Blackness in the time of Lemonade
The detonation of the bomb that was visual album Lemonade created a wave of reactions around the world, some insightful, some hilarious, others misplaced and frankly unnecessary. At the risk of joining a flurry of think pieces, I felt the urge to lend my voice in the dissection of Beyonce’s groundbreaking work. The timeliness of Lemonade cannot be overstated. The beautiful and unapologetically black work of art comes at a time that the global black community is boiling and fighting to put a stake in the ground and dictate their identity and value, which for the longest time has been controlled by external forces.
The African blogosphere came to life citing the numerous nods to contemporary and traditional African, more specifically Yoruba culture. The piece also sprinkled with the words of Somali- Brit poet Warsan Shire, already a beast in her own right, whose lyrical prose is interwoven between each track leading us through the meaning and relativity of the album.
The visual aesthetics of the costumes and makeup were the most obvious references. In “Sorry” there was the instantly recognizable body painting work of Laolu Senbajo, whose work is an ode to the Yoruba deities or Orishas that are still worshipped across Yorubaland and all the way across the Atlantic through Santeria, Candomblé, Voudon, in Cuba, Brazil, and Haiti respectively, as well as in more discrete practice in the United States. The dancers in all white during “Don’t hurt yourself” seemed symbolic of the ritual invocation or possession by the Orishas. The Franco-Cuban Ibeyi twins who sing in Yoruba and English, and site Santeria as a direct influence in their music, also made a cameo in the video. Beyonce donned the soon to be iconic yellow gown in “Hold Up” as a flood of streamed behind her, reminiscent to the river goddess Osun. For a full breakdown of references and collaborations check out this Afripop piece.
The significance of this homage goes beyond a fetishizing of African culture. For centuries traditional African religious identity has been reduced to primitive, and paganism rooted in illiteracy, in desperate need of Christian salvation. In this piece there is an actual recognition of the power and deep cultural roots that have long existed on the continent. This ode to African ancestry points to the strides that are being made in the regain control of our global black culture, and women that rules on social media from #BlackGirlMagic to #AfricanGirlsKillinit; straying from depiction of the black woman around the world as forlorn, scorned, and of little value.
The piece was a general celebration of blackness, but even more importantly an acknowledgment of the global black diaspora for their unique cultural contributions and diversity. This is the landscape we are living in right now, a crucial time. Black Lives Matter and the consciousness of the oppression that we’ve been subjected to through the narrow narratives of blackness in America, Africa, and across the world really, have morphed a loudly beating movement to rejoice in ourselves and our cultures. This movement has created fertile ground for an artist like Beyonce to tie it all together, and produce a piece of work that is unabashedly for black women around the world awakening to their worth, and their magic.
I for one drank the lemonade in all its complexity, nuance and richness, and it tasted damn good.
