The Woman King

I recently watched the film “The Woman King”. When I first saw the trailer a couple of months ago I was super excited, a film about African history which does not focus on black victimisation. I decided a few years ago to no longer watch black history films which focus on the pain and suffering of black people, this includes slavery films and films about racism. I'm tired of the narrative of black people being victims, when we literally have a whole history which does not involve us suffering at the hands of white people. 

Before the film came out  I noticed that there was controversy surrounding the film. I saw people complain about the film's title and said it should have been called “Queen” instead as the title is masculinising a black woman. In many African languages, including my own, there is no word for “Queen”, the literal equivalent word when translated into English would be “woman king”. I believe that is why this film has that title. A further criticism is that the film portrays dark skin Black woman as masculine as a lot of Hollywood films generally do. Black women are very nuanced and are not monolithic. This film is about female warriors so of course they will be masculine. The Kings wives in this film were feminine and lived a very soft life.

Another criticism I saw is that the film glorifies the Dahomey who were slave traders (this is why some people boycotted this film). Prior to this film I was aware of the Dahomey tribe and their female military. The Dahomey tribe were  heavily involved in the slave trade as they generated a lot of wealth from it. They were brutal and would engage in human sacrifice.  The film does show their involvement in the trade, but the leader of the Agojie Nanisca seemed to be against the slave trade. In the end they are made to be the heroes as they free captives. People need to realise that this is a Hollywood film which purpose is to entertain an audience. Though the film is based on true events, such as King Gezo who did exist, the Dahomey war with the Oyo tribe which actually happened and the Dahomey wanting to trade palm wine with the Portuguese, it is not a documentary so we cannot expect it to be historically accurate. Some things in the film would have definitely been made up and dramatised for entertainment purposes. 

I liked the journey of Nawi, a young woman who refuses to get married off to an old abusive rich man, so her father gives her to the king.  She joins the Kings Guard and trains to become an Agojie warrior. She is stubborn, funny and speaks her mind. She also questions Dahomey traditions, such as why Agojie women can never marry and have families of their own but male warriors can. We watch her grow as a person and become a strong warrior.

Nanisca is the the general of the Agojie. She is strong and fierce. We do get to see her vulnerable side as she was a victim of rape. It is later revealed that she is Nawi's mother, when Nawi is captured by the Oyo to be sold into slavery. Nanisca goes against the King's order to go and save her daughter.

One of the key characters in the film is Malik, the son of a Dahomey slave and a white Brazilian Portuguese father. When Portuguese/Spanish slave owners had a child with a female slave, the child would take on the heritage of their father who would raise them, they would not become a slave. Malik accompanies his childhood friend who is a slave trader to Dahomey in order to see his mothers roots. He is immediately uncomfortable when he sees the slave square. During the film he falls for Nawi,  and does what he can to protect her. He is torn because he is loyal to his Portugeuse friend but his heart is loyal to his Dahomey people. In the end he chooses the Dahomey people over his childhood friend. His character shows the complexities of being biracial, e.g. struggling with identity, never fully fitting in, being forced to pick a side, being caught in the middle.

The film was amazing, I enjoyed every minute of it. I enjoyed seeing the Dahomey culture and practices, the perfectly executed war scenes, the strength and power of the Africans, especially at the end when they fought against the European slavers/colonisers and won.  This is a narrative which is not shown in Hollywood films. I believe this film will make people do their own research into the Kingdom of Dahomey and to learn black history for themselves. I'm glad a film like this was made, I hope that more films about black history (not black victimisation) are made in future.

Anti-Blackness amongst Black men

This post is about black men. It pains me that many of our black brothers have a deep hatred for each other and continue to kill each other, especially the young generation. We are all aware of the knife crime issue within the black community in the UK. There is also the gun crime issue in the USA. I do not believe in the term "black on black crime" because when white people commit crimes against  other white people it is not called "white on white crime", it's just crime. Further, crime is about proximity, you are more likely to be a victim of a crime of someone in your proximity. However, the rate that black men kill each other is higher than that of white men that kill each other. There is a real issue within these black communtities.

I remember watching one of Nipsey Hussle's interviews and he spoke about how gang members find an "opp" to kill. They will go to a rival gangs neighbourhood, if they see a man in a suit they will ignore him, if they see a white man they will ignore him. But if they see a black man who dresses the way they do, has the same kind of demeanour they have then that's the person they will attack. Nipsey then mentions the next point which I thought was really deep. He said by doing this, you are killing someone who is a reflection of you in a different neighbourhood, you are basically killing yourself. This is a deep level of self hatred.

The fact that as a black male you can see a fellow black brother you don't know, who looks just like you, but have so much hatred towards him that you wish to cause him harm, is very sad. The question I have is why are there black men like this? where does this mindset stem from? Some people say it's due to white supremacy, poverty, broken homes, drugs, music, culture. Personally, I don't believe in this modern age that white supremacy is the reason black men kill other black men, there needs to be a level of accountability.  I'm sure most people know that murder is wrong. Poverty may be a possible contributing factor however in "third world" countries, where there is extreme poverty, people do not murder each other at a high rate. I do think culture plays a big role, within black western communities there is a sub-culture which embraces degenerate behaviours such as criminality, gun crime, gang life, broken homes, and hyper-consumerism. These behaviours are also glorified through music (usually rap/drill). "Catching bodies" is cool, having multiple "baby mamas" is cool, going to jail is cool. Due to living in a very consumer based society, jealousy and envy is real, people want what others have and will kill in order to obtain it. These are the detrimental behaviours that are destroying our communities. There is complete disregard for human life. Black conservatives tend to call out these behaviours, but are  often called coons as a result. I remember hearing UK rapper Akala saying that if a white person wrote the lyrics that you see in some rap songs it will sound like they are KKK members, which is true.

Being a rapper is dangerous, over the years we have seen multiple rappers murdered. The most recent was Takeoff from the Migos, he was reserved and unproblematic. He was apparently killed by a stray bullet after a game of dice. PNB Rock was killed a couple of months ago. I had never heard of him until he died, I checked out his music and his content does not promote negativity. Let's not forget Nipsey Hussle, a man who tried to educate and uplift his community. In the UK, there have been drill rappers that have been murdered. I don't see any other genre of music where people are killed at this rate. When you kill somebody, it is just not just the victim who suffers. It is their family, their friends and  their wider community. When a white person kills a black person, black people will galvanise together, we'll protest, we'll see BLM. When a black person kill another black person it is crickets. If all Black lives matter then action needs to be taken when a black person is killed regardless of the race of the murderer. 

So what is the solution? I personally believe that it starts with having stronger family units and communities. We need strong black men in the homes to guide, teach and discipline their sons. It takes a village to raise a child, when a child starts to misbehave there needs to be someone who corrects them and nips their behaviour in the bud before it gets out of hand. I believe we also need to go back to God, (regardless of your faith) and in-still morals in people. We need to have self-love and see ourselves as the powerful entities that we are, we need to know our history and identity. It is also important that we know how to resolve conflicts without resorting to violence, and to hold each other accountable. I wish that negative black music would be banned, but it won't happen as it makes a lot of money for the record labels (which Kanye rightly called out in his drink champs interview). R.I.P to those black men who have lost their lives at the hands of other black men.