The exploitation of black creatives isn’t an alien phenomenon, and it didn’t begin recently. It’s no secret that a black actor will earn less than a white actor for a similar role, even in Hollywood, of course, with women being the least paid.
Growing up black for most of us translated into seeing the movie “The Gods Must Be Crazy” and its sequels numerous times. The leading actor, N!xau Toma, is a farmer from the Tsumkwe region of Namibia. A South African director, Jamie Uys, discovered him and cast him in the movie’s lead role. This movie made $60 million in sales because of its popularity.
This movie became so popular that N!xau Toma got international recognition and status.
In this comedy, he was portrayed as Xixo, a calm leader of a local Khoisan clan. He was a sober bushman with a funny smile who discovered a bottle of Coca-Cola thrown out of an aeroplane. Having never seen such an object, it becomes a comedy of errors.
For his debut role in this movie, he was paid only $300; yes, you read right. The director who discovered him says he didn’t know the value of paper money, and as a result, he let his first wages, $300, blow away.
N!xau Toma, in an article, said he had only minimal exposure to modern life, having seen only three white people in his life before being cast. He also let on that he had never seen a settlement larger than the village huts of his San people.
When it was time to shoot “The Gods Must Be Crazy II,” Mr N!xau had learned the value of money, and he demanded several hundred thousand dollars before agreeing to be recast in the movie. He let them know that he needed the money to build a cinder block house with electricity and water for his family.
Director Jamie Uys dismissed the criticisms he received that it was cruel and unfair to take Mr N!xau from his home environment, saying that he was born to act as is the nature of all bushmen in an interview with the Associated press in 1990.When his film career ended in 2000, he returned to Namibia and resumed food and livestock farming in his newly constructed home.
Unfortunately, only three years after returning home, the Namibian actor was found dead near his home. The cause of his death has been speculated to be tuberculosis which he had been suffering from.
His name is pronounced with click sounds originating from the Khoisan language, and the transliteration of his tribal language has no English letters.
