Beyonce’s latest offering, has had everyone up in knots for all the time it has been out, but could there be a hidden meaning behind one of the music videos, one that relates to Nigeria perhaps?
It has been mooted that the album drew heavily from Julie Dash’s Daughters of the Dust, a 1991 indie movie which was also the first feature film directed by an African-American woman distributed theatrically in the United states, but one of the music video called love drought depicts scenes that are strikingly similar to scenes of historical significance, a history forgotten by many.
The Igbo landing
The Igbo Landing is the location of a mass suicide of Igbo slaves that occurred in 1803 on St. Simons Island, Georgia. As the story goes, a group of Igbo slaves revolted and took control of their slave ship, grounded it on an island, and rather than submit to slavery, proceeded to march into the water while singing in Igbo, drowning themselves in turn. They all chose death over slavery. It was an act of mass resistance against the horrors of slavery and became a legend, particularly amongst the Gullah people living near the site of Igbo Landing.
In the video for Love Drought, Beyonce appears to be drawing heavily from this piece of history. Beyoncé marches into the water followed by a group of black women all in white with black fabric in the shape of a cross across the front of their bodies. They march progressively deeper into the water before pausing and raising all of their hands toward the sunset very much like the Igbo Landing.
This wouldn’t be surprising as Laolu Senbajo, a Nigerian artist was heavily involved in the project, so it’s clear that Beyonce has an affinity for things Nigerian.
It is also clear that Beyonce’s new album dealt a lot with imagery and allegory. For more information about the Igbo landing you can read here