Beyoncé's Black Is King, the highly anticipated
visual album has been a hot topic of discussion
since its release.
The film loosely follows the story of The
Lion King and is set to the soundtrack of
the 2019 remake of the movie.
Black Is King featured cinematic visuals,
choreography as well as the work of African
artists like Tiwa Savage and Burna Boy.
Naturally, after it dropped people were excited.
But as with many things on the internet, not
everyone agreed.
In fact, when the trailer dropped at the end
of June, it was met with a lot of debate on
Twitter and when I say a lot, I really, really
mean a lot.
Some people loved the piece and felt it gave
representation of the cultures and countries
in Africa and the diaspora.
It very much seemed like a whole collation
of beautiful different visuals from different
places.
It was like a black experience.
So not necessarily focused on Africans but
focused on all black people.
Others felt like it could have been better.
I thought it was very well done.
I think that Beyoncé did do her research.
At the same time, I just think that you know,
the thing that made me sad is that I didn't
see East Africans being represented.
The debate about Black Is King has brought
up some important questions about the representation
of Africa in film and television.
These conversations are not new. In fact,
from around the 19th century, there were numerous
encounters, cultural exchange as well as moments
of solidarity between Africa and the diaspora.
The big question here is, is a film like Black
Is King an appropriate modern example of pushing
these conversations and exchanges forward?
It's a very touchy and very sensitive issue
to talk about.
What is the relation between Africans and
African-Americans or the diaspora in general?
Sometimes, people don't want to get their
hands burned touching on that issue.
But for me, I'm more interested in the conversation
how this particular production forces Africa
and the diaspora to have a dialogue.
Some of the critiques of Black Is King have
been met with a lot of backlash online.
Stan culture can be very toxic because these
stans tend to think that just because someone
is critiquing the artist they are attacking
the artist.
When I watched Black Is King, I also thought
it was an excellent piece of work but it doesn't
mean that we can't have these conversations.
I think it was still kind of, you know, not
telling the whole story in the sense of it
was only talking about a certain percentage
of Africans who are royalty and whatever and
that's cool but it makes other people who
are non-African think that's all pre-colonial
Africa was.
Beyoncé was the writer, director and executive
producer of Black Is King, but the film also
included the work of other black creatives.
So what does this mean for the future of African
creatives in film?
It was really lovely seeing the different
creative people as well in there because it
shows that they're all...everyone's part of
the bigger picture, or everyone wants to see
this bigger picture.
Everyone's trying to progress their craft.
With films like Black Panther coming out a
few years ago and receiving great reviews,
as well as series like Queen Sono and Blood
and Water, now seems like an important time
for the visibility of black creatives both
in front and behind the camera.
In my own opinion, we are in the midst of
a black renaissance.
We have more black recognised and established
and celebrated filmmakers right now than we
may have in the past.
There's so many countries in Africa.
So many different dialects, tribes, regions
etc.
People do so many different things that I
think this is now a great time to be able
to really push out the products that we have
whether being a filmmaker, artist etc.
And really kind of show what has always been
great.
