Namibians were, and are still, filled with excitement when Reginaldo Antunes, mononymously known as Reggie, appeared this week on the credits of Beyoncé Knowles-Carter's new visuals for Black Is King alongside his friends Karisanene and Mahindiani Mbendura.
Black Is King is an assertion of a purpose, with opulent graphics that celebrate black resilience and culture created by Beyoncé, Jay-Z's wife. The film climaxes the beauty of tradition and black excellence.
Antunes told Entertainment Now! that being part of such a production is not far-fetched as he has been working on a personal project of such nature. “I realised that why we as black people are having major problems is that we have been stripped of our dignity and identity,” he enlightened.
“Because of the project I was working on, I started surrounding myself with the Ovahimba people to know the way they live, interact, what they eat and I started putting them on my social media (Instagram). And by constantly putting them there, a school in South Africa contacted me and wanted to make a movie with the Ovahimba people. At that time I didn’t know the documentation would be for the Black Is King film.”
Antunes said this was when he had an epiphany that he at one point, before the black man’s identity got stolen, was just like the Ovahimba people in terms of dressing and way of life.
“All Bantu people were originally one and before we were told the way we look and dressed was not good enough, we dressed like the Ovahimba people,” he mentioned.
He is ecstatic and over the moon that the concept resonated with the idea he had that being black is good enough, it is worthy.
Asked how the two featured ladies feel about such exposure, Antunes said: “Sadly, they don’t understand the magnitude of what they are part of. I explained the concept and ideology around it and why they should take pride in being who they are and what they are, but they were like, oh well, whatever!”
“They also got to see Beyoncé on YouTube and they were still saying sohoo!”
“I am honoured and happy, not just because it's pop culture and it's Beyoncé, but it is something I strongly believe in. We as individuals should believe in our identities, embrace our dignity; there will be someone out there looking up to you, and that enables that individual to embrace who they are,” said Antunes.
As a leeway of 2019 Lion King: The Gift album, the film Black is King reimagines the Disney classic The Lion King through the eyes of people instead of digitally animated animals. This way, Beyoncé, who acts as the film's narrator, can help push society away from conditioned tropes of African peoples while using clothing to overtly and subtly subvert the 1994 narrative into a tastefully executed ode to the true beauty of Africa and its people. This time around the land of the brave, Namibia, is represented.
– psiriririka@nepc.com.na