Ivory Coast: People Are Flapping Their Arms And Clucking Like Hens

Scotsman.com: Ivory Coast in a song and dance over birdflu

14 May 2006


Days after bird flu was detected in Ivory Coast, hundreds of people were trembling, flapping their arms and clucking like hens.

The movements which are now the talk of the town in the West African country are the brainchild of a 21-year-old disc jockey DJ Lewis, who invented a dance making light of the deadly virus -- by imitating a chicken in its death throes during a cull.

DJ Lewis says he's trying to fight fear of the disease by getting people to have a laugh about it. Worries about bird flu have turned Ivorians off poultry and boosted demand for snails, rabbit, antelope and other bush meat. "It's catching on quickly. People are coming from around Abidjan to see it," the DJ, with his name tattooed onto his right arm in large block letters told Reuters, adding he was partly inspired to do it by traditional Ivorian custom. "Witchdoctors would get everyone in the village to dance to chase out disease so I started to think about how my ancestors would deal with (bird flu)," said the 21-year-old prize-winning DJ who still eats chicken if he's "sure it's well cooked".

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