#africanism

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In truth, CoBB isn't doing anything very different from what the Black Panther films did. It's got the same issues of afrophobia and africanism and the bullshit marketing slogan of "we've got to go support this [black] film or Hollywood won't make more." Black-led films in the last decade have done obscenely well. Hollywood will make the same amount of black films that they did after the success of films like Sinners or Moonlight because the US is a racist empire, lol. It's not complicated. It's a fundamentally corrupt machine and it will not produce anything new. Every new black film getting popular will have the same "this better succeed or producers won't be incentivized to make more" bullshit tacked onto it. They've always been incentivized, they've just also always been racist. White people act and produce flops all the time and still get callbacks. Let's chill. However many people turn up to cinemas will not greatly affect the outcome I promise.

Here's a good video essay on the subject:

But I'll keep my opinions on the CoBB trailer as brief as I can.

1. Africanism and Afrophobia

It annoys me how black westerners or diasporans think they're immune to afrophobia when they're often ardent perpetuators of it. The fetishization of "the motherland" and its people is an expression of colonial and imperial attitudes normalized by these demographics. It's also unfortunately rife in pan-african politics. Where black diasporans or westerners treat Africa as a monolith with slightly tweaked language to their white or non-black counterparts. Afrophobia, that is the dehumanization or fear of native people on the African continent, is still present in the primitivist attitude black westerners have towards us. You are allowed to seek for reconnection with your actual roots and campaign for a global coalition of black people, but Africa is not your "birthright." Our individual nationalities and heritages are not something we owe you nor are they things you can just commodify however you wish for white audiences where you live. Whatever your connection to the continent, search for it and connect to that, but we are people with specific histories and cultures, not symbols of "black excellence" or proof of some universal "great black past."

I say all this because I'm tired of seeing alleged "african" films cater to anyone but Africans while treating every aspect of our identities as gimmicks for some american's sense of "creativity." The blending of traditional, national patterns with specific philosophies, uses and histories (because our "styles" weren't created in a vacuum) into one vaguely Yoruba country is africanism (African orientalism) and afrophobic. The standardized "African accent" that sounds South African or Nigerian is ALSO africanism and afrophobic. It perpetuates the "Invention of Africa" trope found in (and pioneered by) European colonizers who "tribalized" Africa and history. Treating our identities, nationalities and histories as interchangeable is literally part of colonial epistemicide and violence. Part of the neocolonial apathy that insists every "conflict" originates in our primitive, tribal savagery and thus that the current western state-backed genocides and wars are simply due to our backwards natures. It justifies western and eastern invasion of our lands and the theft of our autonomy. It will never be a harmless thing to do just because it's done by "other black people."

Which is also the thing: a lot of black authors write these stories in a way that includes the voyeuristic eye of white people, because that is their reality. I sympathize with that, but still don't find it a worthy excuse to bludgeon African cultures to death and repurpose colonial propaganda. If anything, that just makes the black people that do it complicit. White people may not know the difference between someone from Benin or someone from Zambia, but we will and we do and it bothers us. The shitty accents bother us. They ruin the immersion and there's always this sneaking suspicion that we're being made fun of in some way. The massacre of our traditional clothes don't go unnoticed. They made several scenes from the first Black Panther scene (and several scenes from this trailer for me) utterly bizarre to witness.

Can you imagine someone setting a story in medieval Germany and there's people wearing kilts and tartan, chitons and peplos, Viking face-paint, Victorian suits and dresses from 19th century New York all in one place? In one scene???

Why is there no thought given to the natural materials available to the people who live on this continent? To what era they're in? To what ethnic group they are part of? I know the Europeans committed a lot of epistemicide when it came to brutalizing African people, but I promise there's enough history left to inform you as to what patterns would be within a given region or not at the time.

These issues, again, aren't unique with CoBB but they were astoundingly obvious in the trailer. Which I can't even say is due to it being a bad adaptation because the author, Tomi Adeyemi, is responsible for perpetuating the same africanism in her books.

2. Casting

I sincerely don't care what Tomi Adeyemi thinks about the casting choices since she can't seem to make up her mind about either her own decisions regarding her approval of the casting (despite the pushback she got from Nigerians and her black fanbase) and whether or not she's going to come out with whatever's bothering her. I find her personally annoying and don't really think her opinions merit much weight on the situation given that she's hardly sharing them, lol, and is just creating drama that racists already against this film are going to use as fodder for all the hate they want to throw at this film (like they've done for every African-focused film before that).

However, while I loved Thuso Mbedu and Viola Davis' chemistry in The Woman King, Thuso is a genuinely bad choice for Zélie from skin colour to just her overall look. I got the impression (though I haven't read the books) that Zélie was more imposing (and much darker) than Thuso's short, brown, tiny self. Her whole look worked well in The Woman King because she was meant to be an unlikely heroine. Someone who doesn't look like they can survive, unlike Viola, and that visual contrast between them served the story well. Here, she just looks . . . childish. Not "lean and strong" like the book describes, and certainly not imposing enough to look like a magical threat. She also looks so un-Yoruban. Like she has the most Bantu face you can find lmao. And her wigs are so atrocious. They couldn't even get a white wig with an kinky texture??? They couldn't braid her hair? I don't understand why almost all the hairstyles in this film look so fucking ugly and uninspired. Don't even get me started on the locs they gave the Idrises. Please. It hurts my soul.

And Amandla . . . my sister and I laughed our asses off when we saw how they much they darkened her skin. It's actually offensive. To us and to Amandla, lmao. I can only hope it doesn't look that obvious when we finally get to see the movie. Though her accent is bound to be sufficiently distracting based on what this trailer has shown us. Holy hell.

I am very happy with the Cynthia Erivo, Ayra Starr and Tosin Cole casting and I wish the casting director would've stuck to that method. They're the only three people that look like they belong there, lmfao (they have clearly West African features). And Idris Elba and Cynthia are the only ones who sound like they belong there, even if their accents are far from perfect (though I can't wait to see Ayra Starr in this). So far those four and Viola Davis are the only ones I'm actually looking forward to seeing and expect anything from. I don't really buy any of the other casting choices in this film. I don't buy Damson's performance at all, unfortunately. It's giving we have T'Challa at home and it seems like he's just there to look pretty for us. Which I can't say I mind too much (he is very pretty).

3. Other Thoughts

The effects look okay and the cinematography looks okay. I feel like the colour-grading could be better especially because good epic fantasy screen adaptations really need geography porn to pop. There were some shots that were prettier than others but it's not egregious so I won't harp on it too much. I'm interested to see the film, but despite how much talent is stacked in this, I don't have high expectations. Though I believe it will be greatly enjoyed by many as both Black Panther and The Woman King were.

Iemanjá (Yèyé omo ejá), african godness, Queen of the waters in Candomblé and Umbanda