Colin Powell's Yahoozee moves

Could it be the same man who in a 1995 New Yorker interview called Nigeria a nation of scammers that was dancing to the beats of Yahoozee at London's Royal Albert Hall yesterday?

Maybe he wasn't fully aware of the meaning of Yahoozee or the music was just too irresistible for him not to join in. But it was an ironic way for him to make his peace with Naija folk....his 1995 comments have come full circle!

The British Press is awash with the pictures of him strutting his stuff and at least a lot more people now know about Olu Maintain - not bad publicity for them at all!

The Times in apparent suprise had this to say:

"Still wearing a buttoned up suit the statesman performed with Nigerian group Olu Maintain and did a version of the Nigerian dance Yahoozee. He even took the microphone to sing lyrics and showed a natural rhythm as the pop stars taught him their dance moves"

These lines from Lagbaja's song might help explain General Powell's 'natural rhythm':

"So where ever there’s soul in the music

Where ever the spirit moves the music...

Behind it you find the African"

And before you ask if Colin Powell is an African, hear what he said at the Thisday Africa Rising Festival yesterday:

"It took a lot of people struggling to bring me to this point in history. I didn't just drop out of the sky, people came from my continent in chains."

UPDATE: Before a Youtube video pops up, feast your eyes on this slideshow of his moves. There are also more pictures of the other acts here and here as well as this Review from the Evening Standard.

Could it also be that Powell has just bought himself some free worldwide publicity in advance of an endorsement he's about to make back home?