Black is King Beyonce Beyoncé

Black is King Beyonce Beyoncé

M-Net to screen Beyonce’s ‘Black is King’ visual album

South African stars feature on ‘Black is King’, Queen Bey’s visual album based on ‘The Lion King’ which will flight on DStv.

Black is King Beyonce Beyoncé

Black is King Beyonce Beyoncé

South African viewers will be able to watch Black is King on DStv. M-Net is due to release the screening dates and times on its website on Monday 20 July.

‘Black is King’

Black is King Beyonce Beyoncé


Beyoncé first took to Instagram on 29 June with the trailer for her new project.

Not only does Bey aim to celebrate black beauty, she also wants to shine a light on black history and African tradition as well. She believes it is important to create a film that “instils pride and knowledge”.

The visual album is based on the soundtrack she did for The Lion King last year and originally was meant to be part of that. She decided against that and instead Black is King tells the story of The Lion King in human form.

The soundtrack features artists from various African countries such as Nigeria, South Africa, Ghana and Cameroon.

Beyoncé directs, writes and narrates the film as well as stars.

The trailer featured some familiar faces, like Beyonce’s husband JayZ, former Destiny’s Child co-member Kelly Rowland, model Naomi Campbell and Kenyan-Mexican actress Lupita Nyong’o.

South African stars

What makes the Beyoncé’s project even more special is that it features many South African stars.

Black is King Beyonce

The Black is King trailer shows, for example, Connie Chiume, Nandi Madida, Nyaniso Dzedze, Warren Masemola and Moonchild Sanelly.

This is a big deal for some but less so for others who were furious about what they saw as African stereotypes in the trailer.

Twitter’s mixed reaction

The Washington Post reports that people took to Twitter to express their outrage over and tiredness of stereotypes facing Africa.

Some tweets pointed out that Africa had grown beyond what was portrayed in the film with one noting “we don’t wake up with white chalk on our faces or live in blue huts”.

Others were excited and praised Beyoncé for Black is King.

The Washington Post reported that although the visual album will be accessible to stream on Disney Plus on 31 July, African countries would not be able to view it.

This has now changed, however, and Black is King will now screen in South Africa.