By Efosa Taiwo

Each December, Lagos and Accra remodel into vibrant magnets pulling within the African diaspora from London to Atlanta, Nairobi to Berlin.

What began as a celebration season has grown right into a cultural, emotional, and financial engine, driving tourism, shaping popular culture, and influencing spending patterns throughout West Africa.

However this 12 months identical to each different 12 months, a heated rivalry has emerged over who actually owns Detty December and even does it higher.

The banter is louder, the competitors fiercer, and even manufacturers are leaping into the crossfire.

A season that grew right into a motion

Detty December didn’t start as the worldwide phenomenon it’s now. As media entrepreneur Oluwamayowa Idowu notes in an interview with Al Jazeera, the phrase traces again to Mr Eazi’s 2016 monitor Detty Your self. “Humorous sufficient, the tune is just not as memorable as its significance,” he says. “Mr Eazi’s competition helped popularise the ‘Detty December’ tag.”

But it surely was Ghana’s historic Yr of Return in 2019 that cemented the season’s affect.

In line with Terry Afram, founding father of the African Diaspora Fund:

“It was a name to the worldwide African household to return house 400 years after the primary enslaved Africans left Ghana. Instantly, your entire diaspora—Ghanaians, Nigerians—had been returning in droves. My first Detty December was in 2018, and by 2019 it grew to become a motion.”

With that momentum, Accra grew right into a December powerhouse: internet hosting international stars, diasporans, and celebrities who noticed town because the place to be.

But Lagos, with its bursting nightlife ecosystem, mega-concerts, and relentless power, isn’t prepared handy over the crown.

And so the rivalry begins.

Social media streets: Claims of conspiracies, costs, and cultural turf wars

The controversy didn’t begin in diplomatic halls or leisure boardrooms. It began—the place else?—on social media.

A viral tweet by @al_varo777 added gas: “There’s a conspiracy occurring in Ghana. It says Nigerian high officers have paid international content material creators to push an agenda making Ghana look unsafe throughout Detty December… They wish to shift consideration and make Nigeria appear to be the choice.”

His conclusion? The streets have to fact-check every thing.

One other facet of the dialog focuses on affordability. Ghana just lately introduced a slash in passport software charges—from GH500 to GH350—to draw extra vacationers this December.

In the meantime, Nigeria is making ready new air journey taxes and a Detty December activity pressure.

Journey content material creator Aisha, who has skilled each Lagos and Accra Decembers, places it bluntly:

“Ghana may win this invisible race as a result of in Nigeria every thing is simply costly. The identical live performance I attended final 12 months for N150k is now N400k. An outfit that was N39k in October is now N53k.”

For a lot of revellers, the financial actuality is turning into a deciding issue within the Lagos vs. Accra rivalry.

Accra says it began it

Ghanaian OAP Emefa Deka reignited the possession debate when she declared in a clip by way of her podcast, ItsFuse.

“Everyone knows Detty December belongs to Ghana. Ghana truly began it… Nigerians try to assert Detty December once more, which I don’t know why.”

Her declare immediately triggered banter throughout either side of the digital border.

Nigerians argued Lagos has at all times been the leisure capital; Ghanaians insisted Accra made Detty December a world model.

Hen Republic joins the banter — by bringing Ghana Jollof to Nigeria

Once you thought the rivalry was restricted to nightlife and tourism, well-liked meals restaurant in Nigeria, Hen Republic determined to stir the pot—actually.

A tweet by @Hybrid_Ola captured the second:

“Since Hen Republic determined to deliver Ghana Jollof for Detty December, at the very least Ghanaians in Nigeria received’t miss house an excessive amount of!”

In a single sweeping transfer, a Nigerian fast-food large entered the jollof conflict—arguably essentially the most emotional rivalry between each nations.

The reactions?
Pure chaos.
Pure comedy.
Pure Detty December power.

They even included their Detty December hyperlink, prompting the remark:

“They even added hyperlink for Detty December oblee o wahala.”

A rivalry rooted in tradition, financial system, and pleasure

At its core, this Lagos–Accra competitors is about greater than events. It’s about:

• Financial ambition: Each cities need the tourism income.
• Cultural status: Who units the December normal for Africa?
• Diaspora loyalty: The place will the worldwide Black neighborhood select?
• Id: Whose creativity leads the December wave?

Each December, flights are packed, lodges overflow, and leisure calendars conflict. Lagos boasts its legendary concert events—Flytime, native festivals, membership residencies. Accra counters with Afrochella (now AfroFuture), seashore festivals, intimate artwork occasions, and a diaspora-heavy viewers. Every brings one thing distinctive. Every believes they do it greatest.

The publish Who owns it? Nigeria, Ghana Detty December rivalry rekindles appeared first on Vanguard News.

Source link