In cased you missed it, last year a random white dude from Virginia wanted to make his daughter a princess so he found some “no-mans land” between Sudan and Egypt and claimed it for his family. Yes, a random White dude just went to Africa, put up a flag and claimed the land for his family. Now, if this seems impossible or outlandish, it’s unfortunately very true.
If your heart is warmed by a father’s love for his daughter, cool, but, this is trash. Colonialism is real. The arrogance and entitlement that possessed that man to claim African land for his own. While there are a multitude of histories and (counter)narratives from across the continent, I believe few on that continent (or dispersed from it) would welcome a White man from across the Atlantic Ocean and calling it “his.”
Now because this story is about a random American white dude, other random white dudes are really about it. Morgan Spurlock (of Super Size Me fame), recently signed a deal with DISNEY to turn this modern day Christopher Columbus into a family film. Yes. Disney. Now white people have done, do, and will do some bold things – but a movie about going to Africa (unsolicited) and claiming land reeks of such ahistorical awareness. Just when we thought getting artificial lips, stealing our language, and erasing us from our music wasn’t enough, you gotta go and not only claim African land but make the *first African Disney princess* a white girl? Tiana was a frog for most of the movie but you wanna have a white girl be an “African” princess. OH. OK.
Of course Black Twitter showed up to clapback though:
To add insult to injury @Disney's making a movie about this land stealing and calling it #PrincessOfNorthSudan & she's "White Princess"
— Nadia (@Nadiaalie) May 14, 2015
https://twitter.com/Akhenaten15/status/598669947238223872
https://twitter.com/lunarnomad/status/598680462005932032
When will these people realize that you cannot just walk on to already thriving & inhabited lands & declare it yours 😕 #PrincessOfNorthSudan
— chapiadora (@_balia_) May 14, 2015
https://twitter.com/NaimaVibes/status/598687662719926272
https://twitter.com/Toussaint215/status/598690423071080451
https://twitter.com/besmaam/status/598707814694055936
https://twitter.com/williamcson/status/598705683303923713
https://twitter.com/HausOfRiya/status/598695290032513025
https://twitter.com/princess_omalik/status/598691829119262721
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