LISTEN: Zed Ay Kay – ‘Armah Senegal (Prod. by Dream Jay)

The global Coronavirus pandemic which has gripped the world, has seen countries forced to forego various greeting rituals for hygiene reasons. In a time when we are all being encouraged to find creative solutions to problems, people around the world are getting creative with their greeting habits in an effort to reduce the risk of contracting the Coronavirus and to prevent its spread.

In Ghana however, the social etiquette of a handshake looks like one of those old habits that will not be dying anytime soon. The temptation to shake a friend’s hand is so strong that it will take a conscious effort on everyone part to resist the urge. That said, handshakes and other forms of bodily contact will need to be avoided, if we are to succeed in slowing down the spread of the virus. That is the message Zed Ay Kay is seeking to communicate in his latest piece which he describes as a public service announcement.

The song titled ‘Armah Senegal’ on the aptly named ”Vaccine Riddim” is a collaboration between kenkeyandfish.com and Accra-based producer, Dream Jay. A spokesman for Kenkeyandfish said ”The idea is to use music to communicate important messages, which will be important in the fight against this virus”. She added ”Kenkeynandfish is a multi-digital platform that was due to launch in June 2020, however we have suspended our launch to help in the fight against the Coronavirus. We can only defeat this if everybody does their little bit to help”.

Explaining the ‘Armah Senegal’ choice as a song title, Zed Ay Kay said ”In Ghana, refusing a handshake is seen as a snub, so we need an alternative rather than just refusing to shake hands. As people have already come up with the foot shake, I thought about giving it a name”. He went on to add that ”The action of the foot shake resembles a tackling action. My lyrics also talk about having a strong defence against the virus, so I thought I name it after arguable the best and most endearing Ghanaian defender of my generation. In times like these we need heroes and Armah Senegal is definitely one”.