Celebrated Author Binyavanga Wainaina Leads an Online Onslaught against Hollywood Hottie, Will Smith
They say that Will Smith can do no wrong as he has managed to pull off all his roles to perfection, but of late Jada Pinkett’s husband has been getting a hostile response for his latest role.
In the movie ‘Concussion’, Will takes up the role of renowned forensic pathologist Dr Bennet Omalu, a Nigerian Man credited for the discovery of Chronic Traumatic Encephalopathy, or CTE.
CTE is a progressive degenerative disease of the brain common in athletes such as boxers and American football players due to repetitive brain trauma caused by getting hit on the head.
You can check him out below:
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As you can tell, Dr Bennet is pretty much a big fish; I mean it’s not every day you get to discover a disease and Will Smith acts out your life story. Problem is, people feel that Will Smith is doing a pretty shoddy job with the Naija accent. In fact, he butchers the accent so epically that you will be forced to crawl into a corner and sob while rocking back and forth. But other than the accent it seem like a really good movie.
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And Africans are not feeling it, with Binyavanga writing this:
Dear Black American actors looking for roles as African. Get a coach okay. Get a fucking specific coach from the specific people u are representing. It’s actually much worse when it comes from black people. From my very limited experience in theatre in America, the lesson was this: Black actors in America see all African accents this this imperialistic way: African is a generic term for Britishish without nasal. You can do a fucking Italian American accent with ease, but no one of you wants to spend real time getting a functional Naija, Kenyan, Mandela accent down. Argh! Now Will Smith. Arrrghhh. It sounds evil. It is a head thing, and needs real work. Mssssllllpp!
Other people agree with him an I will just sample some reactions from social media users
G-Master Masese: when Africans want to perfect the African American twang accent, African Americans are not interested. they think they have a license to parody our African accent ……
Christian Campbell: So true. And with Caribbean roles in Hollywood (you know the 2 or 3 in the last decades), there is only one accent: generic, bad, Jafaikan.
Ola Ronke just watched the trailer and I could not for the life of me figure out, where he was supposed to be from, its so unfortunate because it looks liek it could actually be a decent film but the horrible accent is distracting and disappointing
Donald Molosi I watched the trailer and felt defeated. After all these years we still get this rubbish accent for African representation? I thought that Will would ask for better o.
Bernard Akoi-Jackson Actually, since language, and speaking it is so individual, even a coach might not do justice to the role. There are many actors and actresses who actually do speak the various languages that influence the various accents. The film makers should be prepared to go and look for actors in the various (repeated for effect), countries. They are bound to meet excellent actors who will not have to fake a generic “African” accent, complete with wide, toothy grins and rrrumbling rrrrs.
