Americans are after everything that will make money for them, from taking different talented people from around the world to stealing heritages, invading oil rich countries and shoving Hollywood movies down our throats. When they are not creating a war zone movie that portrays America as the victim and later the savior of the human kind they are deliberately misappropriating the history of other countries or simply cashing in on them.
I was watching long walk to freedom and all this time I kept asking myself, what is wrong with South African actors? If Hollywood really thinks the Mandela story is worthy to be told why is that that they did not look for the best actors to play the leads. I am not saying the actors in that movie are not good but I am saying we have equally talented actors in South Africa and Africa as a whole. I am saying if the world really wanted to watch the movie they were going to watch it regardless of who acted the lead as long as that individual is talented.
America is out to maximize profits, it is out to look after its own that is why they will drag one of their own to come to my country and act the character of a Xhosa person regardless of the obvious inevitable language barrier, and we supposed to understand it is just a movie, actually we supposed to applaud his attempt to speak our indigenous language, I am certain that is what they think. Well what they don’t know is that it is not just a movie to us; it is a lesson for the coming generations, which is why accuracy is important to us. I cannot stomach the thought of having my kids ask me if Mandela was American or couldn’t speak Xhosa properly, I can never have a good explanation why the creators thought an American will play a better Mandela than any actor in Africa.
Next time they want to exploit our history can we at least get to enjoy the rewards with them, can we also have a chair on that dining table and of course most importantly ensure our stories are well delivered to reflect the truth and facts instead of just creating a blockbuster that will confuse our kids in the future.
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