Will Smith Has A Terrible Nigerian Accent In Concussion And Nigerians Are Catching Feelings

There’s a new movie coming out in December, called Concussion. The star of the movie is Will Smith, and he’s playing the life of Nigerian forensic pathologist, Dr. Bennet Omalu who was the first doctor to discover the disease, Chronic Traumatic Encephalopathy in NFL players. It’s a disease that’s gotten from constant trauma to the head. When he first discovered the disease (after doing an autopsy on Pittsburgh Steelers center, Mike Webster), the NFL basically shut him out and accused him of fraud. Because obviously, admitting that football is a dangerous sport would not have helped their bottom line. By the way, my sons will not be playing [American] football. They can play real football (soccer) if they like.

Ehen, so Will Smith plays the part of this doctor and the trailer is out. Will Smith probably does a phenomenal job in acting the movie, but Nigerians – myself included – are not thrilled about the piss poor attempt at sounding Nigerian. It seems like Hollywood has a standard accent somewhere that they use on every African character, and it doesn’t matter what part of Africa they’re from. Watch the video and then we’ll continue.

What do you think about the accent? The reason why Nigerians know that the accent is bad is because obviously, we are Nigerians, so we can recognize our own accent. While I wish that more effort was put into Will Smith sounding Nigerian, I am not at all surprised. And to feign anger and disgust, in my opinion, would be hypocritical of me. I’ll explain.

I remember when I was in SSI (10th grade) and I took the Commerce class. I was so excited to take that class, and I don’t even know why. The first thing we learned was the meaning definition of commerce: the buying and selling of goods and services. Then we learned the 3 questions to ask and answer before going into commerce: what to produce, how to produce, and for whom to produce. It’s been years, but I never forgot that lesson. They are questions that still apply to every kind of commerce – even in the business of blogging.

Now, here are the 5 reasons why Nigerians need to stop whining about Will Smith’s lack of a true Nigerian accent:

1.  Hollywood is an American company, period. Therefore, everything that Hollywood sells is first targeted at American consumers, unless otherwise stated (remember, for whom to produce?). And do Americans know or care what a true Nigerian accent sounds like? Nope. It’s the same thing as Nigerians in Nigeria watching an American-made movie. Can they tell the authenticity of the accent? Do they even care? Nope.
2. Hollywood isn’t here for Nigeria or Nigerians. They do not care how Nigerians feels about the main character being Nigerian and not sounding Nigerian. In fact, nothing in America is here for Nigeria or Nigerians. When will we learn that? It’s not about you.
3. People have made the point that other Nigerian actors like Chiwetel Ejiofor should have played the part of Dr. Bennet Omalu. Well, I don’t think it works that way. On what grounds should Chiwetel have played the part? What if he’s not exactly what the producers/directors were looking for? What if he didn’t want to do it? And uhm, Chiwetel may be better able to pull of a Nigerian accent due to his relationship with Nigerians, but let’s not forget that he is not Nigerian. Have you heard him claim to be Nigerian? No, he’s British.
4. There are other “Nigerians” in the movie. We have Adewale Akinnuoye-Agbaje who plays the part of Dave Duerson and Eme Ikwuakor who was born in Colorado to Nigerian parents (I don’t know if he claims to be Nigerian or not), but he plays the part of Amobi Okoye. Look, a Nigerian character!
5. Last, but not least, to everyone complaining about the bad Nigerian accent, excuse me, have you seen a Nollywood lately? Have you noticed the so-called American accent in Nollywood movies? They don’t even have “real” White people in the movies. Indians and Lebanese are all “White.” How do we begin to criticize Hollywood when our own Nollywood is a joke at best?

All that being said, it’s still disappointing that a giant like Sony Pictures Entertainment does not think of its main character, Dr. Bennet Omalu enough to do him justice in the portrayal of him. In my 5th point mentioned above, I am not trying to compare Nollywood to Hollywood, as that would be insulting. To be clear, insulting to Hollywood. Please don’t make me get into it; I get so passionate. And infuriated.

I’m just happy that it’s a movie that portrays a Nigerian in good light. American media seems to delight in telling a single story about Nigeria and Nigerians: fraudsters, 8th most corrupt country in the world, most living below poverty line. Full stop. They don’t like to mention that we are the group of people in America with the highest percentage of higher level degrees. Or that we are hard-working. Or that we are resilient and tough. Or that we contribute largely to the American economy. Or how much of our oil they depend on. No, those are not important to mention.

So for this movie, I’m just grateful for the positive mention – or at least, I hope it’s a positive mention. I won’t know for sure until I watch the movie in December.