Written by Reananda Hidayat Permono
Completed Master of Science - MS, Petroleum Geology from Curtin University, Perth, Australia.
Netflix arrives with a series about the complicated history of African kingdoms, along with their entanglement with the slave story.
The docu-drama series African Queens: Njinga, executive-produced by Jada-Pinket Smith, challenges the white-centric telling of history.
Starring Adesuwa Oni, season one of African Queens: Njinga traces the life of Njinga, a warrior queen of Matamba (present-day Angola) and Ndongo.
The show focuses on her fight against slave traders and Portuguese colonizers.
It’s a four-part docu-drama Netflix, with each season will focus on one queen from the African continent.
Meanwhile, season 2 will tell the story of Cleopatra.
The series starts in 1617 at the kingdom’s capital city, Kabasa.
The opening scene shows Njinga, still an established warrior and a princess, and her relationship with her father, played by Thabo Bopape (King Ngola).
Betrayals within the kingdom rise as they get double threats from neighboring African enemies and the Portuguese.
Njinga witnessed multiple African kingdoms participate in slave trade businesses.
Netflix’s African Queens: Njinga is released during Black History Month.
The series tells important stories about a shift in how Black lives are represented.
Many may be unaware, but Njinga played a vital role in the popular imagination of Angola’s struggle during Portuguese colonization in the 1960s.
Moreover, Jada-Pinket Smith has intentionally begun the series with Njinga rather than the more famous Cleopatra.