Ranks Africa has listed the 100 most influential media personalities in Africa and our very own ZAlebs made the cut. From actress Thuso Mbedu who is making her mark in Hollywood to rappers Cassper Nyovest and AKA, and how can they not include Black Coffee whose music echoes beyond Africa.
The Instagram page honoured these entertainers and said, "We recognize and celebrate [these personalities] as one of Africa's 100 Most Impactful People in 2022, having made an extraordinary impact and contribution to the betterment of society through her creativity and craft and bringing about a new era where purpose is the foundation for progress. We appreciate you!"
Thuso Mbedu was recently named as one of the Best Actors Of The Year by The New York Times. This was for her stunning performance on The Woman King playing Nawi and this scored her the inclusion on the list.
Compiled by Wesley Morris and A.O Scott, they described the KwaZulu-Natal-born actress as awesome.
"All I knew about this movie, before I got there, was that Viola Davis was in it… I was less prepared for the discovery that she wasn’t the only actor with the gusto to singe my eyebrows," writes Wesley Morris. "The movie’s comedy — some of it, anyway — comes from watching Davis subdue her awe at Nawi’s relentlessness. It must have been some of the hardest acting this great actor has had to do, because Mbedu is awesome. The part needs stamina: There’s lots of running, jumping, ducking, impaling. But Mbedu ensures that every thwack, knock and stabbing packs an emotional wallop. She doesn’t appear to be acting the battles.
"She’s performing the quest Nawi has embarked on — for both belonging and independence, guidance and trust," continues the author.
"This wasn’t the first time I’d seen Mbedu. She played an enslaved person on the run in “The Underground Railroad,” Barry Jenkins’s neglected 10-part masterpiece from last year, and I didn’t see a more imaginatively grueling feat of acting."
“The Woman King” is a spa day by comparison. Mbedu gets to be teary, tough, terse and sometimes, in her steeliness, a riot. (There’s a climactic moment when she has to do battle in some frilly colonial pantaloons, and she manages to make her face as hard as the fabric is delicate.) What an audience responds to is her urgency, her volcanic desire to matter, to shine. Rarely do we moviegoers get to witness someone we barely knew just minutes ago announce themselves as someone we’re desperate to see more of, but here we are: More, please," concluded Morris.
