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The art of spoken word: The 14th Tale

It must have been because of the freezing cold that night, but somehow I remembered the way from Waterloo Train Station to the National Theatre. I was only three buildings away when I asked some security people where the venue was. However, my journey -through what felt like Siberia to me- was not over yet. The space for Inua Ellam’s spoken word performance was around the corner. If only I had known that before ending up in the car park basement and climbing six staircases up.

Fortunately, I did not receive any hassle at reception and I could make my way into the theatre pretty quick. I squeezed past a lovely couple to my assigned seat. It was really cramp in between two other people, so I had the option of either punching someone in the face accidentally...or just keeping my jacket on. I chose the latter, although I did manage to free myself from the buttons. The back of the chair was also extremely uncomfortable. I had to give in sometimes and try to shovel to find a less painful position.

The play began about five minutes after I had entered to my luck. The 14th Tale features actor Inua Ellam telling a compelling story from his naughty childhood to manhood. I wonder if all his experiences and ‘scatter head’ antics really did happen, but it was all very convincing. I will have to ask the star himself when he visits one of Adinkra Film Nights again in the future.

The whole theatre darkens and Inua is sitting on a chair placed in the far right corner. There is a bright light shining on him. His head is on his knees, between his arms. Sounds of a hospital start to rise up. Inua lifts his upper body, raises his finger as though asking a question and walks to an imaginary desk –where there seems to be no one.
He starts talking so fast, that I’m concentrating on concentrating itself and loose the essence of his monologue.
I’m panicking inside, because I really don’t want to sit there for 55 minutes without understanding what the play is about.
He returns to his seat and returns his head on his lap. Once again he repeats the raising hand and walking to the ‘desk’. He begins talking fast again, but thankfully this time I understand him.
“I’m from a long line of trouble makers, of ash skinned Africans, born with clenched fists and a natural thirst for battle, only quenched by breast milk.”

The whole audience bursts into laughter when he pauses after the word ‘breast milk’ –how immature, but I join in. Inua continues speaking about his grandfather’s naughty ways as a child. Then about his father being a rascal in high school. And then himself growing up in a Nigerian boarding school. He gets into trouble so many times, that he creates strategies on escaping to do hard work and softening the blows of cane lashes by placing extra fabric in his pants. His father never gets angry, just laughs and says: “There is a vague connection to everything in life, son. Your time will come.” That’s not what many parents would tell their child...

At the age of twelve he leaves his best friend in tears, as he immigrates the UK with his family. Troubles start again at school when he learns that it’s illegal to beat children. He causes so much havoc in school that the teachers don’t even care or notice after a while. He finds himself a Chinese friend who shares the same tingling in his spine after they finish passing water (he used words much more extreme which I will spare readers from). He grabs his manly bits quite a few times when boasting. The audience found it quite hilarious, but I was quite shocked initially.

For the third time he returns to his seat, head on his lap. This time he gets through to a doctor and speaks with his friend lying on a bed. Apparently his friend –and Inua?- got into trouble and now the guy will never be able to walk again...

Growing up Inua moves from London to Dublin and back again. He falls in love with gorgeous girls, but then one he truly desires ‘doesn’t do relationships’. He still remains head over heels for her and finds her with another man one day. At night he decides to break into her house by entering through an open bathroom window... He grabs the showerhead, screws the top of and fills it with red paint. His phone suddenly rings and as he tries to whisper his ex catches him. He manages to calm her down and gets bad news on the phone...

His father is ill. Inua’s time has come. He sees the vague connection to happenings in life. He becomes a man. And wonders whether his own son would one day see the vague connection as well.

The 14th Tale with Inua Ellams will be at the National Theatre until March 13th. So make sure to go and see this amazing performance that will leave you mesmerized.

By Aichel Moreno Bautista

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Princess & the Frog: don’t believe the non-stereotypical hype!

Princess & the Frog was yet another happy-go-lucky, always-look-on-the-bright-side-of-life Disney animation. Adinkra Film Nights celebrated the first private screening of the Sankofa Membership Card with the animation. The trailer of Princess & the Frog portrays a Black young lady finally the star of the show. Not only is she the star… She’s royalty! However…

Caution: If you haven’t seen Princess & the Frog yet, you might not want to read further, because I am spilling the beans and revealing it all –about the plot that is!

Trailer: Disney's Princess & the Frog

Anyway, where was I? Yes! However… What the trailer doesn’t give away is that the lovely and pretty Tiana is not a princess at all! She is a waitress/ cleaner in a cafeteria run by a Black guy who won’t give her a break. A double-slap in the face, this cartoon kicks straight off with the tired stereotypes. Black person in low-paid job and Black person not helping another brother or sister. To make matters worse, some guests were still arriving stereotypically late. Thus I could not really watch much of the intro and the slaps-in-the-face.

Thankfully, Tiana was not stigmatically ‘loud and angry’. She proved to be a strong-minded, independent lady with ambitions to open her own glamorous restaurant. She works her socks off to pay off the building’s deposit, but a higher bidder could possibly spoil the party if she doesn’t pay the full sum by the next day. Unfortunately, there is another stereotype luring around the corner. The only way the lucky star in the sky can grant her all the money, is if she gets herself a rich man. Why can she not just have a good entrepreneurial head on her shoulders and come to an agreement with the sellers?



What is also weird is that most of the other characters in the animation are not Black. The only ones are her mother, late father, the voodoo lady and… the animals. All others are White or Hispanic-White. It would have been far more interesting and educational to our children if there were more serious Black characters. And the prince could have been a lovely Black man too. If they can draw a pretty Black female, why not vice versa? But I guess that would just be too much and Disney would lose more of its White audience –if not all. The film industry policies for distributors would never allow it. Examples are comedy spoof-film Scream where the Wayans brother were the only two Black lead persons allowed to appear on the cover and posters. Not to mention Couples’ Retreat where the only Black couple was completely removed and deleted on British posters, unlike the American posters on which they DO appear.

The rest of the film is merely a continuous chasing, escaping and running like many other Disney animations. There are a few wonderful songs as well like "Almost There", but some others are so cheesy that I could have ran out of the cinema.

To my surprise Tiana’s ghetto-esque best friend does not mind at all that Tiana hooked up with her former prince charming. In real life she would have probably squashed both frogs like meaningless bugs.
The film ends when Tiana becomes a real princess after marrying and kissing the prince. Hereafter they both transform back to their human bodies.

After the film there was also an interesting Q&A in which both children and adults participated. Like me, the adults had their ‘moan of the week’ on the and picked the animation apart. Nevertheless, the children apparently did not notice the stereotypes. They commented on their favourite characters in Princess & the Frog and about the loving and kissing! Children watch movies with innocent eyes, but when does this innocence disappear for them to detect what the real world is indirectly telling them?

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