my name is Yomi Decker K and I'm joined
by Oscar award-winning actress Lupita
Nyong'o to discuss her upcoming Channel
4 documentary we follow her journey to
uncover the hidden story of the highly
skilled female fighters who inspired the
creation of the dermal rj in black
panther the ogor ga in da homie kingdom
west africa so we sort of touched on the
documentary and we might sort of get to
know you a little bit more if that's all
right
could you tell us a little bit about
your childhood I know that you were born
in Mexico but grew up in Kenya do you
have any favorite memories of Kenya
growing up I remember spending time in
rata which is our family's ancestral
home with all my cousins and running
amok and climbing mango trees and eating
lots of guavas and taking donkey rides
to my grandmother's shop and things like
that
and those are very fond memories it
sounds very Dilek over the holidays yes
so in terms of your acting career let's
sort of take it back a little bit what
was your first job and did you always
want to act my first job meaning my
first paid job I was 14 and I played
Juliet and Romeo and Juliet in Nairobi
at our repertory theatre at the time
which was called Phoenix players and I
knew I wanted to be an actor from when I
was very young but I didn't really truly
admit it out loud until I was about 26
Wow
yeah and this was that kind of
stereotype of African parents or being
like we are doctor engineer did you
experience any of that not at all
actually I don't have very conventional
African parents my parents raised us all
to be like what you want to do what are
you interested in go out and do it you
know and so yeah my I didn't get any
resistance from my my family my dad used
to be an actor himself when he was in
high school and college and so
he was very encouraging he would always
come and see me perform in school my mom
- she would drive me to rehearsals and
wait for me to finish drive me home so
they were extremely supportive but I
think it's the thing I was blocked or
limited by what the larger society said
you know and the fact that I didn't see
what it was I wanted to be so I didn't
know it was possible for someone like me
all that rhymed second Talent
so just to sort of follow on about that
you are literally one of the most
prominent black women in the acting
industry right now going from you know
where you couldn't actually see yourself
metaphorically speaking to sort of
essentially seeing yourself almost
everywhere that must be quite a big
change
yeah it's it's really bizarre it's
bizarre it's kind of an out-of-body
experience when it happens
it doesn't make much sense you know like
when I was in Benin for this documentary
we you know we're driving along and
there was a black panther billboard and
you know they chose to use the African
women in it and it was me and and um I
on the Billboard and I it was like wow
I've never been here and yet there I am
it's a very odd experience but also very
encouraging to see that and to know that
their kids who are really little and
that will be their norm to see people
like me in in the in the media thank you
and just to sort wheel it back to Kenya
for a minute what's your favorite Kenyan
dish and can you cook I can cook I can't
cook my favorite Kenyan dish I like Oh
golly
which is a staple and kale we have which
I really love and fish you know I dried
some dried and then cooked it in spices
and and lots of tomatoes and onions and
yeah so people are definitely gonna want
to know when it comes to the giraffe
walls which side you want I am on the
actual fence
I love them both I will dip into our but
you know it's not even both I like all
jollof whether it's from Liberia or or
anywhere that jollof appears I will eat
it I'm sorry I'm really sorry I really
loved your love okay so they were all
winners yeah I'm the diplomatic one so
as one of the most prominent black
actresses in Hollywood what do you
personally sort of make around the
conversation that we're having about
colorism but I guess we're sort of
reaching a point where you know we may
be seeing more diversity within that
diversity of black women sort of more
dark-skinned representation first of all
I feel very fortunate to be in the
position I'm in and I feel like this is
not the time for coming to conclusions
this is the time to do the work and so
it's a time to actually see to it that
we have that diversity that we have that
inclusion and it it's it's in who has a
power to cast it's in who is telling the
story to begin with what is the origin
of it because when the people who know
the experience are holding the pen are
holding the power and holding the money
then we see more of that we will see
more of that trickle down to who's in
front of the camera you know that we're
we're the last ingredient in that long
conveyor belt of of a production you
know the the actor but you know I were
to children's book to address this very
issue and I just learned that Beyonce
just released a song about colorism so I
feel like there is there is a movement
and there's there's people speaking up
and changing the narrative and that's
where my focus is and what I can do to
change that narrative to make it that
much easier for someone else like me to
even dare to dream a bigger dream and
then to see it realized thank you so
much so for those who are yet to watch
your incredible documentary
tell us a little bit about your journey
to been in but also what the documentary
is generally about so the documentary is
about the women called the ago Jia who
most people know as the Amazons of
Africa and they were a group of women
whose job it was to protect the king and
the kingdom so there were about forty
forty four thousand of them and they
were in existence 17 18 and 19th century
we know very little about them they
inspired for example the dermal RJ in
black panther but in terms of who they
were and what they were about how they
came to be all of that we really don't
know because their story has been told
through the filter of the European
reporter you know and in their telling
of the story they have been fetishized
and over sexualized and exhausted sized
and so there it's been a rather
inaccurate depiction of who these women
were so I was tasked with the job of
going down there with channel 4 and
finding out the true story from their
descendants you know learning from the
oral history to kind of rewrite our
history so how did you decide that you
wanted to learn more about the OCO gia
women well I was curious about them
because of course I'd heard you know a
little bit I'd heard whispers of like Oh
iris ohms of Africa but what does that
really mean and who are they and I was
very aware of how often we have to
contend with an outsider's understanding
of who we were so I was really tempted
to go there myself and visit and learn
that story firsthand
I loved the continent I'm from I'm
curious to learn more I feel like most
of my education has been so Eurocentric
you know I went to a British system
school so I learned about the Thames
River even if I'd never visited it you
know and I feel like it's it was I've
been over you know
I want to say the last decade and a half
of my life I've been very aware of my
need to understand the African context
which is what I'm from knowing where
you're from knowing about one's history
oh you know it really informs who you
are in the president who you could
possibly be in the future and so I
wanted to experience that this story
because of that I think it helps to give
context and dimension to a time in
history that you rarely hear about women
ah times it definitely looked like the
journey took an emotional toll and
perhaps maybe a physical one and was it
difficult when you were out there
filming you know it wasn't difficult it
was hot for sure and now I understand
why Westerners think all of Africa is
hot because the Nina's giving us a bad
name you know cuz Vanina is actually
really hot but it wasn't hard
other than that because you know I've
I've lived you know I've lived on the
continent I've traveled a lot in Kenya
I've gone a long long arduous journeys
on terrible roads I was to do that like
three times a year growing up so none of
that fazed me actually the tough thing
was emotional for me learning the the
the truth about these women you know
meeting people who saw them as heroes
and other people who saw them as the
villain in their story that was hard and
to see the reality of you know of what
their contributions what their
contributions had given and done to the
benign cultural context today it was
overwhelming and I just felt like I was
full of gratitude and and also deeply
deeply moved and and sad even because I
was just learning so much so quickly
yeah thank you so much so towards the
end of the documentary it definitely
gets quite emotional um I guess you
thought it felt like you'd set out with
an idea of what the ogor do women were
like and I just was interested to know
what it was like when that idea was
later unchallenged well you know I
didn't really go
in with any sort of preconceived notions
as to who they were because I knew that
we were I was ill informed so I went in
with an impression and my impression
went as far as like oh they weren't they
inspired the Dharma logic
they must be very valiant but then going
in there there was valor and
vulnerability to these women you know it
was not all clear-cut and I was really
glad that this film was not about
passing a judgement you know it was not
a test to see whether they were worthy
of our admiration you know it was
actually just to tell the story as it is
and leave that up to whoever is watching
it so did any of the process will make
you think about your own Kenyan heritage
and ancestry and I'm not sure about how
much you already know about it but did
any of it make you want to sort of find
out a bit more yeah it really did and I
remember at one point we were sitting
with a queen in her courtyard and they
were singing an ancient song of their
good year at one point they asked me to
sing a song from my culture and I was
stumped because every song I know in my
mother tongue looool is a Christian hymn
and I know my culture goes further than
that
because the Christianity in my culture
is from colonialism and I could not
identify one song in my head that was
from beyond that and that made me very
very sad and I wrote to my parents I
think you guys have to teach me some
some Lua song I don't involve objects so
between you know films like Black
Panther films like The Lion King it
feels like African storytelling is
having a bit of a cinematic moment why
do you think that is I don't know I'm
not a scholar I'm sure there's someone
somewhere who studied this at great
length and I will defer to them but I
think you know it's about who has the
keys to the cultural door and
is shifting you know it's transforming
but also in the world of cinema where
you know we are inundated with story
from one perspective there's a hunger
for a different perspective and in some
ways Africa is that frontier yeah but I
think for me I'm not interested in a
trend I think it's a lifestyle that I'm
looking for a lifestyle where Africa is
part and parcel are soul of a global
conversation
you