Can anyone tell me why Thandie Newton is playing an Igbo woman in the film adaptation of Half Of A Yellow Sun?

and none of you have a problem with this? 

Doesnt Chinamanda have a say in this? She couldnt suggest a Nigerian actress?

Then again seeing that Nigerians are colorstruck and Thandie is biracial thus lightskinned, maybe that was the point.

I dunno anything about this but I'm sure there's plenty of things that went down. It's all about moner. In any case, it has little to do with Nigerians. Left to us, the book wouldn't even be successsful. No one recognized her before 'they' did.

Furthermore, only Adichie has a say. A say that counts anyways. But I'm not terribly shocked she doesn't mind. This is business. She probably sold out. No crime. Not heartwarming esp considering the 'patriotic' nature of the book, but no crime.

she doesnt mind because Nigerians are slow and will bend backwards for oyibos in anyway they can

Left to us, the book wouldn't even be successsful. No one recognized her before 'they' did.

Quite sad, Yes?

wetin be moner? 

Wow half of a yellow sun's gonna be on screen? Can't wait!!!

Anyway I looked it up and found this excerpt from this blog.

[url]http://blogs.indiewire.com/theplaylist/chiwetel-ejiofor-dominic-cooper-thandie-newton-to-star-in-adaptation-of-bestseller-half-of-a-yellow-sun
[/url]

Nigerian playwright Biyi Bandele, who's had a number of successes on the London stage, including his adaptation of seminal post-colonial novel "Things Fall Apart," is making his directorial debut with the project, and he's assembled quite an impressive cast, with Chiwetel Ejiofor, Dominic Cooper and Thandie Newton all locked into the film. The trade don't have a firm word on who each is playing, but our guess is that Ejiofor will play university professor Odenigbo, Newton his lover, Olanna, and Cooper will play Richard, a British ex-pat in Nigeria to study.

A Nigerian is the director and he chose the cast.
Wouldn't have chosen Thandie myself. Doesn't click in my head to the picture I have of Olanna.

Like I said Nigerians are reetarded

He's directing ba film based on Nigerian history and what came to his mind is to cast a non-Nigerian?

Okay

I presume you're referring to Gandhi. Ben Kingsley has Indian roots. Screw that politically correct bullshit. Ben Kingsley IS Indian.

Oscar nod ke? Let's not get ahead of ourselves oh. I've not even read the doggone book. Just a chapter.

Truthfully, I understand the need for all this. It's all about marketing. I'd have preferred a reputable director and a Nigerian cast to an unknown director with a 'star' studded cast. I'm not holding my breath for a masterpiece.

TOH, calm down jor. This has nothing to do with any average Nigerian IMO. And I totally meant what you think I meant there. Yeah, that's what I meant

okay

Chiwetel will bring in people, not Thandie. Thandie is UNNECESSARY. Plenty of Nigerian actresses that could play the role PLUS according to the book Olanna and her family are dark skinned, so again how the hell does she make sense?

Nigerians are pathetic and colorstruck.

as for whether Forrest Whitake or Ben Kingsley or this and that. I dont give a shyt so stop changing the point of the thread

Thank you

anyway Im done dicussing this here with you brainwashed cows, Thankfully a true discussion is happening here

http://www.clutchmagonline.com/2012/01/casting-of-thandie-newton-as-an-igbo-woman-causes-controversy-but-is-it-fair/

See how you made Jayboy, the other brain washed cow, modify all his posts. And he was on your side too. Person wey write book no lose sleep. Why una straight thinking folks wan kill una selves?

Nollywood is a complete waste of time

Plenty of Nigerian actresses that could play the role

I BEG TO DIFFER


Do you honestly believe if I put forward 10s of million of $$$$ for a movie, I wouldnt go anywhere near a Nollywood actor or actress? even if the movie is based of the life story of my twin brother!

well Im sorry that you are ashamed of your people

If you refuse to believe there's ANY TALENT in Nollywood, that's your own palava.

Stephanie Okekere could have easily been casted IMO. The girl is supposed to be Igbo and dark. How they came upo with Thandie for that description is beyond me.

If the part was meant for someone to play a witch, a dark women would have been chosen from the beginning

There is more to the casting of Thandie Newton in this role than skin color and race. This amounts to continued white hegemony and phenotype genocide.

Igbo women come in a range of colors, yes. But Igbo women also have a certain subset of features, aside from skin color, specific to their ethnic group.

I appreciate this petition because, the way things are socially engineered, the wide phenotype range that exists among blacks in the Western world, or blacks of European admixture/descent (non-sub-Saharan lineages), has evolved a people indifference to specific ethnic differences in looks among indigenous African people. It’s also contributed to the fact that there is a continued genocide of traits specific to our sub-Saharan African ancestors via the social perpetuation of what/who is to be desired aesthetically – i.e, how they align/measure along the rule of white-ness or European-ness.

The issue of certain physical traits specific to our indigenous unmixed sub-Saharan ancestors start being bred out of a population of SSA descent is a recurring one. This has happened several times among African descended populations, based on the influences that deemed sub-Saharan African features undesirable and unacceptable.

This was applied in Puerto Rico where most of the population bred lighter, and were happy to see a mass exodus of afro-Puerto Ricans during the mid-1900s. This is currently happening in the Dominican Republic in regards to hair texture – any hair texture close in proximity to the hair textures of indigenous un-mixed sub-Saharan peoples is shunned, regarded as ‘dirty’.

This happens, globally, within the black race when people express that they wish to date non-Sub-Saharan descend people, or mixed people, because they desire a posterity with features that are less SSA – lighter skin color, ‘softer’ features, features more averaged between SSA and Nordic Caucasian bloodlines, silkier hair with looser curls, etc…

There’s also the ideal, spanning across the entire aesthetic spectrum of the black race, that having European/Caucasian ancestry is more acceptable (desirable) than not having this ancestry.

This can be seen in the minority, but prominent elite, European descended and identified mixed race population of Angola. While many individuals from this small ethnic group have physical traits close in proximity to the non-mixed sub-Saharan descended counterparts (brown/dark skin color, wide noses, curly and tightly coiled hair, etc…) it’s the fact that they have European ancestry/identity that makes them elite over the rest of the indigenous population.


The same ideal was applied historically when African-American slaves repatriated to African, namely Liberia and Sierra Leone – the Americo-Liberians and Krio. The white Europeans used the close proximity of physical traits between the Africans of Westernized lineage/admixture and the indigenous un-mixed Africans as a way to penetrate the indigenous people, as they were not able to successfully do prior, by putting the new breed blacks in positions of authority over the non-colonized/non-penetrated blacks. The close proximity in phenotypes allowed for more social influence between the two groups, and the white colonialists used this to their advantage.

In recent Black Hollywood history (late 1990s until about 3 years ago), there evolved in casting bias for women of African descent who appeared the have the stereotypeical middle-phenotype biracial look, or who looked racially ambigious. Both looks attribute to lighter skin, more longated facial features OR less sub-saharan African features, slimmer body types, and silker, looser hair textures. There were, at least, 2 documentaries filmed on the matter featuring many seasoned Black Hollywood actresses such as Taraji Henson, Tichina Arnold and Terri Vaughns. The same bias had evolved, in that same time, in the modeling industry as well as in music video casting for the urban market, which primarily targets youth of black African descent.

Collectively, people of sub-Saharan African descent have become passive in this continued genocide – the driving factors being commerce, industry and the all mighty dollar. Thus, people become blind to it in the name of social acceptance and mobility. The media is a major tool applied in conveying the social messages that influence the masses into these practices. Sure, a non-Igbo woman could play the role. But why does she have to be half white? Why is it that anytime Hollywood makes a movie about Africans they can’t be more authentic in their casting? What is wrong with the way non-mixed indigenous sub-Saharan African look that they can’t cast them to portray these parts? There are plenty of well trained, seasoned and talented un-mixed sub-Saharan Africans to choose from both in Black Hollywood, Nollywood, Gollywood, the Black Hollywood of South Africa…even in the Haitian movie industry. So, even among blacks WITH admixture, with European ancestry, and/or with Westernized lineages, why can’t someone with broader features that are closer in proximity to what actually Igbo people look like play this role? Hell, Australia’s movie and film industry has several season, trained and talent Aboriginal actors as well.

This genocide of SSA people has not ended. We need to start speaking out. People need to wake-up.

ThiefOfHearts:

Can anyone tell me why Thandie Newton is playing an Igbo woman in the film adaptation of Half Of A Yellow Sun?

and none of you have a problem with this? 

Doesnt Chinamanda have a say in this? She couldnt suggest a Nigerian actress?

Then again seeing that Nigerians are colorstruck and Thandie is biracial thus lightskinned, maybe that was the point.

Can you recommend an Igbo woman who would have played the role? (besides genevieve o)

Outstrip:

Can you recommend an Igbo woman who would have played the role? (besides genevieve o)

Are you kidding yourself or you just want to sound funny.

What happened to hollywood's chikezie and the numerous nollywood actresses eg Genevieve, Stephanie Okereke, Oge Okoye, Rita dominic etc. A Nigerian actress that may not be Igbo is good enough.

well Im sorry that you are ashamed of your people

Nigerians are pathetic and colorstruck.
anyway Im done dicussing this here with you brainwashed cows

Like I said Nigerians are reetarded

Haba, heart robber!    Nne take it easy. I thought you didn't like igbo peeps, so why are you crying for us?

I get your point though. Genevieve and Stephanie immediately came to my mind when I read that, and with the dust this cast is stirring they may yet get it. But I think its solely a marketing thing. Thandie Newton has starred in some good movies herself and is not exactly an upstart. Between her and the Nigerian actresses I think hollywood will favor her in that role.

No matter how educated we claim to to be, Complex still remains a factor

.

Look, we're trying to make a serious movie here and somebody is mentioning Oge Okoye. Just because you folk are used to swallowing down terrible acting and over dramatization everyday in our Nollywood movies!

FELA, the broadway show was played by an American, I don't see why that is such a big deal!

The last time i checked Oge Okoye and Rita dominic  are Nollywood actors whether in a blackberry babe capacity or not does not suffice. It's left for the producers of the movie to decide whether they're good or not.

But on a second thought, isn't a movie supposed to be make believe? Does it matter where the actress comes from as long as she plays her role well.

Its a movie and the people investing in the movie call the shots. The same cry came up when the film The last Air bender came out, that people complained that the boy was more caucasian than Asian. Was Fela in Broadway played by a Nigerian? Stop all these generalization about how terrible Nigerians are because of this adaptation. The people who are making the movie are the ones who gave the Nigerian in question all the awards she got. So, its left to her to insist that this is how it should go, depending on the kind of contract they have. In the end, the producers will be looking for figures not cultural promotion. So, put your shirt on. If all the Nollywood people feel so strong about it, why didn't they do something before now?

And don't assume that they will just put in an artiste in a movie on the basis of her tribe. Will the script not be in English? Just because we are content with their acting here does not mean other producers are. So, make una take am easy.

Why do Nigerians think the film business is about anything but making money? Why would any film that's going to be marketed in Europe and the US cast Igbo women in leading roles? HAHAHAHAHAHA! That's the funniest thing ever! Movies aren't charities oh! If you wanted Igbo girls in the movie, then you should have petitioned the governor of Enugu to sponsor the adaptation. No big deal!

Would be an issue if Nigeria or Nigerians financed the movie. Hollywood can't afford to risk casting an unknown star. Besides she might just pull it off and do such a fantastic job that we all forget she's not Igbo- remember Don Cheadle in Hotel Rwanda

Ikengawo:

Lmao at suggesting oge okoye and rita dominics ugly stone faces. If you don't like it make your own screenplay. You're listing nollywood actresses without admitting that nollywood has had a decade to remake this or any popular nigerian historical or literary work and has refused to out of laziness. Instead you people are waiting for someone outisde of nollywood to appreciate nigerian culture so that you can force him to use the cast of blackberry babes. Lol

+1

ridgeman:

Would be an issue if Nigeria or Nigerians financed the movie. Hollywood can't afford to risk casting an unknown star. Besides she might just pull it off and do such a fantastic job that we all forget she's not Igbo- remember Don Cheadle in Hotel Rwanda

Yeah, you're right. That's why they're called actors anyway.

why on earth would you refer to nigerian's as retaraded.c'mon u're not been civilize,wats now the different btw u and a mentally retared person, can't u make ur point without raining insults? grow up .

Donjay13:

why on earth would you refer to nigerian's as retaraded.c'mon u're not been civilize,wats now the different btw u and a mentally retared person, can't u make ur point without raining insults? grow up .

Please quote who you're referring to.

Pove:

There is more to the casting of Thandie Newton in this role than skin color and race. This amounts to continued white hegemony and phenotype genocide.

Igbo women come in a range of colors, yes. But Igbo women also have a certain subset of features, aside from skin color, specific to their ethnic group.

I appreciate this petition because, the way things are socially engineered, the wide phenotype range that exists among blacks in the Western world, or blacks of European admixture/descent (non-sub-Saharan lineages), has evolved a people indifference to specific ethnic differences in looks among indigenous African people. It’s also contributed to the fact that there is a continued genocide of traits specific to our sub-Saharan African ancestors via the social perpetuation of what/who is to be desired aesthetically – i.e, how they align/measure along the rule of white-ness or European-ness.

The issue of certain physical traits specific to our indigenous unmixed sub-Saharan ancestors start being bred out of a population of SSA descent is a recurring one. This has happened several times among African descended populations, based on the influences that deemed sub-Saharan African features undesirable and unacceptable.

This was applied in Puerto Rico where most of the population bred lighter, and were happy to see a mass exodus of afro-Puerto Ricans during the mid-1900s. This is currently happening in the Dominican Republic in regards to hair texture – any hair texture close in proximity to the hair textures of indigenous un-mixed sub-Saharan peoples is shunned, regarded as ‘dirty’.

This happens, globally, within the black race when people express that they wish to date non-Sub-Saharan descend people, or mixed people, because they desire a posterity with features that are less SSA – lighter skin color, ‘softer’ features, features more averaged between SSA and Nordic Caucasian bloodlines, silkier hair with looser curls, etc…

There’s also the ideal, spanning across the entire aesthetic spectrum of the black race, that having European/Caucasian ancestry is more acceptable (desirable) than not having this ancestry.

This can be seen in the minority, but prominent elite, European descended and identified mixed race population of Angola. While many individuals from this small ethnic group have physical traits close in proximity to the non-mixed sub-Saharan descended counterparts (brown/dark skin color, wide noses, curly and tightly coiled hair, etc…) it’s the fact that they have European ancestry/identity that makes them elite over the rest of the indigenous population.


The same ideal was applied historically when African-American slaves repatriated to African, namely Liberia and Sierra Leone – the Americo-Liberians and Krio. The white Europeans used the close proximity of physical traits between the Africans of Westernized lineage/admixture and the indigenous un-mixed Africans as a way to penetrate the indigenous people, as they were not able to successfully do prior, by putting the new breed blacks in positions of authority over the non-colonized/non-penetrated blacks. The close proximity in phenotypes allowed for more social influence between the two groups, and the white colonialists used this to their advantage.

In recent Black Hollywood history (late 1990s until about 3 years ago), there evolved in casting bias for women of African descent who appeared the have the stereotypeical middle-phenotype biracial look, or who looked racially ambigious. Both looks attribute to lighter skin, more longated facial features OR less sub-saharan African features, slimmer body types, and silker, looser hair textures. There were, at least, 2 documentaries filmed on the matter featuring many seasoned Black Hollywood actresses such as Taraji Henson, Tichina Arnold and Terri Vaughns. The same bias had evolved, in that same time, in the modeling industry as well as in music video casting for the urban market, which primarily targets youth of black African descent.

Collectively, people of sub-Saharan African descent have become passive in this continued genocide – the driving factors being commerce, industry and the all mighty dollar. Thus, people become blind to it in the name of social acceptance and mobility. The media is a major tool applied in conveying the social messages that influence the masses into these practices. Sure, a non-Igbo woman could play the role. But why does she have to be half white? Why is it that anytime Hollywood makes a movie about Africans they can’t be more authentic in their casting? What is wrong with the way non-mixed indigenous sub-Saharan African look that they can’t cast them to portray these parts? There are plenty of well trained, seasoned and talented un-mixed sub-Saharan Africans to choose from both in Black Hollywood, Nollywood, Gollywood, the Black Hollywood of South Africa…even in the Haitian movie industry. So, even among blacks WITH admixture, with European ancestry, and/or with Westernized lineages, why can’t someone with broader features that are closer in proximity to what actually Igbo people look like play this role? Hell, Australia’s movie and film industry has several season, trained and talent Aboriginal actors as well.

This genocide of SSA people has not ended. We need to start speaking out. People need to wake-up.

Well said but it all starts with upbringing in the home. Growing up, natural african hair was admired and so was dark chocolate skin. We watched Nigerian children's programming and where told folk tales by our grandparents. Todays Nigerian/african kids watch hannah montana. You see parents mess up the texture of their young girl's hair with harsh chemicals. Africans have chosen to accept being brainwashed by the western media so there is nothing one can do at this point since we refuse to come up with our own TV programming and support our own people.

ThiefOfHearts:

well Im sorry that you are ashamed of your people

If you refuse to believe there's ANY TALENT in Nollywood, that's your own palava.

Stephanie Okekere could have easily been casted IMO. The girl is supposed to be Igbo and dark. How they came upo with Thandie for that description is beyond me.

If the part was meant for someone to play a witch, a dark women would have been chosen from the beginning

@bolded, na so. Most Nigerians have a complex and I am still wondering where we got it from. It's not like we live in a predominately caucasian country.

Because Thandie Newton who i dont know is playing a role in half a yellow sun and this singular fact makes me a coward. guy you harsh sha!

Pove:

There is more to the casting of Thandie Newton in this role than skin color and race. This amounts to continued white hegemony and phenotype genocide.

Igbo women come in a range of colors, yes. But Igbo women also have a certain subset of features, aside from skin color, specific to their ethnic group.

I appreciate this petition because, the way things are socially engineered, the wide phenotype range that exists among blacks in the Western world, or blacks of European admixture/descent (non-sub-Saharan lineages), has evolved a people indifference to specific ethnic differences in looks among indigenous African people. It’s also contributed to the fact that there is a continued genocide of traits specific to our sub-Saharan African ancestors via the social perpetuation of what/who is to be desired aesthetically – i.e, how they align/measure along the rule of white-ness or European-ness.

The issue of certain physical traits specific to our indigenous unmixed sub-Saharan ancestors start being bred out of a population of SSA descent is a recurring one. This has happened several times among African descended populations, based on the influences that deemed sub-Saharan African features undesirable and unacceptable.

This was applied in Puerto Rico where most of the population bred lighter, and were happy to see a mass exodus of afro-Puerto Ricans during the mid-1900s. This is currently happening in the Dominican Republic in regards to hair texture – any hair texture close in proximity to the hair textures of indigenous un-mixed sub-Saharan peoples is shunned, regarded as ‘dirty’.

This happens, globally, within the black race when people express that they wish to date non-Sub-Saharan descend people, or mixed people, because they desire a posterity with features that are less SSA – lighter skin color, ‘softer’ features, features more averaged between SSA and Nordic Caucasian bloodlines, silkier hair with looser curls, etc…

There’s also the ideal, spanning across the entire aesthetic spectrum of the black race, that having European/Caucasian ancestry is more acceptable (desirable) than not having this ancestry.

This can be seen in the minority, but prominent elite, European descended and identified mixed race population of Angola. While many individuals from this small ethnic group have physical traits close in proximity to the non-mixed sub-Saharan descended counterparts (brown/dark skin color, wide noses, curly and tightly coiled hair, etc…) it’s the fact that they have European ancestry/identity that makes them elite over the rest of the indigenous population.


The same ideal was applied historically when African-American slaves repatriated to African, namely Liberia and Sierra Leone – the Americo-Liberians and Krio. The white Europeans used the close proximity of physical traits between the Africans of Westernized lineage/admixture and the indigenous un-mixed Africans as a way to penetrate the indigenous people, as they were not able to successfully do prior, by putting the new breed blacks in positions of authority over the non-colonized/non-penetrated blacks. The close proximity in phenotypes allowed for more social influence between the two groups, and the white colonialists used this to their advantage.

In recent Black Hollywood history (late 1990s until about 3 years ago), there evolved in casting bias for women of African descent who appeared the have the stereotypeical middle-phenotype biracial look, or who looked racially ambigious. Both looks attribute to lighter skin, more longated facial features OR less sub-saharan African features, slimmer body types, and silker, looser hair textures. There were, at least, 2 documentaries filmed on the matter featuring many seasoned Black Hollywood actresses such as Taraji Henson, Tichina Arnold and Terri Vaughns. The same bias had evolved, in that same time, in the modeling industry as well as in music video casting for the urban market, which primarily targets youth of black African descent.

Collectively, people of sub-Saharan African descent have become passive in this continued genocide – the driving factors being commerce, industry and the all mighty dollar. Thus, people become blind to it in the name of social acceptance and mobility. The media is a major tool applied in conveying the social messages that influence the masses into these practices. Sure, a non-Igbo woman could play the role. But why does she have to be half white? Why is it that anytime Hollywood makes a movie about Africans they can’t be more authentic in their casting? What is wrong with the way non-mixed indigenous sub-Saharan African look that they can’t cast them to portray these parts? There are plenty of well trained, seasoned and talented un-mixed sub-Saharan Africans to choose from both in Black Hollywood, Nollywood, Gollywood, the Black Hollywood of South Africa…even in the Haitian movie industry. So, even among blacks WITH admixture, with European ancestry, and/or with Westernized lineages, why can’t someone with broader features that are closer in proximity to what actually Igbo people look like play this role? Hell, Australia’s movie and film industry has several season, trained and talent Aboriginal actors as well.

This genocide of SSA people has not ended. We need to start speaking out. People need to wake-up.

Genocide?!
Why is Nairaland plagued with addle-brained dolts like this nitwit I just quoted?