I'm enjoying the cultural references in Already. I'm looking forward to seeing more from the entire #BlackIsKing film. I saw this & immediately thought of women in rural Eastern Cape. Also the horns on the hair remind of the Mursi women of Ethiopia.
I think Bey heard fans and music writers who felt there wasn't enough sonic representation of all regions of the African continent so she may have used that feedback and incorporated all parts of Africa in the #BlackIsKing visuals. Hopefully we get a BIS film on this.
Another East African reprisentation in the form of the lip disc. This is a practice popular in places like Chad Ethiopia, Mozambique. The size of the lip disc can be symbolic of amount of cattle paid for bride price. Patterns on the disc are symbols of societal status.
Then there's the maasai reference. Not just with the jump but the color of the suits. The shuka is also blue/indigo color. It's origins are varied. Cloths were a form of currency and the shuka may have arrived as a result of trade between the far east, the Arab world and Africa.
This was very much a nod to Nigerian fashion. The beautiful lace, the head wrap. Just gorgeous.
The Himba people of Namibia are also represented. The thickness of the hair symbolizes fertility, specifically a women's ability to have strong and healthy children. Already speaks to the power and strength of a young king so this reference is apt for the video.
I think the animal print helps us think about the animation on which Black is King is based. I saw there's a pool scene in which Bey is surrounded by synchronized swimmers in pink and orange for another visual. That immediately reminded me of flamingos.
The video didn't blow me away. Maybe the others will. But the highlight for me is the representation. I love the effort to showcase various African communities. I love how she's expanded on this beyond West African styles since lemonade. I like that she took feedback seriously.
I'm also enjoying the many references Bey manages to incorporate in one shot. We've covered the horns and pipe. I want to add the braids are reminiscent of the goddess of women, fertility and love Hathor. I think it's a nod to the "circle of life" theme. Lion King is male-centric
So I think she attempts to balance this out by thinking about ideas of fertility and women as a source of life and link between the physical and spiritual world.
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Ben Turok was serving a three-year sentence at Pretoria Central around the time that Vuyisile Mini, Wilson Khayingo and Zinakile Mkabi were executed. Of this day in history he recalled, “I was already awake when the singing began again in the early morning…And then, unexpectedly
the voice of Vuyisile Mini came roaring down the hushed passages. Evidently standing on a stool, with his face reaching up to a barred vent his cell, his unmistakable bass voice was enunciating his final message in Xhosa to the world he was leaving.
In a voice charged with emotion but stubbornly defiant he spoke of the struggle waged by the African National Congress and of his absolute conviction of the victory to come. And then it was Khayingo’s turn, followed by Mkaba, as they too defied all prison rules to shout out their
In 1964, during the Rivonia Trial, Nelson Mandela said, "The ANC has never at any period of its history advocated a revolutionary change in the economic structure of the country, nor has it, to the best of my recollection, ever condemned capitalist society."
That man's statement is a little all over the place because if the ANC did not condemn capitalism, there would be no need to "work" anyone because they all felt the same way. The only one isolated from his comrades on Robben Island was Sobukwe.
Mandela was in prison for 27 years (1962-1990) and never claimed to have stayed on the island for 27 years. It's in his autobiography.
For this women's day here is a thread on women we should know. I want to start with Mazhar Makatemele who was also known as 'Black Sara'. She was the first Black woman in Sweden. How? She was kidnapped from Kwa-Zulu Natal by enslavers in 1846. She is buried in Sweden.
Rafaela Stålbalk has done some work on trying to uncover this story. Search a blog called Black Women in Europe for more information on Makatemele and her daughter.
Like last time there's no chronological order. So next up is the Mother of Azania, Zondeni Veronica Sobukwe (nee Mathe). Among her contributions is that she led a nurses strike at Victoria Hospital back in 1948 in Alice, Eastern Cape.
We're 8 days away from the 45th anniversary of the Soweto Uprising. On 8 June 1976, two police officers walked into Naledi High School looking for a learner named Enos Ngutshane. Ngutshane was a SASM leader and these officers wanted to take him in for questioning.
Naledi High school students were having none of that. They threw stones at those cops and overturned the police's car. Ngutshane was wanted for writing a letter to the Minister of Bantu administration saying the students did not want to be taught in Afrikaans.
The incident coincidentally took place on anniversary of Naledi High's founding. The school was established on this day in 1963. Ngutshane was never part of the 16 June protests as he was arrested on the 14th for that letter he wrote. Ngutshane was in Matric that year.
Pixley ka Isaka Seme passed away 70 years ago on this day in 1951. This year will mark the 140th anniversary of his birth.
Now before you say you wish the leaders of today were like him...they are. A few revelations about his corruption, fraudulent qualifications have surfaced in recent years. Last I checked the family was challenging these claims however, I haven't seen a rebuttal from them yet.
It's to be expected. History is always contested so men like Seme will never not go unscrutinised. He reminds me of "Dr" Wellington Buthelezi. But WB was far more fraudulent: Lied about being African American, about being a GP, about being a representative of Garvey's UNIA.
Oliver Tambo passed away on this day in 1993. Here he is in 1955 at a boxing match Todd Matshikiza covered.
"I said to myself when I saw them, Shucks, these fellows Nelson Mandela and Oliver Tambo are actually enjoying this cruel sport."- Matshikiza
At the ANC conference in November 1958 when the Africanists moved to leave the ANC. At this heated conference in which a fight almost broke out Sobukwe declared, "We shall think of co-operation with other races when we have come into our own."
📸: Peter Magubane
The Tambos at Madiba's 70th birthday concert at Wembley in 1988
"He did not introduce me to the struggle; I was already in it when I met him.”- Adelaide Tambo