The Guardian view on new stories: helping others tell tales
Toni Morrison knew a thing or two about stories. In 1994 she saw the “political correctness debate” as being about “the power to be able to define. The definers want the power to name. And the defined are now taking that power away from them.” The actor John Boyega is the latest to empower the previously mute. Last week his production company said it had signed a deal with streaming giant Netflix to develop non-English language films from parts of Africa, initially focused on Nigerian and Sudanese work. “It’s important that we take charge of telling our stories, and with this deal, we will do just that,” wrote the actor, of British-Nigerian heritage.
His mission chimes with the brilliant Belarusian writer Svetlana Alexievich’s recent announcement that she will launch a publishing house specifically for other female authors this year (“Men, they are everywhere, and women’s works are rarely published,” she told the Nasha Niva website). Stormzy, having already founded a record label, joined Penguin Random House to launch the #Merky imprint: the only prerequisite for the titles it publishes are that the authors are “from under-represented communities”. Similarly, the novelist Nikesh Shukla co-founded the Good Literary
Agency for talent that otherwise might be excluded.
The shift from creating content to encouraging and amplifying the voice of others is not a new one. It isn’t surprising that those who love films, books or music enough to devote their lives to making them would want to ensure that the world has more of the best. The Beatles used their Apple label to release