said, ‘I see you doing Azonto. You are telling me you are doing Alinko? What is Alinko?’ P-Square released that song, but they couldn’t hit, make any good hits, out of the dance that they wanted to create,” he noted.
He further stated that Nigeria then became more deliberate about creating new dance styles, leading to the emergence of Shoki, which went viral.
“So now they decided to become very conscious of the creation of new dances. So they created Shoki, and it went viral. And all this was after Azonto. They wanted to show us that, whichever way we look at it, they are also a force, maybe better than us,” he said.
Dr Ofosu added that after Shoki, Nigerians introduced another dance, Shaku Shaku, which was intentionally designed to go viral and rival Azonto’s impact.
“So after some time, they released Shaku Shaku. And the person consciously released the movement because they wanted it to go viral. They wanted to say, ‘Look, we have a movement that can match Azonto.’ But unfortunately for them, Shaku Shaku remains Shaku Shaku; Shoki remains Shoki,” he concluded.
The Ghana/Nigeria Azonto/Alingo argument from a scholarly perspective.
— Kafui Dey (@KafuiDey) March 21, 2026
Full video here https://t.co/5MHIILkXIM #KafuiDeyInterviews pic.twitter.com/zdBKFyivQj
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