Can Hollywood Stop With the 'African' Accents?

A polite reminder, Africa is not a country.

As an African, after watching two or three Hollywood movies or TV shows with references to the continent, you would quickly realize that the industry has failed to properly understand and depict the breadth and diversity of African cultures. 

It often appears that actors cast in African roles are either trying too hard or are quick to succumb to the notion of a generic ‘African accent’ without researching the character and accent to convey the authenticity required in the role. 

Perhaps we can blame the industry for the warped view that non-Africans have of the African continent. The long-established Hollywood depiction of Africans has historically been very narrow, showing Africans living with wild animals in our backyards and walking several hundred kilometers barefoot to school. These stereotypes are often quite embarrassing, especially the constant reference to “Nigerian prince/princess”.

In more recent times, there have been more modern depictions of African societies in western storytelling. However, we have no idea who decided there was an “African” accent but as African’s pleading with non-African’s can we cancel this once and for all?!

Every Hollywood actor playing an African character somehow has the same accent, which made us wonder. Last we checked, Africa is a continent containing 54 countries and more than 3,000 tribes. If a Kenyan man settles in Nigeria, we would be able to quickly identify him because he sounds very different. Keeping it a little closer to home, there is a clear difference between Nigerian and Ghanian accents, even though the countries are in West Africa.

What seems to be the problem is the abject disregard and lack of effort shown by Hollywood to honor local dialects and accents overlooks our various distinctions. As far as we have seen from Hollywood, Nigerians, Ghanaians, Algerians, South Africans are part of a single ‘country’ and so, share the same accent. 

Hollywood has unfortunately and perhaps unknowingly watered down rich and diverse cultures to reduce African characters by and large to homogenous to generic tropes. 

The movie that broke the internet at the time of its release was ‘Concussion’, a true-life story of a Nigerian pathologist, Dr. Bennet Omalu played by Will Smith. 

Admittedly, the plot was captivating enough; Omalu discovered that the hard hits that US football players receive in the National Football League (NFL) may cause serious brain damage. He published his findings in a 2005 paper in the journal, 'Neurosurgery' that threatened to stop the game. Omalu is then placed under a lot of strain to stay quiet about his discovery.

While the plot highlighted the achievements of a Nigerian Doctor, there was nothing Nigerian about the accent in the film. Hollywood dashed him the ‘African’ accent they kept in their vault and in doing so, stripped away the Nigerian identity of the character. For a film based on a true story, many Nigerians and non-Nigerians felt the depiction to be borderline disrespectful.

The same Hollywood would go out of their way to speak to, study, and perfect the cultures and accents of non-African communities. We see almost perfect French accents from The Da Vinci Code, Ratatouille, and Last Tango in Paris, so we know Hollywood cast and crew are capable. 

If there was no dialect coach available to teach Will Smith the Nigerian accent, then a Nigerian should simply have been given the role. With so many Nigerians or Africans with Nigerian lineage making it in Hollywood, that of course, would not have been a hard feat. Actors like Chiwetel Ejiofor, David Oyelowo, or even Adewale Akinnuoye-Agbaje would have delivered those lines with accurate proficiency.

Marvel’s ‘Black Panther’ is another movie that made us squirm a little, but we cannot take it apart because it is a fictional country. But get this, even though it is a movie set in the heart of Africa, Chadwick Boseman, the Black Panther, T’Challa, had to fight for the accent that was used.

Insider reported that Chadwick “…fought for his title character to have an African accent in the film when Marvel wasn't entirely convinced.

"They felt like it was maybe too much for an audience to take," Boseman said in an interview for The Hollywood Reporter's Awards Chatter in 2018. "They felt like, 'Would people be able to understand it through a whole movie?' and 'If we do it now, we're stuck with it.' I felt the exact opposite — like, if I speak with a British accent, what's gonna happen when I go home?"

Two options were Boseman taking on a British accent or keeping his American accent and saying that the character had studied in a foreign country, but Boseman wasn't going to give up on his belief.”

Fictional country or not, as long as it is set in Africa, Hollywood should do the needful.

Of course, this would not be complete without commending the work of producers who did their homework and created a truly African masterpiece - or close.

The movie, ‘Beasts of No Nation’ that starred Idris Elba and Abraham Attah did quite well in the accents department. The movie depicts the atrocities of war in West Africa and the use of boy soldiers. Set and produced smack in the middle of Ghana, it would have been a real shame if the accents were not well executed.

Elba's accent was, at times, questionable, but Abraham’s more accurate and authentic accent instantly made the whole movie intense and real.

If producers were not already aware, accents are just as important as the costuming and set design.

We talk so much about representation and accents consist of a huge part of that. People want what they identify or relate to so that a genuine connection can be made.

When you think about it, it really is not just a movie. It is art, culture, life. It is taking a concept out of a society, reinventing it, and projecting it back to that society in such a way that it unites them.

If it is not going to be accurate, it might as well not be made at all.

It makes you wonder if these so-called African movies are for Africans at all, and not for foreign audiences that are less versed in the continent and its beautiful traditions.

Or maybe the goal of these ‘African’ movies to simply win awards.

Hollywood’s portrayals of African characters and actual African identity are so far apart. And this divide is made glaringly obvious by their depiction of African accents.

If the industry is hoping to strike a chord with Africans, then they need to do better. This problem can be solved by using dialect coaches from the actual country or even region being portrayed or casting local actors.

Or perhaps, casting directors could watch a YouTube video or two.