My name is Oyinda and I love to work with words and their definitions.
The idea of this write-up is to describe YABZ MASTERZ – the first Nigerian oral sports competition, a.k.a OUR BRAND.
My simple definition goes thus:
“Yabz Masterz is an oral sport that originates from the Nigerian art called Yabbing.
KEYWORDS: Oral sport, Nigerian art, Yabbing.
- Oral sports: a sport is a competitive activity that is governed by rules and involves some form of physical or mental skill. An oral sport, therefore, implies a vocal competition (that is, a sport that involves the mouth, the voice… definitely not kissing :p)… a competition of words.
Yabz Masterz is a competition of words that involves contestants (called Yabbers) who make use of satire to outplay their opponents. Yabz Masterz is not a freestyle battle or a rap contest. It is a comedic oral activity.
- Nigerian art : art is the creation of beautiful things. In this case, art refers to the creative skill of humans to produce words and sentences that carry wit, humour and intellect.
Nigeria is known for its multicultural diversity - a nation populated by people with different religious, educational and traditional ideologies. Yet for nearly a hundred years (since 1914 when the northern and southern protectorate was amalgamated ) these people, someway and somehow, have managed to put aside their cultural differences and embrace unity (now, let’s forget Boko Haram and Biafra) to remain one country called Nigeria . This unity is a beautiful thing, an art in itself. Our unity comprises a fusion of our cultures, languages (Nigerian English, Pidgin English...) and so on.
In times like this when there is constantly an adverse plethora of news reports, one needs a getaway. Our idea of a getaway is indulging comedy. By developing casual or standup comedy and transforming it into comedy battles, we encourage a brand new form of entertainment for the Nigerian society. Yabbing becomes an art… proudly Nigerian.
- Yabbing : if you are one of those who as a kid, played Suwe, table soccer, tinko tinko, O.J.O, ‘you mess…’, you probably will be familiar with ‘yabbing’. Yabbing is a humorous game (that some people might take seriously), which involves the participants (Yabbers) having a go at themselves i.e engaging themselves in a mental 'wordfare' (wordplay + warfare) with the objective of deciding or determining the better Yabber.
Yabz Masterz takes its roots from the concept of yabbing.
If you still have some difficulty in comprehending what Yabz Masterz is all about, let us take you to the movie “Omo Ghetto”.
These part of the movie was called Messing Time - a depiction of Yabbing.