In a continent of about 3000 cultures, more than 2100 languages, and 54 countries, it seems really off putting to try and fit Africa in box. Is there really such a thing as an “African” accent? Why are actors made to sound a certain type of way when portraying African characters particularly in Hollywood?
msHollywood as whole tells stories that showcase diverse cultures across the world but many at times, the cultures seem to get the brunt end of the stick with how inaccurate they tend to come across. While films like Black Panther and Coming to America as well as television series like Bob hearts Abishola go a step to represent diverse people from Africa, they create some awkwardness especially with the accents with which these actors communicate with. The typical African character in a Hollywood production often has an aggressive, loud, and voiced demeanour when speaking in almost every situation. The portrayal of accents are also part of a bigger problem of accurate representation as it appears that producers or film executives do not engage in adequate research of the cultures they are trying to portray. Instead, it seems to intentionally want to put out a certain narrative and create a certain perception about various cultures.
The “African” accent trope also drives home this a popular belief or treatment of Africa as a country instead of a continent and it seems to be forgotten or even unknown how extremely diverse the whole continent is despite some similar cultural experiences. In reality, there is no one African accent or no one African language or no one African culture. Any African portrayal must be faithful to the region or country where that culture is located be it Northern, Western, Eastern, or Southern Africa.
The portrayal of Africans in western media also raise discussions of why it is important for cultures to represent themselves by themselves in the media. Every culture has a story to tell and they deserve to tell it their own way on their own terms. The inaccurate representations brings in to question who exactly the film or show is made for when their intended audience do not see themselves in these characters.
Over the years a lot of African actors have shared their experiences of how difficult it is to land roles in Hollywood just because they do not succumb to the stereotypical expectations of a generic African accent. Nigerian, Stella Damasus shared one her Facebook page about how actors are told they do not sound “African” enough. An article by OkayAfrica, noted that African accents are often portrayed as caricatures and those with genuine regional accents are rejected for not fitting in or adopting the generic way. These efforts seem very intentional as the western media appears very determined to forcefully paint a false narrative that would most likely cater to a predominantly white audience. However, these inaccuracies does no favour to anyone because not only to Africans not get proper representation, but it creates a lot of misinformation and false perception of who Africans really are or what Africa is really like.
A continent with a wide array of cultures and peoples and diversity does not deserve to be put in a box or made to fit a certain stereotype. Africans deserve to see themselves in the characters they see on screen on stage and should not be reduced to demeaning caricatures.
