Shinamania was the creation of Juju musician, Shina Peters, whose genre is mixed with very fast and upbeat with a lot of funky bumps and grinds. This pop phenomenon came to head in 1990 with the release of Shina Peter’s sophomore album, and his music and following developed to such a feverish height that he aptly called it Shinamania. Before the two albums that shot him into stardom however, there had been a less consequential two. He was, prior to his first commercial success, a guitarist, and his struggle with another musician Segun Adewale who disapproves of his intention to double as a vocalist, ended in schism. Both friends had started their careers performing in the mid-’70s with ‘Brigader General’ Adekunle.
The period of the Shinamania popular culture coincided with the economic stress of the early ‘90s which necessitated the Babangida’s notorious Structural Adjustment Program. Shina demanded his fans, which consisted, as he boasted, of the youths and the old, to “dance, dance, and forget your sorrow.” According to Bisi Adeleye-Fayemi of the University of Birgham in a 1994 paper on popular culture, Shina celebrated the paradox of the time of Nigerian economic depression that saw many young people rising. The new ‘kids in the block’ who having divested themselves of moral inhibitions, engaged in fraud and narcotics, and consequently bared their flashy cars, designer clothes, beautiful women, and unbelievably lavish homes to the print media which celebrated materialism as much as it did the Shina phenomenon.
Sir Shina Peters & His International Stars” popularised Juju music world wide and pioneered the Afro Juju music genre. Although his fame was easily eroded by the wave of Afro HipHop that came from the mid ‘90s, he made away with a double platinum and went on to tour South Africa, Europe, Germany, United Kingdom, Italy and the United States.
