So this South African game developer company by the name Nyamakop, owned by Africans, run by Africans, staffed by Africans, subsidized by the South African government, wanted to create a video game 100% by Africans, showcasing and bringing forth African people and African culture, for the entire world to appreciate and learn.
So what kind of game did they come up with? Is it, perhaps, some kind of point&click game, or an adventure game, or an open world game, where you travel through different cities, towns, villages and African tribes to learn about their culture, perhaps doing some side quests along the way? Perhaps the African people, including the playable protagonists, are depicted as amicable, friendly, honest, down-to-earth, noble and wise, imparting their wisdom, their knowledge and their culture to the player? Something like that?
Nope.
The homogeneous all-black cast of playable characters consists of, get this: Thieves.
I am literally facepalming right now, and I'm not even making that up.
From all possible personalities and professions that they could have chosen for their playable characters, they decided to depict their African all-black playable characters as thieves.
Yes, in this game made by Africans for the explicit intent to promote African culture and heritage, they chose one of the most common negative stereotypes of black people held by racists.
The lack of self-awareness is just astonishing.
And these are not even some kind of rebels that are breaking into the premises of some giant evil megacorporation or government in order to save the world from tyranny or something like that, resorting to this only because they have no other option in the face of extreme oppression. No, these are thieves who are breaking into private homes in order to steal artifacts legally owned by the people who own those homes. The premise of the game is not that they are somehow forced to do this in order to save themselves or their beloved or compatriots from exploitation or extinction. They are doing it just because they want to, no other reason.
Sure, the game portrays it as "reclaiming" artifacts that "belong" to African people. However, even if we accepted that particular premise, crime is not the correct way to do this. Diplomacy is. There are legal ways to do that. Resorting to crime is not the correct way. And most importantly, it's the wrong message to give to your audience, as it justifies crime for the sole purpose of "reclaiming" some artifacts legally owned by other people.
From all possible ways in which they could have decided to represent themselves and African people as a whole, they chose this. I'm literally shaking my head.
But, rather obviously, the gaming press is absolutely loving it. Especially since the entirety of the cast appears to be blatantly non-heterosexual. So of course the gaming press is loving it. They would sing praises to the game completely regardless of how good it is as a video game otherwise.
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