I wrote this in a comment response to Ian Mair, who posted Snoop's reaction to the airing of the new Roots on the History Channel on his Facebook page. Ian shared why he felt watching Roots (the remake) was not aligned with his energetic preferences.
Within the ensuing comment thread - supporting and opposing points were made by a few of us, regarding Roots and also cited Twelve Years A Slave, the effects on collective thinking or subjective feeling, the Hollywood system and the projects supported within it, the image and history of Africans and the diaspora in Western media, comparisons between this and that of other groups who have suffered genocidal atrocities in history such as the Jews, and so on. I offer this for context for what you will read below - which I share with few grammatical alterations to the words I typed in responsive flow on Facebook.
Within the ensuing comment thread - supporting and opposing points were made by a few of us, regarding Roots and also cited Twelve Years A Slave, the effects on collective thinking or subjective feeling, the Hollywood system and the projects supported within it, the image and history of Africans and the diaspora in Western media, comparisons between this and that of other groups who have suffered genocidal atrocities in history such as the Jews, and so on. I offer this for context for what you will read below - which I share with few grammatical alterations to the words I typed in responsive flow on Facebook.
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Comment:
"Until the lion learns how to write, the story will always glorify the hunter". Yup Yup Yup.
I remember the first time I heard this proverb it was uttered by the late Komla Dumor (BBCAfrica) in his TEDtalk Telling the African Story. Like many of these kinds of talks we see on bigger platforms these days - it resonated like a loud thunder clash for me, not just as a black woman, but as a West African growing up in Jamaica where I was teased at school for having black gums and assumed to live in trees when I visited family in Sierra Leone and the Gambia. No one believed we had houses and cars and stoves and clothing, with zippers! I learned from a very young age what limited or slanted information does to the mental and emotional confidence of people WITHIN the diaspora - much less outside of it. I also had National Geographic to thank for a lot of exhaustive education I had to provide others as a child. Yes. True story. And still today.
Let's not get it twisted - this is a CONTEXT issue. I hear Snoop and Ian on this big time.
And for sure I too will never be a fan of the "get over it" movement - too much of a 'Know and Be Empowered By Your History' advocate for that.
Two protests I had with 12 years a Slave, and all other content that promulgates the very singular view of black history.
1) I watched that movie - and from an artistic standpoint (and I am an artist) - I thought it was a beautifully made film, cinematography, casting, performances, editing, the silences and their use in driving the visual content… all powerful. BUT what pissed me off was the absolute recognition that yet another epic slave film was still the only kind of feature film that Hollywood was and still is comfortable funding .
2) I am not knocking the lovely and now (thank the LORD!) iconic Lupita for her Oscar - but a complex aspect of her winning for that role fresh out of school with no other body of work to access, also had the markings of a head pat by Tinseltown establishment to say "See black people, we see you. There there now." Please note what followed with black films released thereafter, and the two year in a row #OscarSoWhite - if this point seems doubtful.
A hard ideas for some - and I agree SO much with Barbara on this - is that every black woman I feel would have it in their (epi)genetic memory to conjure up the pain offered in that performance, to offer the complexity of otherness in a scene of being whipped by your rapist who punishes you for being so irresistibly and confusingly regal in your natural beauty. Yes I said it.
Now…for good measure, I am so grateful she did win that Oscar - and it did actually serve beyond her, in that her clout is every bit the reason Producers could be convinced to fund Eclipsed on Broadway which I just saw - a show written by, about, and performed by an all black/African woman ensemble which is now nominated for 6 Tonys . Who would care otherwise? No one - that's who. And that is the current truth.
A hard ideas for some - and I agree SO much with Barbara on this - is that every black woman I feel would have it in their (epi)genetic memory to conjure up the pain offered in that performance, to offer the complexity of otherness in a scene of being whipped by your rapist who punishes you for being so irresistibly and confusingly regal in your natural beauty. Yes I said it.
Now…for good measure, I am so grateful she did win that Oscar - and it did actually serve beyond her, in that her clout is every bit the reason Producers could be convinced to fund Eclipsed on Broadway which I just saw - a show written by, about, and performed by an all black/African woman ensemble which is now nominated for 6 Tonys . Who would care otherwise? No one - that's who. And that is the current truth.
I get the point you make Marlon James - but I don't think that is what's being said here. Or at least that's not the point for me. To Noella Constable's point - Jews have waged a VERY successful campaign for holocaust victims that indeed has whooped the world into near deferential subservience when speaking about their people and customs. Kudos for sure. But why have they been successful in this campaign is what matters. And here we arrive at Context.
Who controls the media? And what else do we know about Jewish history? Much more than we do African/Black history! How much more financial control over place and image do the Jewish people have in society at large as opposed to the Black Diaspora, and again why?
Having the balance of who a People are in the fullness of their history allows the rest of our human family to full grasp the land were were kidnapped from and what was TAKEN from Africans and Afro-Descendants. You cannot fully empathize with a story when you only have the gruesome fragments of it, or a dehumanized view of the people who suffered the assault. Human beings relate to loss. Plain and simple. And most of the world still has NO clue what was lost.
Most people do not know of the Kingdoms and Empires of Africa; the religions, mythologies, and languages of the continent; the epic sagas of family, love and war; the scholarship or monuments; the artistic, cultural, gastronomical, and technological impact the continent had on the world through exploration, travel, and innovation LONG before European interference - neigh existence. And why? Because that information was destroyed or denied dissemination …and to our discussion here, still is, by the distinct lack of funding of such stories ...in Hollywood, our educational institutions, our governments...
There is zero shortage of the same in many other cultures but especially the Euro-colonial culture we have all been raised in, so relativity and catharsis seem easier to conjure for many, and thus more profitable for information institutions. Just look at the rage we are contending with in this country now, among all 'races' and cultures - this is not just borne of violent history, that is maintained by a lack of complete information to humanize that history.
Having the balance of who a People are in the fullness of their history allows the rest of our human family to full grasp the land were were kidnapped from and what was TAKEN from Africans and Afro-Descendants. You cannot fully empathize with a story when you only have the gruesome fragments of it, or a dehumanized view of the people who suffered the assault. Human beings relate to loss. Plain and simple. And most of the world still has NO clue what was lost.
Most people do not know of the Kingdoms and Empires of Africa; the religions, mythologies, and languages of the continent; the epic sagas of family, love and war; the scholarship or monuments; the artistic, cultural, gastronomical, and technological impact the continent had on the world through exploration, travel, and innovation LONG before European interference - neigh existence. And why? Because that information was destroyed or denied dissemination …and to our discussion here, still is, by the distinct lack of funding of such stories ...in Hollywood, our educational institutions, our governments...
Full series on avail by DVD on Amazon
There is zero shortage of the same in many other cultures but especially the Euro-colonial culture we have all been raised in, so relativity and catharsis seem easier to conjure for many, and thus more profitable for information institutions. Just look at the rage we are contending with in this country now, among all 'races' and cultures - this is not just borne of violent history, that is maintained by a lack of complete information to humanize that history.
And so - to say one wishes to (and I hate to use this now hackneyed word) curate their experience by taking in more positive pan-African information kept from us prior, is not a rejection of the history of slavery, it is the invitation of seeing the bigger picture from which to understand the full atrocity of it.
By all means - make and see more Roots - but can we also dig for deeper ones than Kunte Kinte? I strongly believe it is there that the diaspora and all other cultures of the world will come to really understand who WE are!
(Sorry for the blog post on your thread Ian - lol)
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...touche. :-)
By all means - make and see more Roots - but can we also dig for deeper ones than Kunte Kinte? I strongly believe it is there that the diaspora and all other cultures of the world will come to really understand who WE are!
(Sorry for the blog post on your thread Ian - lol)
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...touche. :-)
