Donald Glover's "Guava Island" rephrases his song "This Is America"

Image: Todd Williamson / JanuaryImages / REX / Shutterstock

It's fair to say that Donald Glover's Summerish Childish Gambino Jam, "This Is America," rocked the internet.

The clip was filled with symbols, and it arrived like a flash, which electrified an audience in search of a better understanding of the intent of the song. Now in the new Glover movie Guava Islanda "This Is America" ​​performance integrated directly into the text helps us to refine this understanding.

The original music video that began in May 2018 has been widely read as a commentary on systemic racism in the United States. The changing moods of the music – alternating a melody inspired by African folklore and a rhythmic beat – were accompanied by images that jumped from happy song and dance to scenes of violence and vice versa.

Many perceived this central dichotomy as a specific comment on the experience of Black life in the United States. The lyrics of the song also explore this tension, with the chorus issuing a roaring warning: "This is America / Do not catch yourself off guard", while Gambino later sings the happy chorus "Get your money, black man."

Now we have Guava Island, a one-hour fable that takes place on tropical paradise island and serves as an exploration workshop for the rare silk exports of a wealthy local family. Glover is Deni, one of the many reluctant silk workers on the island, who also performs in the moonlight as a singer and performer.

The film is directed by Hiro Murai and written by Stephen Glover, Donald's brother. This trio is also a key creative force in some of the most successful episodes of the FX series, Atlanta.

In an early scene, Deni shows up at his job – at what looks like a factory producing shotgun shells – and argues with one of his colleagues. The other man explains how he wants to leave the island, because in the United States, "people are their own bosses". So he wants to make his way out of the island, move to the United States and start a business.

Deni makes fun of this plan. "It's America. Guava is no different from any other country," he says. "America is a concept – wherever, to become rich, you have to enrich somebody else, that is America."

Their round trips lead directly to Deni who climbs on a wooden box and sings the first lines "We just want to party" of "This Is America". But this time, everything is different. The melody is slightly different. The rhythms produced by the song are replaced by the rhythmic vibrations of the machines of the factory. The dancers, the supporting actors, are all factory workers.

The change of context makes all the difference. Deni is specifically do not in America he's not an American citizen Guava Island. It lies on the site of manufacturing a bullet factory in a foreign country with an entirely black population (according to what we show in the film). Her work – the work of everyone, in reality – is provided by a rich local family who, we have come to understand, demands total submission in exchange for the essential elements of life.

Guava Island is largely about Deni that "America is a concept". Islanders are trapped in the same type of system, even if they do not have the luxury – what Deni would probably call an illusion of freedom – that Americans take for granted.

That's why Deni is arguing against leaving for the supposedly greener country of America. He would rather see his community fighting for this freedom at home. As he said earlier in the scene "This Is America", before embarking on the song: "[W]We live in paradise, but none of us have the time or the means to really live here. "

The remixed movie "This Is America" ​​makes the head spin. There has never been any question of a specific place. It is really about this universal reality that oppression is a product of systems designed to enrich a few to the detriment of many. This is also true in Guava Island as in the United States.

Guava Island is now streaming for all Amazon Prime Video subscribers.