"Queen of Katwe" - It's A Big World, After All

For my 55th birthday, imagine, if you will, the journey of a girl whose only vision of Africa came from UNICEF commercials to a woman who spent nearly a decade living in East Africa. A woman who sat in a screening of “Queen of Katwe,” and almost cried because the images of life in a Ugandan slum were so real, so potent. I have ridden on the back of motorcycles in Uganda, over rutted, rocky paths where women sell chapatis and roasted maize with babies strapped to their backs. I have sat in thatch-roofed, mud-walled tukuls and tin-roofed shantys with no windows and charcoal jikos. I have laughed and cried with women in those places. But I know they all possess more than the one-dimension popular media usually transmits. And I know what their lives could be like, because of my own 55 year journey.

I have traveled to 11 different African countries now, all through the power of my mind. No silver spoons, no lottery winnings, no Sugar Daddies. I was born in poverty, but poverty never defined me. Solely through my ability to string words together in an interesting way, I made magic. And that's why Disney’s “Queen of Katwe” took me on a powerful emotional journey I won’t soon forget.

The story of Phiona Mutesi, portrayed by Madina Nalwanga in her film debut, resonated on so many levels. Her life in a slum outside of Kampala, Uganda seems to offer nothing but drudgery, single motherhood and hopelessness until she stumbles across an informal chess club organized by Robert Katende (David Oyelowo), whose work with a youth ministry gives some of Katwe’s children a place to socialize and challenge each other’s minds.

It’s soon clear that Phiona is naturally gifted, and Katende digs deep to rally the resources she needs to keep playing, to keep believing in herself. But Phiona has many burdens to bear: she is a female in a world where women are to be seen and not heard, meant to give birth, toil in the fields, keep life and limb together. But one thing is certain: they are definitely not expected to have an opinion or use their brains.

Watching Phiona grow in confidence and awareness that she is as smart or moreso than her male opponents is enormously powerful. Nalwanga's demure performance evolves as she comes to grip with the agility of her mind, and walks with her head held higher, leveling her gaze as she faces her opponents. I have studied the countenances of many young African girls whose worldview doesn't exceed the borders of their villages or the lanes of their slum settlements. I have seen a premature weight on their faces, the dull sheen in their eyes, and heard the strangled whisper in their voices that snuffs out any potential for hope, dreams, or reaching their potential.  They have no roadmaps, no role models, no reason to dream big.

That’s why there is much to praise about this movie, directed by Mira Nair and based on the book of the same name by Tim Crothers. First, it must be noted that Hollywood usually only bankrolls movies about Africa when they involve corruption, violence and grand scale tragedy. “Beasts of No Nation,” “Hotel Rwanda,” “Blood Diamonds,” and “Last King of Scotland” are just a few that come to mind. When properly financed and publicized movies involving Africa are produced, they usually feature white people, e.g. “Out of Africa," “Gorillas In The Mist,” and "The Constant Gardener." Cinematically speaking, it’s as if the African continent exists solely as a place for white adventurers to fulfill their wanderlust and have epic romances, while the natives toil and suffer as elegiac background props.

Cue the lovely and luminous Lupita Nyong’o. Now, let me just get something out of the way….the movie deserves an Academy Award solely for making me believe that she could be the mother of a grown woman. You can wipe all the make-up off Lupita’s face, drape her in simple cloth and dip her in a vat of dust, and she still looks like a young mahogany nymph who just stepped down off of a museum pedestal.

The fierce determination Nyong'o exudes in the movie is impressive, and is a welcome addition to Hollywood’s sparse range of black African female images. Nakku Harriet is a widowed mother of three who scratches out a living selling food on a crowded street. She’s too busy surviving against mind-bending odds to consider that allowing Phiona to play chess could unlock the door to a better future. The bitter frustration Nakku expresses when her eldest daughter Night (Taryn Kyaze) runs off with a slick hustler on a motorcycle becomes resigned acceptance of fate when, just months later, the prodigal daughter returns, abandoned and pregnant. It’s just the way life is.

But maybe it doesn’t have to be, and that’s where Robert Katende comes in. Besides highlighting the wisdom of empowering women, “Queen of Katwe” does a terrific job of illustrating the too-often insurmountable path from poverty to the middle class in many African countries. Katende is a poorly paid athletics coach when he’s not volunteering with the youth ministry chess club, but he also wants a better life for his own family. He applies for engineering jobs that would greatly increase his income, but is met with indifference and pomposity along the way. Instead of giving in to despair, he uses the time to rally funds and moral support for the team. The masterful Oyelowo imbues his character with kindness, sincerity and grit; you root for him to win, too.

I loved the portrayal of a modern young African couple, both educated and employed, making sacrifices to stay in their community instead of chasing the “security” of government jobs--or fleeing to Europe or America for better prospects. And during a particularly powerful scene, when Katende has to tell his wife Sara (Esteri Tebandeke) that he has turned down a more lucrative job to keep working with Phiona and the team, I held my breath awaiting her response. Let's just say it made my heart soar.

But my heart nearly broke at several other points during the movie. First, a scene where Phiona and her family almost drown during a rainstorm that floods their squatter’s dwelling was a metaphor for the desperate tide of poverty and weak or non-existent infrastructure that plagues the African continent. Next, a scene where Phiona’s talent has taken her all the way to Russia for a chess tournament, but crippling self doubt sends her fleeing from the venue sobbing because she doesn’t believe she belongs there, reminded me of early struggles to accept my own purpose in life.

I felt pure joy at the end of “Queen of Katwe,” and it is rare for me to leave a movie theater feeling so inspired and affirmed. The movie provided proof that mentoring, and role-modeling--and not dismissing the enormous potential of women in the developing world--can unleash miracles. Perhaps the biggest miracle of all is the fact that the Disney Company has bankrolled and is promoting the film at the highest levels. Maybe, just maybe, Hollywood is big enough to produce more authentic, non-patronizing depictions of Africa and Africans.

And I'm grateful to be able to re-connect with a place that when I was Phiona Mutesi's age I thought I'd never get to see, and which now feels like my second home.