We’re always interested when we find something new and a bit different, especially if it comes from small and independent creators rather than the mega-industries – we try to be a signpost site for stuff you might otherwise miss. So today we’ll mention a bit of head-on action – Ngolo Diaspora, an African Martial arts comic book series based on the award-winning Ngolo screenplay…
“Ngolo Diaspora takes place in the near future in a world similar to ours, yet different. In this world assassinations are legal, as long as they are carried about by government sanctioned guild. Guilds are used to settle disputes between the powerful and the ordinary, with each side given a grace period to settle their differences before the assassination contract activates. Of the six sanctioned guilds, the Bloodmen are the most skilled and the most feared because of their deadly fighting style, Ngolo. Just the mention of their involvement can bring parties to the table. But some think the guilds have become too powerful and are bent on destroying them. Their target? The Bloodmen. The Bloodmen are forced to go into hiding, code name ‘Ngolo Diaspora’.”
More details about the campaign for this project near the bottom, but first we expand on the issues behind Ngolo with a piece from author and Black martial artist Balogun Ojetade, who wrote the very enjoyable A Haunting in the SWATS horror/weird novel, and Afrikan Martial Arts: Discovering the Warrior Within, as well working regularly on a wide range of other stories and comic books.
Balogun also joined us a while back with an article about writing black female characters: http://greydogtales.com/blog/women-speculative-fiction-men-write/
PLEASE NOTE: We often agree with our guest writers, but what they say is their own personal opinion. and they choose their own words (you should see the discussions we have when our regular guest, Paul St John Mackintosh, lays into a subject). It’s supposed to be this way, otherwise all you’ll hear is us droning on and on…
OPINION PIECE:
The Importance of Heroic Black Imagery in These Trying Times
by Balogun Ojetade
Black heroes have become more popular since the release of the Black Panther movie. So much so, a phenomenon called “the Black Panther Effect”—the clamoring by the entertainment industry for heroes and villains of African descent—has arisen.
Heroes fill a psychological need today more than ever before in this time of Covid-19, the uprising of the oppressed, the continuous stamping out of Black lives and the cry for agency.
Heroic Black images speak to our collective desire for defiance and our need for the world to acknowledge and respect that we, too, are courageous; we, too, are powerful; we, too, are brilliant, loving, moral and willing to fight for freedom and justice.
The role of fantastic stories of battle, defiance and over-the-top heroics is to make our dopeness visible—to others, yes, but more importantly, to US. Our dopeness, immortalized in comic books, reminds us that the impossible is only impossible to those who cannot do it and we can do much.
The images of Black heroes and superheroes in comic books, movies and TV shows reminds us of the everyday Black heroes—everyday heroes on the front lines of an uprising right NOW; heroes that rise because of our suffering and heroes that rise because they suffer. George Floyd may have never been a hero otherwise, but his murder elevated him to a heroic status. His death has become bigger than him and served as the fuel for an uprising that has been long coming.
Ngolo: Diaspora—a comic book series written by Balogun Ojetade and Milton Davis and illustrated by Peter Chizoba Daniel and PEDAent—brings heroic images to the forefront, explores what heroism is and gives us agency—usually, in film, television and comic books, the African martial arts are made mockery of, defeated easily by Asian martial arts, or non-existent. Not so in Ngolo, where the African martial arts and African warriors are front and center, powerful and yes, deadly, if necessary.
Support the Kickstarter for Ngolo: Diaspora, the first book in the series. There are also card games and role playing games in the Ngolo universe and much more dopeness to come!
So do check the link highlighted above, and have a look. Next time on greydogtales, books about Frankenstein, for some peculiar reason. We really can’t remember half the time…