Hancock! Did they just use the Orisha?

I went to see Will Smith last weekend in his latest flick Hancock. It was cool but nothing special as far as Will's movies go. It was funnie and it had some great special effects but it just didn't live up to some of the other films that Will's done.

Hancock is about a dude with superpowers who is a colossal screw up because well...he drinks! The scene with him rescuing Walter the grey whale was hilarious. But on with the plot!

He saves a PR man from being crushed by a train and is invited home to eat with the PR mans family. Now, instantly Jason Bate man's wife doesn't like Hancock! In fact she wants him to get as far away from her family as possible. Hancock explains that he doesn't remember much about himself. He lost his memory but he's from Miami. He doesn't age. He just wanders along because in all that time no one has come to claim him. He's unloved and alone. That was 80 years ago when he left the hospital after being beaten with his new powers.

Now, later Cherize Theron who plays Bate mans wife, almost kisses Will, after Will puts a drunk Batemen to bed and then shows that she too has superpowers. She throws him through her kitchen wall. Later in a showdown, she explains to Will, yeah, I'm immortal, we know each other and by the way, I'm stronger and have more powers than you. We were created in pairs! To prove it she creates tornadoes and lightning and flies around beating the happy happy joy joy out of Will.

This reminded me then of Oya, the Orisha over change who incidentally has power of Tornadoes and thunder and lightning. Oya, was also one of Shango's wives. Oshun, Orisha over rivers and streams, good fortune and sensuality being the other.

Of course in keeping with Hollywood tradition while stealing ours. Cherize, (Oya) almost kisses Will, (Shango) states hey I'm your wife and to her current husband Bateman, Hey! Actually he's my Husband. So we don't have a real romance, it's never consomated on the screen because of Hollywood's oldest rule. It's just implied!

The Black dude will never romance or actually have the White woman, They might have sex, raw sexual power accepted but never an actual relationship. A relationship of equals. Sure, I believe that some in Hollywood do want to have a colorblind love affair of equals but it just has not happened. Something New is not a love of equals! Sorry, nice try. And it's a lame movie. Sorry, Saana! Luv you!

Don't agree?? I present to you the Bone collecter with Denzel and Angelina Jolie, where Denzel is paralyzed from the neck down. He can't make love to her and to make sure he's casted as half a man so it's implied that yes, I would have a relationship with you, it would be sexy if not for, well...you know.

Denzel again with Julia Roberts in the Pelican Brief. Denzel as Gray never touches Julia even though the book had them become a couple. A sexualized couple. No, in the movie they were just good friends.

Angela Bassett in 7 days. She doesn't get with the White dude she loves either, they just imply that they luvvvv each other. Halle and Billy Bob didn't even have love, they just had one of the nastiest, most brutally disgusting sex scenes ever to win an oscar committed to film in Monster's Ball! But I digress....

Shango, (Will) is a warrior, but all that aside. Did they just take a major Afrikan religion and use it in a movie? Did they just cast a beautiful but obviously European American woman as Oya? Did Chereze say that they were set down by the God(s) as a safety net just in case. Immortals to protect the earth but they are the last ones! Yeah, she did! Sounds like Odumare (God) and the Orishas, Mankind's celestrial helpers, Oshun, Shango, Yemoja, Eshu, Legba and the rest.

So once again an African icon has been stolen and re branded as white!

Cleopatra/Elizabeth Taylor, Isis/Venus has been casted as everybody from Vanna White and so on.

Why does it matter? Because we are allowing ourselves to be written out of history by allowing it to be stolen. You don't need to believe in Orisha to accept that it is part of your heritage. How many people believe today that Egypt is not in Afrika? Quite a few actually think that Kemet (Egypt) is in the middle east. How many people believe there is a middle east? Quite a few including the news media and most geography teachers. Not according to the map, Not according to history? Not even according to the Bible so it matters if we don't call folks on it! No, Egypt is in Afrika and it always has been so is Libya. Syria and Palenstine are right there from North Afrika. Look at the map!

Just something to think about!

Be Careful! Be Mindful! Be Prayerful!

Jaycee