Mannequin: Fally Ipupa's Make-Believe Cat-Walk

In Mannequin, the catwalk rump isn't really for "the walk." That was a ruse everyone went along with, though a few do get to walk. Or perhaps those gathered there couldn't find a more appropriate venue for their purposes. The real business in this music video is "talk". But everyone is agreed, it seems, that the talk shall be walked, without any strict "runway" rules. Still, everyone, aware of the venue, is dressed for the part they imagine will be theirs, when the "show" gets going.

WATCH: Mannequin Video  

There are three camps at the gathering, fronted by Fally Ipupa, KeBlack and Naza -- if one gets it right. And there is only one item on the agenda (as the lyrics reveal): Preventing, at the eleventh hour, a "marital" (or relationship) breakdown, presumably between a male-and-female pair. But each of the three protagonists, who talk only in song, is, er, male! Perhaps they are only the lawyers. It is a well-executed theatre of the absurd.

Everyone goes along with the charade. The band -- the invisible band -- infuses and punctuates the "proceedings" with great, shall we say, aplomb. The vocalists have a great do, too, each in his turn. They are the key participants. There is a supporting cast, to be sure, largely of tastefully dressed ladies -- some of whom get to sway with the music and to turn as models do, when it suits their fancy. But the thing ends with no declared resolution to the matter which brought the gathering together in the first place. Still, everyone leaves without a fuss. END.

READ: The Mannequin Lyrics [NOTE: I don't speak French, but I thought I heard a few Swahili words (such as "suguli mingi") thrown into the video, which I don't see in the printed lyrics]