Black Earth Rising and Queen Sono: A Critical Decolonial Analysis

3.1 The plot

Black Earth Rising is a British series (thriller-drama) made in conjunction by the BBC and Netflix and is based on real-life events. The show was premiered in January 2019 in the UK, but it wasn’t made internationally available on Netflix until late 2020. The series features Kate Ashby, a Rwandan-born investigator, adopted when she was a child by Eve Ashby, a British human rights lawyer and her involvement as an investigator for different cases in the International Criminal Court (ICC), in French courts and in Rwandan courts of former military leaders that were involved in the Rwandan genocide (in which around 800,000 Tutsis were massacred by the Hutu government and militias), which are the characters of Simon Nyamoya, one of the former leaders of the Rwandese Patriotic Front (RPF), Alice Munezero, another of the former leaders of the RPF and Patrice Ganimana, who was one of the military Hutu commanders that perpetrated the genocide of Tutsis in Rwanda and escaped to Congo after the RPF took control of the government in 1994. Other important characters are Michel Ennis, a British lawyer for whom Kate works; Eunice Clayton, the US Assistant Secretary of State for African Affairs; David Runihura, special advisor to the President of Rwanda and Bibi Mundanzi, the President of Rwanda.

This show is an interesting approach to a complex problem that has issues of colonialism (both neocolonialism and internal colonialism) in Africa, where most of the people judged in the ICC have been from. The show is also useful to highlight the complexities of the essence of justice according to the West and according to the African countries that were invaded and colonized by European empires.

The show is based on the consequences of the Rwandan genocide. The Rwandan genocide was the massacre of around 800,000 Tutsis over a period of 100 days in 1994 at the hands of the Hutu’s government and militias. However, the genocide cannot be attributed just to an internal ethnic conflict, but rather the consequences of the colonial period in which Rwanda was invaded and controlled by Germany and Belgium; before the end of colonization there was no story of war between Hutu and Tutsis in Rwanda.^[37] Rwanda was invaded and controlled by Germany in 1897, and by Belgium after World War I, when Germany lost. Both Germans and Belgians imposed their agents in the courts of the Rwandan Tutsi monarchy, effectively controlling Rwanda, relegating the Tutsi monarch to a symbolic role, imposing cash taxes and forced labor, and profiting from colonialism and extractivism. Moreover, the Bazungu (a word used in the Kinyarwanda language to refer to white Europeans) imposed an ethnic colonial system, which regarded Tutsis as superior to Hutus because they were considered more convenient for European interests than Hutus, who were also considered more “ethnically” close to Europeans, allowing only Tutsis to hold power.^[38] With the “decolonization” of Rwanda at the end of the 50s by Belgium, the Hutus began to rebel against the Tutsi monarchy (and with the approval of the Belgians), killing thousands of Tutsis and officially taking power in 1961 with the victory of the Parmehutu political party. This replaced the monarchy with a presidential regime, which led to around 100,000 Tutsi fleeing the country and organizing guerrillas to try and retake power unsuccessfully.^[39] The Hutu government suffered from intense economic crises during the 80s and from pressure of the international community to democratize the authoritarian regime that they held, allowing other parties to compete for power in 1990. These two factors along with the invasion of the northern part of the country by the RPF (which was mostly composed of descendants of the Tutsis that fled the country when Hutus seized power) made the Hutu government feel threatened, leading it to revive the ethnic hatred against Tutsis imposed since the colonial period. This strategy ultimately resulted in the Rwandan genocide, using as an excuse the attack on Habyarimana’s plane which caused his death (Habyarimana was the leader of the Hutu government), attributed to the Tutsis without proof.^[40]

3.2 Analysis: Neocolonialism, mental health, decoloniality, justice, and memory

To begin with the analysis, it is worth noting that even if Black Earth Rising had been a show praised by critics, it is also accused of perpetuating negative stereotypes against black Africans,^[41] along with telling the story from a white-savior complex narrative. The fact that this is a British series is not a coincidence, because while highlighting the extremely harmful neocolonial involvement of the French in the Rwandan genocide, it doesn’t address the neocolonial role of the British in the conflict. However, it does address the involvement of the wife of the attorney general of United Kingdom (UK) in corruption schemes and neoextractivism projects within Rwanda, which is one of the reasons why the UK government doesn’t want to prosecute Patrice Ganimana.^[42]

One of the central social and political issues addressed in the show is neocolonialism (composed of foreign colonialism, neoextractivism, and internal colonialism). Neocolonialism is mainly addressed by three aspects: the supposed moral authority and legitimacy of Europeans to judge Africans by the ICC and other legal spaces against the self-determination of African countries; the intervention of the French fostering the genocide; and the neoextractivism of foreign mining companies, which in the show is Kromin; a transnational mining industry exploiting coltan in several parts of Africa.

The first aspect of neocolonialism addressed is the struggle between the European supposed moral authority and legitimacy to judge Africans. This aspect of neocolonialism is presented in Black Earth Rising as a two-sided coin: the desire to make justice but also an attack on the self-determination of African people. Self-determination refers to the right that a group has to freely determine their own form of government, executing it by self-governing and to achieve the ways of life and wellbeing they consider better.^[43] In this sense, self-determination also includes the right to act by the legal and judicial system and processes they consider better; in the series this controversy is constantly depicted, especially by the trial against Simon Nyamoya, who even if he was considered one of the heroes that stopped the Rwandan genocide, was accused in the ICC of organized crime, as well as leading a militia that trafficked “blood” diamonds. This accusation was questioned by several people from Rwanda, arguing that there were still war criminals at large who led the genocide and asking why not judge them?^[44]

This controversy of justice vs self-determination can be analyzed through a decolonial lens, which on the one hand shows that Europeans still have the sense that they have the moral superiority to judge Africans, perpetuating a coloniality of power and of being.^[45] On the other hand, it can also be analyzed as a way of controlling the population considered inferior through the police-judicial colonial apparatus, which is not only used by foreign colonizers but also by the local elites structuring it into internal colonialism. This is shown by how the French government, through the influence of Clement Barré, tried to use their judicial apparatus against Alice Munezero^[46] and is also shown in the way that Mundanzi uses the military and police forces of Rwanda to maintain power and imprison everyone who represents a threat against her government’s power.^[47] From a decolonial lens this is an indicator of necropolitics and violence, that is used to maintain a colonial capitalist system.^[48]

The second aspect of neocolonialism addressed is the intervention of the French in fostering the Rwandan genocide in 1994. This is shown throughout the trail of Alice Munezero, accused of war crimes by French authorities, specifically of killing a French priest in Rwanda in 1994 who was involved in the massacre of more than 200 Tutsis in a church. Kate serves as investigator for the defense of Alice, led by Michael Ennis; her investigation unveils the involvement of Clement Barré, the owner of mining and agricultural complexes in Rwanda, and the French military in fabricating the false accusation of Munezero and in helping and training the Hutu military and government, because it was convenient for the French economic interest that the Hutu government stayed in power. Kate’s investigation leads to the dismissal of all charges against Munezero because the French priest was alive in France and means that both Barré and members of the French military are issued with arrest orders.^[49] Through a decolonial approach this is an indicator of coloniality of power, where the institutional structure imposed by the colonial system continues to perpetuate and continues to be used by the West to control the “Global South” to prolong their interests.^[50]

The third aspect of neocolonialism addressed in the show is neoextractivism, which is shown through the plan of the transnational mining company Kromin, together with David Runihura, to do everything they can in order to have the concession for the first refinery in Rwanda, as evidenced by Michael and Kate’s investigation. Their investigation shows how Kromin, in order to have immense profits from their mines in Congo and to seal the deal for the refinery in Rwanda, paid (through David Runihura) the militia of Patrice Ganimana, to not attack the mines, protect them, and get rid of any threats to their interests; killing Eve Ashby, Peter Nyamoya, and even Eve Ashby’s former boss who had files that incriminated Ganimana and others. They also tried to kill Alice Munezero and Kate by poisoning them, without success.^[51] In several African countries neoextractivism manifests in the mining sector, extracting diamonds, coltan, and other rare minerals that are required for the technological products that are most profitable around the world (the products that use microchips). Neoextractivism is the contemporary form of extractivism, established since the invasion and establishment of colonies around the world by European imperialist countries. This shifted with the independence of these countries from the colonial states to the transnational companies that continue to profit from the natural resources of the former colonized countries; paying little for the resources whilst receiving enormous profits, allowing by conjunction very cheap labor, inhuman working conditions, repression of labor movements, racism, and inequality.^[52]

These three aspects of neocolonialism addressed in the show are connected and are a powerful way to foster awareness and critical consciousness of the colonial oppression that is still suffered in Africa, as well as other parts of the “Global South,” showing that colonialism, capitalism, racism, and environmental exploitation are part of a colonial process that benefits the elites by exploiting the oppressed, economically, socially, and by a necropolitical regime.

A different complex issue addressed in the show is mental health; Kate Ashby (the protagonist) suffers from chronic depression; it is implied in the plot that she attempted suicide and is on medication for her depression. Moreover, mental health issues are addressed as part of the consequences of the Rwandan genocide and civil war in survivors. This can be appreciated in one of Alice Munezero’s lines; “In my country, we all are traumatized.”^[53] The devastating consequences of conflict on the survivors’ mental health is also shown in the scene where Juliana Kabanga gives her testimony to Michael and Kate. Juliana is one of the survivors of the genocide, she witnessed the massacre of more than 200 Tutsis in the church where her family was also killed. This trauma caused her to lose the capability to speak ever since, giving her testimony in sign language.^[54] The issue of mental health is also addressed in Queen Sono’s show, where the protagonist suffers from depression and anxiety attacks caused by witnessing the assassination of her mother.^[55] Negative effects on mental health due to armed conflicts are a pervasive reality; violence and war not only get people killed, but also leave scars on the health of survivors, both physical and mental, as Frantz Fanon^[56] shown with his research on a psychiatric facility for soldiers involved in the independence war in Algeria. The issue of the mental health consequences of war and incarceration have also been discussed by Foucault.^[57]

Another decolonial aspect of the show is the use of proverbs and stories throughout the series, which is part of the oral tradition of African societies. The story addressed is the drongo and the cuckoo story told by Runihura to Michael: There was a little drongo bird in its nest, then a cuckoo bird was left in its nest and attacked the drongo bird since it’s bigger, leaving the drongo outside of the nest, hurt. Once outside the nest, the drongo searched the soil for the most poisonous worm which it gave to the cuckoo to eat and die, recovering the control of the nest. When Runihura tells the story, he says that Alice is the drongo, Bibi is the cuckoo and Michael is the poisonous worm, however in the last chapter Runihura tells Bibi that the cuckoo was Alice and that he gave the worm to Alice to make Mundanzi (drongo) keep the control of the nest.^[58] Using oral stories, such as proverbs, are very powerful to share complex ideas and have takeaways that are understandable for children and young viewers, and are decolonial ways of fostering political analysis and the development of critical consciousness, going past narrative centrism.

A final issue addressed is the complexity of the Rwandan genocide and the consequences of it in the region. The main consequence addressed is the posterior assassination of Hutu refugees in Congo in 1997 and the covering of it, not only by the Tutsi government but also the international community because it was convenient politically for them. The British government, pressed by Michael, negotiated with Runihura for Alice to be liberated from jail (she has been held as a political prisoner by Mundanzi), that the Constitution was changed, and that the truth was told to the Rwandan people about the 1997 assassination of 50,000 Hutus in Congo, where Kate was the only survivor, revealing at the end that she was Hutu, not Tutsi.^[59] This complex issue speaks about the very delicate balance between justice, memory, peace, and stability in countries like Rwanda and Congo, that have suffered from armed conflicts, wars, and genocide. Memory and justice are intimately connected, but do not always go hand by hand, depending on the notion of justice for a particular situation or group. This is clear with the controversy between monuments and counter-monuments, which try to expose hidden or forgotten truths that can be considered to challenge memory.^[60] In the show, Alice believes that the only way to achieve real peace and justice is by exposing the massacre of the Hutu refugees of 1997, however for Mundanzi’s government this is inciting racial division, instability, and even insurrection, which is inconvenient for her government but also for the international community. This is shown in the series by the inaction of the British, French, and United States governments when Alice is taken as a political prisoner by Mundanzi’s government.^[61] One important point to note regarding this topic is that western countries preach that the wars and conflicts in Africa are due to their ethnic and tribal internal conflicts, however, there has been research to show that multiethnicity is not sufficient to cause armed conflicts.^[62] Ethnic conflicts in African countries, like Rwanda, are caused by the imposed colonial system that categorizes peoples as superior and inferior based on the western idea of racial superiority imposed by the colonial matrix.

Considering the aspects discussed in the previous paragraphs, this show can be used as a tool to raise awareness and critical consciousness about the issues of conflict, peace, corruption, internal colonialism, neocolonialism, memory, and necropolitics in an accessible and entertaining way, having the possibility to reach a large audience. This could be used in both formal education scenarios and non-formal education scenarios to illustrate the social and political issues mentioned. The education and empowering potential of this show (specifically for black people) in topics such as colonialism and racism are addressed in other academic papers.^[63] As well as the specifical usefulness to foster critical consciousness and a humanistic view in lawyers.^[64] However, as discussed, it is important to bear in mind that it is a British show, that perpetuates to some extent the white-savior complex, where the institutional structure and legitimacy of the ICC and of the British legal system is not questioned, but rather is implying that there are some corrupt individuals, but that in general the system is “fair.”

4.1 The plot

Queen Sono is the first original African Netflix series production, premiered internationally in 2020. The production of original series based in the “Global South” and portraying stories with black African talent starring from their own perspective can be seen as an investment on diversity, which is a strategy that media companies have been adopting more and more,^[65] and is an investment to enter and be the leader of streaming platforms in Africa. By February 2020 there were only 1.5 million Netflix subscribers in Sub-Saharan Africa but it is estimated that by 2024 the streaming market in Sub-Saharan Africa will have a value of more than 1 billion USD.^[66] Queen Sono is a relevant fiction series (action-drama) that, in a popular frame, visualizes and exhibits several issues of African nations realities, such as colonialism (including neocolonialism, neoextractivism, and internal colonialism), violence, inequality, racism, and corruption.^[67] It is worth noting that the show has been more popular (in order of popularity) in South Africa, Germany, France, and Russia in the last months, and in the US and the UK the popularity has been average.^[68]

The plot focuses on Queen Sono and the Special Operations Group (SOG), a secret spying agency within the South African government. The scenes develop around the countries of South Africa, Nigeria, Tanzania, and Kenya, where Queen’s missions are based. During her missions, Queen unveils a neocolonial corruption scheme involving the South African president and his cabinet, the transnational company “Superior Solutions,” the armed group “Watu Wema,” South African elites and other actors, while trying to discover who assassinated her mother, Safiya Sono, who was the most prominent leader of the anti-apartheid movement in South Africa.^[69] The other leading characters in the show are Shandu Johnson, the leaders of Watu Wema and former SOG agent; Miri Dube, administrative chief of the SOG; Sid Isaacs, who is in charge of the SOG and Ekaterina Gromova, the CEO of Superior Solutions.

The show focuses on the reality of post-apartheid South Africa and the consequences of the apartheid regime, due to this, is important to briefly discuss the segregation and the apartheid regimes in the country. The segregation and apartheid regimes were imposed since the invasion and colonization of the region by the Dutch in the seventeenth century and of the British from the early nineteenth century, both the Dutch and the British imposed slavery on the Bantu (African) population and imposed a colonial racial system in which white Europeans were considered superior and received the power and economic resources.^[70] Nevertheless, racism, segregation, and forced cheap labor continued after the independence of South Africa in 1910; during the first half of the twentieth century segregation was enacted by law, such as the Native Land Act of 1913 that established “reserves,” limited zones in which African people were available to live and own land only.^[71] The apartheid regime began in 1948 when the Nationalist Party won the election, establishing a system of racism and repression against non-whites that not only entailed segregation but a whole apparatus of armed repression and institutionalized economic inequality in favor of whites and against non-whites (including African and descendants of Indian people) which established lower wages for non-whites for the same jobs, the prohibition of organizing for non-whites, the continuation and intensification of segregation policies.^[72] The apartheid came to an end in 1994 when Nelson Mandela was elected president; he was the first democratically elected president of South Africa, however, the consequences of the apartheid regime still continue today.

4.2 Analysis: Neocolonialism, violence, necropolitics, racism, corruption, inequality

The series, as mentioned before, addresses issues such as colonialism, violence, inequality, racism, and corruption in South Africa. Besides the topics addressed, the series by itself is a decolonial effort because it portrays an African story told and produced by Africans, using not only English but also African languages like Zulu and Swahili, to mention a few.^[73] The use of African languages is also seen in Black Earth Rising, where the characters speak in the Kinyarwanda language, however to a lesser extent than in Queen Sono.

In Queen Sono, the colonial oppression from the western elites is intertwined with internal colonialism, where the local elites have preached that they have liberated their people from western colonialism by independence and by the anti-apartheid movement. However, these local elites have allied themselves with western transnational companies to keep stealing natural resources from the African nations, receiving thousands of millions of dollars in businesses with the African governments through bribes and corruption.^[74] With these neocolonial schemes they have further perpetuated poverty, inequality, racism, corruption, and oppression of the African people, all of which are central elements of internal colonialism.^[75] One scene that shows this is when Malunga was vice-president and received bribes from two European companies for the concession of a nuclear plant in the country, which the SOG had proof.^[76] Another storyline that shows the internal colonialism suffered in South Africa is the last scene of the first season; Nana, who is one of the most prominent business leaders of South Africa, harnessed her economic power due to her political power in the dominating party, implying that there was corruption in her businesses.^[77] Moreover, in the last scene it is implied that she is behind the murder of Safiya Sono, and that she wants to get rid of Queen because she has become a threat to her interests.^[78]

On the other hand, neocolonialism perpetuated by International Organizations (IOs) is also addressed when Queen meets Nova (the girlfriend of her best friend William); Nova tells Queen that she works at the World Bank and Queen says “Oh! Drowning Africa in debt.”^[79] This issue is also addressed in the scene where Ekaterina is giving a talk at the African Security Summit and a woman from the NGO (Non-Governmental Organization) sector accuses her company, as well as other transnational companies and IOs, of being neo-colonialists, stating that they think they know better what to do in Africa than the Africans.^[80] Another issue addressed in the show is religion as a form of neocolonialism. Shandu, the leader of Watu Wema appears in a Christian church in Zimbabwe and exposes the pastor of fraud, telling the people to not let the religion of the West steal their money. Shandu then makes the pastor return all the money collected from the members of the church, for having taken advantage of their faith.^[81] This is related to coloniality of knowledge, which demonized the ancient cosmovision, knowledge and beliefs of the colonized people, trying to erase it and impose their religion, which in South Africa was Christianity (imposed by the western colonizers).^[82] Coloniality of knowledge is also used by IOs to decide for the “Global South” what is best for them, instead of recognizing the right to self-determination and recognizing that only people who live the reality of each country every day probably know best how to solve their issues.^[83]

A last relevant issue portrayed in Queen Sono is neocolonial violence and necropolitics, especially with the relation of “Watu Wema” and the security company “Superior Solutions,” which create a “fake” security problem by the attacks conducted by Watu Wema, allowing the security company to appear as savior; this is illustrated by what Ekaterina says to Shandu “So let Watu Wema continue to burn this continent down and Superior Solutions will extinguish the flames.”^[84] Watu Wema’s attacks create collective hysteria in the people, as is shown through the Metro terrorist attack and the attempted terrorist attack on the stadium in Johannesburg, allowing Superior Solutions to supply the government security forces when a state of emergency is declared.^{[85] , [86]} The fact that both Watu Wema and Superior Solutions are willing to deliberately end the lives of thousands of people for profit and power is a necropolitical stance that is inherent in a colonial capitalist system, where the lives of people are valued according to economic calculations, which then allows them to categorize lives in hierarchies. They can then “sacrifice” or literally end lives that are considered less valuable, which Shandu points out to Ekaterina more than once,^[87] but continues to work with her nonetheless.^[88] Moreover, the system imposed in the country has perpetuated inequality, which in order for the elites to maintain their profits and power creates violence and poverty, leaving the oppressed people to survive however they can, including illegal activities, justifying the securitization of society and the profiling and brutality of police against the groups considered “dangerous,” which are always oppressed groups (BIPOC).^[89]

One important difference between both shows is that Queen Sono implies a critique not only to corruption and neocolonialism in the face of individual businesspeople and politicians, but rather criticizes the whole institutional structure that was imposed by the colonial invasion and implies that institutional change to dismantle the colonial institutions is needed. This can be appreciated with the arguments that Shandu poises throughout the series and the truth unveiled by Queen about the nature and beginnings of the SOG; critique that is not seen in Black Earth Rising. The fact that Queen Sono is an African series and Black Earth Rising is a European show can be used to explain this difference.

Series like Queen Sono can be very useful for visualizing social and political issues in a popular way, so that a large audience can be exposed to them and could lead them to foster critical consciousness and rethink their reality.^[90] There are guides to use the show as a pedagogical tool, such as the “Screen Worlds” toolkit about African films and series to challenge western centrism in Film Studies at university level, which leads to discussions such as: How do the directors in question choose to represent African citizens and places? What do these filmmakers envisage for the future of Africa? Just to mention a few.^[91] Finally, Queen Sono is an empowering channel through which African people see themselves and recognize themselves as the main actors of their realities, breaking with the western cultural imposition. However, it is also important to recognize that the show can also perpetuate exoticism and othering of African bodies and lives, by portraying Queen as a femme fatale, perpetuating the negative stereotype of black women as hyper-sexualized.