There is no question that the greatest film industry hub in the world – the one and only Hollywood – has had something of an awakening when it comes to recognising African and African-American stories and creators. But this hasn’t been the full-fledged revolution some hastily characterised it as. One need only look at the controversial 2019 Academy Award for Best Picture winner Green Book to tell as much (given that the film largely dismissed the black perspective). However, there has been real progress. From Black Panther becoming the first superhero film nominated for an Oscar, to Moonlight winning Best Picture over La La Land, to figures like Barry Jenkins, Jordan Peele, and Ryan Coogler being counted among the best young talents in the business, African and African-American cinema is on the rise in a more mainstream way than ever before.
Even with this said, there are still so many aspects of African and African-American experiences in America that have yet to be explored or depicted on screen. And because many of these experiences have been touched on in written form, we wanted to highlight a few relevant books that might make for terrific screen adaptations in the current Hollywood climate.
Sing, Unburied, Sing by Jesmyn Ward
It’s a fair argument to say there isn’t another modern novel that confronts America’s troubling history of racial oppression as directly as this one does. It’s for this reason that reviews have called it a vision of the “slow apocalypse” of black America, and “a fierce critque of U.S. history”. That’s a history that many naively believe has addressed racism and done away with the effects of slavery, but which has really done no such things.
This is commonly called a “road novel,” but is more specifically the story of a mixed-race boy named Jojo in modern Mississippi who’s trying to make sense of his family, his history, and the role models that guide him, avoid him, and in some cases simply exist in his periphery. In some respects it comes across as a somewhat dark coming-of-age tale, but the reality is that through Jojo and his family, and visions of Mississippi’s past that come to light throughout the story, it truly is a brutal but necessary critique of a history fraught with systemic prejudice and all of the negative effects that emanate from it.
The Sport of Kings by C.E. Morgan
This is an unorthodox choice because it’s actually a book written by a young white woman, and there are more than enough black authors to make a list like this without requiring a white perspective. Nevertheless, it’s one of the weightier and more impactful stories delving into U.S. history to have come out in several years, and the glimpses it shows of racial oppression in middle America are poignant.
Today, we think of horse racing simply as a sport and betting interest, and even one more associated with Europe than America. According to a source in the UK, there is at least £10 billion bet on horse races every year, making it essentially a major sporting business. In American history, as it’s depicted in The Sport of Kings, horse racing was a way of life, a unique and often problematic community, and a family affair. The novel conveys this through the story of the fictional Forge family and an African-American man named Allmon Shaughnessy who works at their Kentucky horse farm. It’s a heart-wrenching examination of a bloody and brutal history, the ugly side of perseverance, and how some progress isn’t enough.
A Brief History of Seven Killings by Marlon James
Here too we have another somewhat unorthodox choice, because Marlon James is a Jamaican author rather than an American. It may also be the novel on this list most likely to be turned into a film, not because it lends itself to a very natural adaptation (it would be difficult), but because James himself happens to be blowing up of late. This is because of his decision to write an African “Game Of Thrones,” as some have put it. His new novel Black Leopard, Red Wolf, the beginning of a trilogy, has essentially achieved next-big-thing status, and seems destined for a film adaptation. That could lead to A Brief History of Seven Killings, which did win the Man Booker prize, getting similar treatment.
Whatever happens though, this is a book for which the effort should be made. It takes place primarily in Jamaica in the 1970s, but manages to delve into black culture around much of North and Central America throughout its sprawling, complex length. With regard to the African-American experience in particular, James highlights drug wars and resulting complications in New York during the ‘80s in a way that essentially lights up a chapter of modern history that gets very little attention.
*Guest Post by Archie Burke