[b]»Cyber-cafés are like churches.«[/b]
(Seun Kuti)

[b]»419 is no longer trendy. There are the Internet scammers, the so-called >yahoo yahoo<. Talented guys who make unbelievable money, crazy … Most of them still walk about on the street, they go to their village and are king. No one asks you where you have come from, two years before you were looking for a job, six months later you buy a house – and no one asks where you got the money.«[/b]
(Ayo Animashaun, Hip Hop World Magazine)

The bars of a simple melody ring out blithely – a traditional sounding xylophone, keyboard chords sparingly placed, emphatic winds. We see lightly clad female background dancers with friendly smiles swaying their hips; a man in a long, white robe in their midst is raising his voice. In a few steps he is sitting at a desk with his feet up. The camera shows mostly the soles of his feet from diagonally underneath. »I get sense poverty no good at all … 419 is just a game … I am the master«. But the refrain gives him the greatest satisfaction: »u are da looser i am da winner«. We see our winner at the Murtala Muhammed Airport in Lagos, greeting business people from all over the world and pocketing bundles of money in sparsely furnished rooms at dubious business meetings. »I go chop your Dollar … I will eat your dollars, will take your money and disappear.«

The clip is part of a film called »The Master« by Uzodinna Okpechi; many people call Okpechi a »funny guy«. He is an actor, director and producer who was well on the way to becoming a doctor. Now he is one of the few people in the still growing home-movie film industry of Nigeria to attach importance to technical standards, to light and movement. He calls Tunde Kelani, who has recently been the object of international attention as well, his model. The film quickly became a hit in Lagos last year and caused quite a stir – if the commentary on the site http://www.naijajams.com is to be believed (the clip can also be downloaded here). The irony of it seems to have eluded many viewers, and there was speculation in blogs and forums as to whether it really is an audacious call to carry out 419 scams or not.

419 is an anti-scam law on advance-payment hoaxes and thus applies to the still lucrative business that starts as an imaginative e-mail in umpteen Internet cafés, above all in Lagos. The borderline between »lovely SPAM« and »lovely SCAM« starts when a »margha« - that is Yoruba and approximately means »target person« - clicks on »Reply«. According to the analysis of an ex-scammer in the »Los Angeles Times«, when someone answers there is a 70 percent possibility of money actually changing hands. Everyone with an e-mail account knows the fantastic stories of all the sons of various generals and governors who have inherited or deposited millions, but don’t happen to have a bank account just at present. What is amazing about this is not the fact that the guys in Lagos try it out, but that the fake still works. »Der Spiegel« recently called Lagos the »city of the cyber-gangsters«; the author used the usual metaphors to evoke an atmosphere of rubbish, chaos and poverty, before giving an account taken from the point of view of a victim.

No one in Lagos has any pity for the latter. It’s never the wrong people who are affected, people say; here, the »greedy people« are by themselves. »Four-one-nine« has become the common term for scams of all kinds and a popular theme in popular culture. For example, the rapper Modenine has called one of his songs »419-State of Mind« - a state of mind that tries to include all possible types of schizoid conditions. »419 state of mind, don\'t wanna slave 4 mine / I was born this way / I\'m really trying 2 live straight / but I\'m not qualified 4 a job that pays 10 K …«, sings Terry tha Rapman in »I Am a Nigerian«. This shouldn’t be seen as griping. With »Hi, I am a … ehn? I am a … what? … I am a Nigerian«, Terry, who has completed a course in economics, has taken over Eminem’s »My name is …« note for note, but shifted the individual perspective to a national level, starting with the lines: » Hi, do u trust Nigerians? Kinda people who are rugged and resilient, shady like Sicilians? / livin\' off experience and we crave 2 shine.«
No one trying to describe everyday life in Lagos can manage without words like madness and craziness. Journalists mostly add something about a »fight for survival«. In »419 part 1«, Terry rhymes: »gotta be a smart man to provide for your family / and only a coward runs from reality / i ain\'t gon’ look up in the sky and ask God why / or run to the pastor with tears in my eyes / check this out man, i\'ve got a plan more like a scam / to break some wealthy chick off at least five hundred grand / 419 be the code we here to code«.

The »State of Mind« does not only describe the fight to survive, however, but always puts itself in perspective, corresponds with other parts of the world, always intent on reversing balances of power and dependencies – at least through virtual channels. Without humour, speed and self-confidence this couldn’t be managed. The 419-game is turned about by the so-called »419-eaters« - »scam baiters« -, who try to hoist the scammers by their own petard. They pretend to be interested, invent their own stories, and, at best, send the scammers across the city to branches of Western Union to pick up non-existent money transfers. The fun is using up as much as possible of the scammers’ precious time.

When looking for a short history of the scam, Wikipedia, as so often, is the top port of call. According to it, the 419-scam as such developed in Nigeria from other types of hoaxes that were practised, above all in oil companies and the government, in the seventies and eighties. Here, shady business models were sent by letter, fax or telex. Another argumentation is based on the theory that 419 already evolved several hundred years ago, chiefly in the region of Igboland, and also concentrated on fictitious oil deals. But all these scams only became relevant with the advent of the Internet or, to be exact, since the turn of the millennium. Figures now suggest that the 419 company employs around 250,000 people.

JJC plays another game with 419. JJC is at present being seen as the most successful Nigerian rapper in London. He grew up in Kano, in northern Nigeria, and came to England at the age of 14. JJC stands for »Johnny just come«, and is a reference to the expression »JJD«, created by Fela Kuti, which means »Johnny just drop«, alluding to the experience of many Africans stranded in countries like England, who are too naïve and ill-prepared to make a go of it at the beginning. JJC became known under the name Skillz, and finally got together his own crew (Smokey, S.O. Simple and M.P.): JJC & 419 Squad. They are not concerned with celebrating 419; on the contrary, they want to turn prejudices and projections on their head, go on the positive offensive and work on changing the image of their far-off homeland. »Nigeria is the best land, Nigeria’s got the best booty girls …«

The attitude of Modenine at the end of his »419-State of mind« is as uninspired as it is correct; he reverses the sympathy trip and condescendingly recommends to the cheated e-mail user:

Hey Jack you have bin out shined
By the scam referred to as 419
Now your cursing the day you went on line
Next time be weary of the internet deceit
If you see a strange e-mail my guy
PRESS DELETE!

out:here records in Munich will soon be issuing the sampler »Lagos stori plenti: Urban Sounds from Nigeria«, http://www.outhere.de/

 

Translated by Timothy Jones

 

---