Non-white figures you'd like to see portrayed

[JakeyRolling]

Inspired by a combination of another AIBU thread and a pods cast I listened to recently, there's loads of BAME historical figures who would make excellent subjects for a tv show.

So who would you like to see on the small screen?

For me it's Zheng Yi Sao, China's pirate queen.

Forget Grace O'Malley and Anne Bonney, this woman commanded a fleet of ships and up to 60,000 pirates.

Also would like to see Mary Seacole and her sticking two fingers up at Florence Nightingale and going to the Crimea anyway.

@Simonjt

It would just be nice if non-white figures weren’t presented in the white view, virtually everytime something is made it is from the white perspective.

Hear hear!

See also, the inclusion of the White Saviour. I’m looking at you, Hidden Figures

@thisplaceisapigsty

Walter Tull, black footballer and WW1 hero - Northampton loves him!

BBC drama Walter's War was made some years ago. From what I can remember it was good having said that my memory isn't what it used to be.

Valerie Thomas, a graduate of Morgan State University, who invented the 3D movie. Morgan State University is home to the Bears in Baltimore, Maryland. Valerie Thomas invented the illusion transmitter which was the first mechanism that allowed images to be viewed in 3D using concave mirrors and rays of light.

She also worked for NASA and now teaches in local school pastime.
twitter.com/Africa_Archives/status/1474519990372081665?t=BNDyiaAmBUW6OqcrBqy-gw&s=19

twitter.com/NASAGoddard/status/1369015068260712451?t=m0wG5iRpx4eSSBrh34tUPg&s=19

@WorriedMumsDontSleep

But on reflection lumping name together might mean a company can employ a lot of one race but still discriminate against others. I.e employ a lot of Asian descent people but no African but their bame employment looks good. Maybe this is what your company is tackling. Complex issue and not sure what the answer is.

Yes I agree with you. Someone told me Boris Johnson can't be racist as he has Patel and Sunak in his cabinet. I asked how many gypsies and Africans were in the cabinet and they asked me what that had to do with it.

The life of Mary Seacole would be really interesting I think

@Suzanne999

Harriet Tubman. A true hero.

There’s a major film from 2019. It’s called Harriet.

@BigGreen

Would love to see more dramatisations of the many colonial resistance movements and independence struggles, especially in African nations.

I did enjoy Lion of the Desert, think it was made in the 80s. As far as I remember it was made with Libyan money (Omar Mukhtar was a Libyan leader in the resistance against Italian occupation) but the lead role was given to Antony Quinn who seemed to qualify as anything from Arab to Green.

It was something I knew nothing about so qualifies as educational for me.

I would love to see a musical biopic of Josephine Baker. She would make an absolutely superb film character and there's so much gorgeous music and visual stuff a director could use.

@GhostTypeEevee

The life of Mary Seacole would be really interesting I think

There are at least two films, though I think one is a docu-drama. One is called Seacole, and the other is Mary Seacole: Angel of the Crimea.

Olaudah Equiano

@Snowiscold oh thank you for this. I've never seen these before. I will have a look for them

There is a film called Seacole, starring Gugu Mbatha-Raw. I noticed it when reading her IMDB entry, where it's listed as in post-production at the moment, but don't know anything more about it.

@thisplaceisapigsty

Walter Tull, black footballer and WW1 hero - Northampton loves him!

Plymouth feels similarly about Jack Leslie.

@Ellmau

Olaudah Equiano

There are films and documentaries about him.

@Suzanne999

Harriet Tubman. A true hero.

There's a film about her currently on Netflix

Some of you are walking around with your eyes closed!

Mary Seacole featured in a recent Dr Who episode:

tardis.fandom.com/wiki/Mary_Seacole

Harriet Tubman has been the subject of a film and at least three operas:

amp.theguardian.com/music/2018/nov/18/opera-anti-slavery-champion-harriet-tubman-underground-railroad

Josephine Baker is pretty inescapable - Cush Jumbo Josephine Baker in particular made her name with a stage production on her:

www.bushtheatre.co.uk/event/josephine-and-i/

It’s a fine sentiment, OP - but, as mentioned above, famous people who do not happen to be white or English are generally celebrated in their countries of origin. They don’t need to wait for recognition in the UK or the US to become significant.

@unlimiteddilutingjuice

Actually any of the travelling Islamic scholars (or a composite character based on more than one person) would be an cool central character for an educational kids cartoon about the medieval world. He could visit a different country each week and show what daily life was like there in the medieval period.

Brilliant idea. As long as they did the research properly. Too much " the Moors taught Europeans to wash" unhistorical tripe floating around the internet.

I would like a drama about one of the medieval African kingdoms before the advent of the transatlantic slave trade. Preferably told by someone who is able to tell the story without a post colonial perspective.

I would also like a story about an "ordinary" person's experience. For example they have established there was a sailor on the Mary Rose who was mixed race North African/English and brought up in the SW. What was his life like growing up? How did he end up on the Mary Rose when it sank?

Kahina of Algeria, who was a warrior princess type figure in about the 7th century (not sure of the dates).

More recently, Wangari Mathaai, who won a Nobel prize for her environmental work in Kenya in the 2000s, not sure of the dates there either but she grew up in a village in Kenya, won a scholarship to study in the US in the 1960s then went back to Kenya where she fought to protect the environment.

I’d love to know more about South America, the early civilisations inca etc. there was a cartoon set in that world when I was a child on TV maybe 80’s? anyway I loved it. Would love to know more stories about the people and how they lived etc

And yes I saw a film on Harriet Tubman in cinema maybe 2019. I’m pretty sure it won an Oscar or two?

@BigGreen

Would love to see more dramatisations of the many colonial resistance movements and independence struggles, especially in African nations.

Me too. There's so many stories that we never hear about, becasue it doesn't fit the preferred narrative of the empire being a benign force etc etc.

I'd like to see dramatisations of key figures from the Indian resistancce movements too, such as Netaji Subhas Chandra Bose and Bagha Jatin. Everyone always hears about Gandhi but there were loads of others too.

en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_Indian_independence_activists

I'd like good documentaries on how the blues, jazz, rock and roll and early inventors of musical instruments and their African/American roots.
Also the contribution that nomadic (displaced) Jewish communities have made to making our world, the sharing of knowledge and skills, has made.
There's massive gaps in people's knowledge about these subjects.

However, it's completely downplayed what roles women played in us having better social care, prisons, our welfare state, hospitals and improved lives for all. I didn't agree with the statues being replaced by people of colour, when there were women who helped grow those cities etc, who are never mentioned.
I was researching women in Nottingham when helping name a female french bulldog, there were so many firsts, such as accommodation for refugees, accommodation for ex prostitutes, that all go unknown unless looked for.

Mansa Musa. Still one of the richest men to have ever lived.

allthatsinteresting.com/mansa-musa

Just thought of another one, Sayyida Salme, a 19th century princess from Zanzibar. She got pregnant to a German merchant, moved to Germany with him and ended up on her own there with her DC when he died.