There's something in the water in the new film Nanny. Over two unsettling hours, director Nikyatu Jusu submerges the audience in suffocating night terrors, blending glowing reflections of Black love with discomforting glances amongst kin.
, the horror device is the predominantly white institution or neighborhood – which has implications on the Black character's sense of self and being. Inthe white domestic space is the setting, but the tensions are manifested through African folklore.Aisha is a Senegalese immigrant pursuing the American Dream in an attempt to give her son Lamine , who is still in Senegal, a better life.
, and shields her from the realities of her parents' relationship. The film reflects the centuries-long tradition of Black women taking care of white children as"the help," and also reveals the contemporary African immigrant experience in which this imbalance continues.As a child of Sierra Leonean immigrants to the U.S., director Nikyatu Jusu teases out the experience of being a Black immigrant in all its tiring and traumatic layers.
Uggams' character, Kathleen, is a spiritual priestess – or Marabout – as they are known in West Africa. She introduces the idea of Mami Wata, the water spirit within the African diaspora, who haunts the myths of the Middle Passage. These myths stem from the possible destinies of those enslaved Africans who jumped overboard or threw their babies into the sea. Mami Wata is said to have guided these souls as they became one with the ocean.
Jusu's film demonstrates that Black stories don't need to be situated within a familiar white framework to be both recognizable and impactful. While films such as the upcoming live-action adaptation ofmay have cast Black actors in preexisting white narratives to be more inclusive and representative,illustrates that Black people have their own folklore; Black mermaids already exist.
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