Country Queen, Kenya’s first homegrown Netflix show, hit the streaming platform on 15th July 2022. The family drama marks a significant development in Netflix’s attempt to expand its horizons to Africa. Country Queen was shot in English, Swahili and a mix of other traditional languages of the soil. It stars Melissa Kiplagat, Melvin Alusa, Nina Wacera, Raymond Ofula and Sheila Munyiva among others. All 6 episodes span 60 minutes each, with subtitles available in multiple languages.
Country Queen navigates the life of an event planner, Akisa, living in the city of Nairobi after leaving the lush hills of Tislanga, her hometown. It’s a story about love, betrayal, choices, impositions, childhood traumas and forgiveness. Yes, it’s a roller coaster of emotions and the question is, are you willing to go for a ride?
Country Queen Explained
Eco Rock, a successful or so we’re made to think the environmental corporation has a local mining opportunity in Tislanga, which inadvertently happens to be Akisa’s late father’s property, which he swore he would never sell. Relationships, both family and friendship bound, go for a toss in this family drama, where a daughter learns a propelling truth about her past, which might just alter her entire future.
Akisa, a successful event planner, gets a distressing call from her aunt back from the village, Tislanga, where she learns about her father’s deteriorating health whilst organising an event for an environmental corporation, Eco Rock. Her boyfriend is introduced to the audience as Eco Rock’s owner Vivienne’s husband. After a garbage-throwing incident at Vivienne by a man in the crowd, Akisa is blamed for the mishap. While she wraps her head around her being fired and the phone call about her father, Max tries to console her, but Akisa decides to end the affair and leaves for her hometown.
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Back in Tislanga, a group of villagers gathered to decide the fate of their land and whether to sell it to Eco Rock for mining. As other people rest their case and decide to sell the land, Akisa’s father Mwalimu denies it, as his mother was buried in the same ground. As Akisa reaches her village, everyone is ecstatic except for her mother Esther and the nosy aunties. It’s revealed that she had gotten pregnant while in school, and her father gave away the baby while sending her away to Nairobi.
It was because Mwalimu wanted Akisa to have a future without the baby ruining her life. He apologises for the same, but some actions are too harsh and deep-rooted to be forgiven this easily. Akisa stumbles upon Kyalo, while getting medicine for her father, who got her pregnant all those years ago, someone who has moved on with his life and has a girlfriend as well.
When she returns, Akisa finds her father dead, leading to Esther blaming her for the same. During Mwalimu’s last rites, his brothers, instead of helping the family out, corner Akisa and Esther to sell the family’s land. Akisa decides to head back to Nairobi and deal with her company’s failure.
The miners, employed by Eco Rock in Tislanga, hire minor children and subjugate them into working under dangerous conditions. The gold retrieved from mining is sold off to Vivienne. Whoever rebels face harsh force from the police and higher authorities. All this while, Akisa finally loosens up and goes back to her mother Esther, owing to her uncles’ tactics.
Max, who was visiting the village to deal with a situation at the mining location, convinces Akisa to sell her land at a good value. As Esther eases up and agrees to sell, Akisa finds a note from her late father inside a book. Turns out, Mwalimu had left the land for his grandson, who he had not killed, to everyone’s surprise. The news leaves Akisa perplexed, but both the mother-daughter duo decide to fulfil Mwalimu’s wishes.
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All this while Vivienne struggles to acquire the land of Tislanga, for her company Eco Rock, which is on the verge of bankruptcy. Her stepson poses a threat to Vivienne being the owner and face of the company, but she flicks him off her goal by overdosing him. This directly postulates that Vivienne will stop at nothing to get a hold of the village and mine for gold.
After a lot of trouble searching for her son with Kyalo, she finds him, only for him to run away. Her son was one of the minors who were coerced to mine for gold. Akisa decides to fight for the land as it correlates to her finding and fighting for her son. This is shown through powerful imagery of Akisa, taking off her wig, weaving her real hair out and metaphorically going back to her roots.
Country Queen ends by depicting two powerful women, Vivienne, the obsessed, power-hungry one with no moral code and the other, Akisa, on a journey to right the wrong her father committed years ago.
Country Queen is streaming now on Netflix.