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Rabat – “Black Shield Maiden,” the soon-to-be-published novel of American singer Willow Smith, has sparked controversy online for using offensive and explicitly degrading representation, including the description of Amazigh and Muslims as “violent savages.”
Many are calling for revisions to be made before the book’s official release later this year in October. The book, a fantasy fiction, was especially condemned for adapting stereotypical and orientalist tropes.
An exclusive preview of the novel published online states, “The Amazigh are dangerous on their best day. They have little regard for anyone who doesn’t worship the Muslim god — and even their own tribes are always at war with one another.”
Willow Smith, the daughter of Will Smith and Jada Pinckett Smith, co-wrote the book with Jess Hendel.
Many people have taken to social media to express their anger with how the two writers portrayed Amazigh and Muslims as “feral lawless savages,” and “dangerous on their best day.”
Netizens were especially outraged at the “damning, discriminatory, and offensive portrayal,” blasting the published extract and accusing both writers of Islamophobia and racism.
Willow did not respond publicly to the criticism. Hendel, however, deactivated the comment section under two of her Instagram posts in which she promotes the book.
Hendel also stated on Instagram that the novel “directly tackles prejudice, stereotyping, and ignorance about people from other cultures – including prejudices about the Amazigh and other Islamic peoples.”
But many were quick to accuse the author of “ignorance” for referring to Muslims as “Islamic people.”
UPDATE: @ketsuktiamx showed me the coauthor response. Feeing sus cuz: why was the book marketed as a romanticized Viking x Ghana fantasy & not a HISTORICAL CRITIQUE? Amazigh isn’t mentioned in the synopsis Why cherry pick passages as excerpts SO out of context of the entire story pic.twitter.com/rGSir2ywf9
— S. Mughal / سدرة (@readswithsid) February 20, 2022
“Begging people to realise that Islam/Muslim denotes religion and not culture or ethnicity. I’ve come across this so often, it’s mind boggling how ignorant people are,” one tweet said.
The book tells the story of two young women — an African warrior named Yafeu who was stolen from her home and brought to the world of Vikings, where she meets a Viking princess, Freydis — as they work together to be the masters of their fate.
The two women encounter both Muslim and Amazigh characters throughout the story. But Smith and Handel’s description of North Africa’s indigenous group has prompted many to declare that they no longer wished to be represented in popular culture.
The representation of Amazigh people in Willow Smith and Jess Hendel’s forthcoming fantasy novel is unacceptable. @PenguinUKBooks should have hired sensitivity readers before publishing this book. https://t.co/y1wSJdj4li
— Yasmine Hachimi (@YasmineHachimi) February 20, 2022
One tweet said, “This is why Americans need to mind their business. The intent was to write an empowering historical fiction centered on a strong black female protagonist but it’s full of the same racist bullshit any white girl novelist could push out.”
Another commenter added, “The Amazighs aren’t some ancient mythical people, we’re very much real and alive and she’s basically portraying us as this harmful stereotype of barbaric savages,” wrote one Twitter user.”
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