Beyoncé’s Black King album has raised concerns about its representation of Africa and African people.
By Antonnate S. Mugodi
The album Black King follows the story of The Lion King and is set to the soundtrack of the 2019 remake of the movie.
Black is King featured the work of Tiwa Savage, Burna Boy and also some cinematic visuals and choreography.
After the Album dropped, a lot of people were excited about it and like everything on this planet people had different opinions about it.
When the trailer for the album dropped at the end of June a lot of people had a lot to say about it on Twitter.
Others noted that the Album was a great piece as 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,” one fan argued.
However, there are some people who felt that a lot more could have been done on the album.
“I thought it was very well done and I think that Beyoncé really did her research.
“At the same time, I think the thing that made me sad was that I did not see East African people being represented,” said Almer Knight.
The Black Is King album has brought up some debate about the representation of Africa in film and television.
These conversations are not new as can be noted that around the 19th century there were numerous encounters, cultural exchanges as well as moments of solidarity between Africa and the diaspora.
The Black Is King album is being questioned if it is a very good example of pushing forward these conversations and exchanges forward.
Beyonce fan Alfred Smith said: “Sometimes people do not want to get their hands burnt by touching on that issue but as for me, I am more interested in the conversation how this particular production forces Africa and the diaspora to have a dialogue.
Some critics of the Black Is King have been met with a lot of backlash online.
People argued that Stan culture can be toxic as 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 cannot have these conversations.
“I think that it was still kind of not telling the whole story in the sense of it was only talking about a certain percentage of Africans who are royalty and that makes other people who are non-African thinks that is all pre-colonial Africa was,” Afred Smith said.
The crafting of Black Is King according to others was spectacular as it shows a bigger picture which involves everyone in it.
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