Bringing to you a piece of Black History and Power this week is Jada’s show, African Queens. Revolving around the Southwest African Ruler from 1624, the series is an exciting documentary drama that will provide a deeper look into the life of this one-of-a-kind Queen who has remained only in history books for a long time. We will be seeing other significant female black queens as well.
Providing a platform that would showcase the legendary rule and glory of such figures, Jada Pinkett Smith, the creator behind the show hopes to bring attention to these forgotten rulers who played a huge role in the political world and empowered their communities throughout their life.
The show will start with Nzinga, who had been born into royalty but never let it stop her from pursuing a path true to her heart. She quickly became one of the best rulers of her time after she was made the queen. Nzinga joined the military and received training from a young age, and later on, became known for her highly intelligent ways of diffusing political issues with other kingdoms.
The documentary will talk about the queen and other crises Africans went through during her reign. From the rising Slave trade to dominance from other kingdoms, this queen had to put up the strongest front and fight for her people. The show will provide Reenactments of actual history that happened at the time when Queen Nzinga was the ruler.
Jada Pinkett Smith has been experimenting with other platforms like movies and TV shows and African Queens will be one such work that will mark her entrance into the world of Netflix as a creator and director. Besides featuring actors, the series will also at times include interviews with historians and researchers who will be providing a clearer look into the world of Queen Nzinga.
African Queens: The Cast of The Show
With Jada as the executive producer, the rest of the cast is made up of Chipo Kureya, Philips Nortey, Cory Hippolyte, Marilyn Nnadebe, Thabo Rametsi, and Zethu Dlomo. The show has a predominantly African cast to make the show a true representation of the community.
The main warrior queen, Queen Njinga will be portrayed by Adesuwa Oni. Though she is a new actress Adesuwa can be seen showing off her true skills in the trailer of African Queens. She has been a part of supporting roles in shows like The Witcher and Operation Napoleon.
African Queens Episode 1 to 4: Release Date
African Queens Episode 1 to 4 will be aired on February 15th, 2023. Each episode will be 45-50 minutes long, with Jada Pinkett Smith as the narrator for each part.
African Queens Episodes 1 to 4: What To Expect?
From the trailer that has been released on social media platforms, we see future queen Nzinga being born in 17th century Ndongo to a royal family. She defends her father when people start questioning his rule, as the slave trade only keeps increasing and there’s no development in the kingdom. When she becomes the one in power, Nzinga makes sure that European Power is kept at bay. At times, she has to fight her own family who betrays her when she needs them the most. Her only dream is to get ahold of the kind of power that would allow her to improve the lives of her people.
The episodes will feature all about the mother of her nation, who made great sacrifices to make Ndongo take on a completely different route, one that would lead to greatness. She was the only African ruler that made Europeans realize that they could not get away with everything, and she had been recognized as a Female King by most of those in political opposition to her.
Other than Nzinga, the show has not revealed if and who the other queens will be that will be featured. It’ll only be revealed when the show premieres this Wednesday, so grab your snacks and tune in on the platform to experience true, lesser-known history of African culture portrayed in the best way possible.
African Queens: Where To Watch?
All episodes of African Queens will be released on Netflix. The timing will vary with each region, some of them are:
- United States and Canada: 3:00 am ET, Wednesday
- United Kingdom: 8:00 am, Wednesday
- India: 1:30 pm, Wednesday
- Japan: 5:00 pm, Wednesday
- Australia: 7:00 pm, Wednesday
- Singapore: 4:00 pm, Wednesday
- Philippines: 4:00 pm, Wednesday
Also Read: How To Watch The Exchange Episodes? Netflix Streaming Guide
