Why are we always failing the independent, powerful black women on our screens?
Malefu’s role put on ice in the The River
This year marks 15 years since Halle Berry slipped into her unforgettable leather get-up as the iconic cat burglar in Catwoman and earned herself a spot atop the totem pole of Hollywood’s worst movies.
At my young age, and perhaps influenced by the brouhaha of a hyper-sexualised female hero, I quite enjoyed the movie. It came as a shock to learn that it was so poorly received by critics.
In their evaluations, the storyline was unrealistic, the acting was cringe-worthy and the soundtrack was deplorable.
On the other hand, the movie did not titillate a lot of male audiences and somehow relegated itself to the status of a cult favourite for the few women and queer fans it garnered.
It does not surprise me that critics and heterosexual men did not enjoy the movie either. With a distinct urban soundtrack, director Jean-Christophe “Pitof ” Comar took a black woman, made her a vigilante, avoided making her storyline about pleasing the sexual tepidness of a white rich man with a bat fetish and instead tells the tale of rebirth, self-acceptance and duality.
Black female actresses are scarcely afforded the opportunity to tell a feminist tale unless it is piggybacked on the yoke of a white counterpart or behind (at the very least next to) a formidable black man’s war against racism.
This myopic journey to the archaic world of 2004 hit me when I read about how The River’s Malefu (portrayed by Moshidi Motshegwa) was put on ice because scriptwriters do not have a storyline for the character anymore.
It is extremely embarrassing that a team of writers cannot possibly create any conflicts, reflect social ills or venture a new avenue with a God-fearing single mother from the township.
Ferguson Films takes the cake when contrasting the lives of the rich versus the poor. This includes their obsession with witchcraft and gang violence, all delivered by the formidable prowess of a woman in sharp stilettos too high for her to see below the heights of her LSM.
The story of the township life is subsidiary and reactionary to the world of the super-rich.
Ferguson Films becomes the trebuchet of classist porn that even Charles Darwin would open a PornHub account for.
We are now in an era where a character like Halle Berry’s
Catwoman would not be a lonely island but a nation with a proud following and the reaction to Malefu is proof of that.
We need #JusticeForCatwoman and we need #JusticeForMalefu. Let’s not fail another independent black woman.
There are already so few of them to begin with.