Are African Americans Guilty of Appropriating African Cultures, Using Beyonce as an Example
By: Amira Coppens
Tags: Culture, African, African American, Cultural Appropriation, Beyonce

Our reaction to ALREADY

A lot of conversation was held over the visually dynamic music video for ALREADY. It incorporated fashion and dancing inspired by different African cultures, namely Nigerian, Kenyan, and South African. It also features the Ghanaian artist Shatta Whale. So why was there controversy? Well these were some of the complaints that I witnessed from Africans:

She claims the African identity but doesn’t claim the responsibility of helping fight against and spread awareness for the many issues faced in Africa today

No African country was ever included in any of her world tours

She grouped the different cultures into one large ‘African culture’

At first, I completely agreed with each one of those statements but as I continued to think about it and saw how African American’s responded to these accusations, I realized that I was leaving out the African American perspective of the entire situation. While the first two complaints were completely warranted as what they described was inherently problematic. The last complaint was more complicated.

The inherently problematic

First, I want to defend why I think the first two complaints were valid and why they support the notion that Beyonce is guilty of appropriating African cultures rather than assimilating into them.

Suppose any artist plans on immersing themselves in a culture and displaying its beauty in their art. In that case, they should also take on the responsibility of helping solve issues that are faced in the area where the culture originated and is regularly practised. This holds true for all people no matter where you grew up or how closely you are connected to your culture. If she included Nigerian-inspired fashion she should’ve also used her platform to help promote the #EndSARS movement at the time. She should also speak out against the economic inequality that the majority of Nigerians have to face and how it leads to their oppression and inability to access basic human necessities such as food, clean water, and basic health care. Cultures and the issues that surround them shape and influence each other and you can’t accept one without the other, at least in my opinion.

The other point that was made is that African countries are never included in world tours. Speaking as someone who lived in Kenya for the majority of my life it was incredibly frustrating not being able to experience a live concert of my favourite artist. A world tour shouldn’t be considered a ‘world’ tour if it doesn’t at least hold one concert in the second largest continent globally. Especially if the entire theme is centred around the cultures that originated from the said continent.

Where it gets complicated

“The Wakandafication of the continent and Black diasporic identities is entirely uninspired. The repeated tropes/symbolic gestures that homogenise & essentialise thousands of African cultures in service of securing the terrain for Black capitalist possibilities & futures is tired.” — @jadebentil⠀

I really can’t say it any better than this. Western media loves to constantly group the separate and diverse cultures in Africa into a single ‘African culture’. The most aesthetic and ‘cool’ parts of different African cultures are mushed together while leaving out the parts that wouldn’t please a western audience.

I do believe that most if not all representations of African cultures in the media are in some way a form of Wakandafication but I also cannot ignore the fact that mixing of African cultures is needed. Most African Americans have a rich heritage from multiple African cultures. The Black diaspora resulted in many African American people having ancestors from different tribes, communities, and countries. As a result, African American people don’t belong to one or two distinct cultures but rather a combination of many. It also doesn’t help that a lot of African Americans lost knowledge about their heritage. Even if they took a DNA test to find out which region or country their ancestors were from, it still might not be able to pin down which tribe and/or culture they belonged to. As such I can see the need for different cultures to be combined especially when the art is made for the entire African American community.

However, it gets problematic from an African perspective that only the aesthetic and ‘cool’ parts of a culture are embraced. Especially when talking about a continent that has upwards of 1000 distinct cultures and languages, it trivializes and eradicates the individuality of the billions of people who practice different ones. It can be considered offensive when the key parts of a culture are left out because it isn’t interesting or colourful enough for the Americans.

We also can’t ignore the fact that these different cultures can directly clash and oppose one another making it impossible to include all aspects of every culture. Western media likes to depict African cultures as harmonious when there are many disputes and fights between different tribes in actuality. Kenya has over 40 tribes and I remember every election year was filled with animosity and tension between different tribes due to tribalism. Of course, with tribalism, many people aren’t too keen on the notion of having their culture mixed with those whose tribe they are in opposition of.

My takeaway from all of this is that both sides of the argument have validity. I personally don’t know how one could cater to one demographic without forgetting about the other. On one side, we need the representation of African Americans and their fluid and diverse cultural identity. On the other hand, we have to do it without sacrificing the individuality of these African cultures. In the complex issue of African American identity and African culture, it would be dam near impossible to carry out such a large-scale piece of art without having at least one problematic aspect.

Giving credit where credit is due

While it is still my opinion that Beyonce was guilty of cultural appropriation, that doesn’t mean that we can’t acknowledge the positives of Black is King.

It’s brilliant in the sense that it helps African Americans find a sense of cultural belonging. I may not understand or feel the pain of not knowing my cultural heritage, but I can at least support that it was well needed for African American community.

I also see that she did provide many African artists with a larger platform and helped introduce more African artists into mainstream western media. Developed countries often ignore African artists, so ALREADY did give a spotlight to African talent, which was much needed.

So how do we go about the process of sharing culture?

Looking at how African culture is shared in western spaces, we can see that it often leaves out Africans themselves. African culture always has to be filtered to enter western media, and it usually has to be packaged by American artists. But culture is dependent on the people who continuously practice it.

Right now, many African cultural pieces in media aren’t being shared; they are being taken. For them to be shared, everyone who is part of the culture should have the ability to enjoy it. Otherwise, it becomes exploitation. We have to start putting more pressure to include the second largest continent in world tours, movie premieres, fashion shows, etcetera if they have African influences.

On top of that, it would be great if those who grew up in these African cultures had more influence in the process of sharing. Instead of relying on African American artists to piece together and package these different cultures from Africa, we should give more opportunities to African artists. I doubt that there aren’t thousands of African artists who would love the chance to go to western countries to share parts of their culture. Overall we should strive to include Africans in the process of helping those affected by the diaspora to reunite with their ancestral heritage.