The Queen of Katwe plays on old theme of Africa as land of poverty

The NTV commentator, Wallace Kantai, posted a question on social media some time back that can well be directed at the scriptwriters that pen the storylines of major films about Africa: Is there an authentically African story that does not have poverty at its root?

I went to see the Queen of Katwe at the theatre the other day. It is a very well shot movie, directed by Ugandan director Mira Nair and starring Lupita Nyong’o and British-Nigerian actor David Oyelowo.

It tells the true story of Phiona Mutesi, a young girl who discovers she can play chess and soon emerges as a champion and national hero.

The movie has many merits including a strong performance by Madina Nalwanga who plays Phiona and acts like a natural in her very first movie role.

Still, one comes away from the movie theatre with a single question playing on the mind – when will we see a major production on Africa that is not about grinding poverty or wild animals?

Let’s face it. The image that people around the world have of Africa is mainly shaped by the news media and the movies.

In some ways, you can excuse the question that Africans get really irritated about when they travel abroad and are asked if they live on trees or how they battle the lions and cheetahs they encounter daily when heading to school. That’s all the world gets to see of Africa from the movies and the news.

This is the first line on a website, <http://www.bestmoviesbyfarr.com>that discusses “nine show-stopping movies set in Africa that everyone should see”.

“Africa is one of those wild, mysterious places I’ve never visited,” the reviewer writes. “Honestly, I’m a bit hesitant to go. I’m not one of those people who thrills at the idea of being 10 feet away from a deadly animal.”

This portrayal of Africa as a giant national park and the television news networks’ obsession with slums and poverty reinforces narratives that mean when people like Usain Bolt come to Africa, they profess to being startled at what they see.

It’s true there is poverty. But there are also comfortable hotels, reasonable roads, innovations such as M-Pesa, educated young people living normal lives, fast internet and whatnot.

I had hoped, this being the very first all-black cast for a major Hollywood production set in Africa, that it would offer a more nuanced portrayal of Kampala than a Western movie typically would.

Kampala is not just a landscape of misery. It is also home to perhaps the most vibrant entertainment scene in East Africa and a people that are among the most optimistic and charming you will see, despite obvious frustrations about bad governance particularly in the urban areas.

DEPRIVATION AND NEGLECT

Yet the camera rarely leaves the slum and even the journey to a posh school where the chess championship is held does not portray a different side of the city as the minivan moves along.

Maybe the editors are to blame for this, with one review in the New Yorker reporting that “(the director) Nair films the streets of Kampala with ardent discernment, in shots that are unfortunately edited to slivers”.

There is no question that the issues raised about the deprivation and neglect of the urban poor are important.

The last movie I watched at the theatre, Nairobi Half Life, dwelt on the same themes. The Queen of Katwe finds an elegant way to raise the plight of the people of Katwe.

When the chess teacher tells Phiona’s mother that she might earn a scholarship, the mother retorts: “How will I pay for uniform if she gets a scholarship?”

In another scene, Phiona is told to put out her lamp while studying at night. “I still have much to read,” she says.

“You will finish our paraffin,” the mother shoots back.

It’s a powerful way to highlight the struggles that many people in urban areas around the continent experience. But the problem with all these major movies with the same theme is what the Nigerian author Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie has called the danger of the single story.

When you watch Hollywood productions about America, it is always sunny outside and everything seems beautiful and neat in the streets, despite the fact that there are huge levels of poverty and desperation in many parts of the US, which partly explains the rise of Donald Trump.

In Africa, it is an exact contrast. When the story is not about hunting down (or saving) lions in the savannah, it is about poverty and misery in urban areas.

There must be other ways to tell the African story and, although a nominally uplifting tale, the Queen of Katwe merely joins the long list of films that portray the continent in grim terms.

[email protected] @mutigam