Beyoncé almost (or actually) broke the internet when she released her visual album Lemonade. One of the videos people are still talking about is the one for the song titled Sorry since it debuted just a few days ago.

The video was loaded with a mixture of different African cultures and symbols, from the costumes of her dancers to her own costume.

The Kenyan Masai Necklaces

Kenyan’s are known to be great at beading. Their traditional Masai necklaces are usually elaborate beaded pieces in bright colors, and are stacked one on top of the other.

 

The Egyptian Nefertiti/ 1930’s Congolese Woman Look

beyonce neferitiOne of her hairstyles (yes that’s braided hair, not a hat!) was what seems to be a cross between a custom practiced by the Mangbetu people of Congo way back in the 1930’s and the head-gear of Egyptian queen Nefertiti during the 14th century B.C. Nefertiti, whose name means “a beautiful woman has come”, was known for her power and elegant beauty. A bust of Nefertiti is a very iconic symbol of Egypt. I can only imagine how many hours it took it get the hair braided this way to recreate the look.

 

African Print Fabric

And of course, there was a lot of African print fabric or Ankara, as some people call it.

Beyonce ankara

If I got any of the cultural facts on Kenya, Congo or Egypt wrong, or left anything out, forgive me! Please comment below and let me know my mistake and also let me know your thoughts on her approach to this video. Did she overdo the “Africanness”? The album and the video seem to have caused quite a stir (both negative and positive).

For those of you that may not have seen the video and want to see it, here you go. Let me warn you in advance, though, that some of the lyrics are quite explicit.

The art work in the blog header was created by Lisa Sterle (you can find her work here). All other pictures for this post were sourced from Google images.

19 replies on “Beyoncé shows off African style in “Sorry” video”

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  3. It’s fantastic to see Beyonce embracing or reflecting African culture and roots from dancing, to braided hair and clothing. I personally don’t think she has over done it at all. Plus she is such a great dancer she can make traditional African dancing look so authentic ! Go Bey, I never was a massive Beyonce fan, however the album Lemonade has shown me she has had a shift in her thinking about who she is as a women, and how she represents or reaches out to her fans who are from a ethnic background. Her lyrics are very real and powerful on a lot of the tracks on Lemonade from heart break and how she experiences this as a women/ the warning she gives her husband on tracks like ” Don’t Hurt Yourself” and her views around oppression on tracks like” Freedom” or even self love of who and what you are on ” Formation”. I am much more a fan of the Beyonce who has gone through ” Formation” personally as a women and now celebrates African culture.

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    1. Yes. All through her lemonade album she pays homage to African culture and talks deeply about all the different emotions women go through. It has also made me view her differently now and I think that was her intention.
      Thanks for stopping by Kim! I appreciate it 😊

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      1. Yes, what she has done is spoken to /connected with women from an African culture that she has never tried to do before.

        Did you see the BET awards? I just saw the clip today of her performing ”Freedom” with Kendrick Lemar it was a wonderful performance especially with the voice over of Martin Luther King Jr. With all that’s going on in that part of the world ,I felt happy and proud that someone of such a high profile celebrity status would address it in her performance…. and it came from a WOMEN to. Very proud, she’d done a good job at changing my perspective of her certainly.

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        1. No, I haven’t seen the BET awards yet. I’ll look up her performance today and see how it was like. And yes it’s very relevant today in the US. Being an expat in the US currently and having family here as well, I have so many views on and concerns with all that’s going on. It’s encouraging when people make an effort to bring change

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