Dandara: A Review and Reflection
A couple of months ago, I played the game, Dandara on stream. Dandara is different than any game that I’d played before and I loved it. It challenged me and also comforted me as I made my way through the levels. And honestly, it’s a little weird to think about Dandara as comforting because of how challenging it can be.
A trailer for the launch of Dandara the Game
The beginning of the game places you in a town where you start to free souls who have fallen. As you progress through the game you continue to meet souls who have passed on because the Oppression has been consuming all the creativity in the land. And that’s something that I’ve been feeling lately, but Dandara gives you the chance to fight back against the corruption of the land. You take control of the titular character Dandara. The character is based on a Brazilian story of one who could come and push back oppression from her people, which is explained more at the end of this review.
Dandara is born into the land with the purpose of saving everyone from oppression. And Dandara flies. Gravity does not apply to her and she scales walls, moving platforms, and rooms without having to worry about the pressures of being dragged down to the world. Dandara creates her own paths. That’s what’s brilliant to me. Dandara is a character who fights oppression by creating her own rules and paths through what they have built.
But it is by no means an easy journey. Dandara is armed only with her arrows of light, a shield, and her ability to ignore gravity. The Oppression has countless soldiers it has deployed to ensure that its goal is achieved. Their weapons fire over longer distances and they trouble Dandara nearly every step of the way on her journey, also fighting against some extremely annoying wasps. And yet, she persists.
At the beginning, you meet people who have survived the waves of Oppression and you see what the consequences of what failing to stop the Oppression would mean. Artists can no longer create and, without their powerful creations, people lose hope and the Oppression wins. Meeting Dandara gives the artists she meets hope and you begin to hear different music in some sections as they reclaim the energy that the Oppression has stolen from them. And that hits. We don’t know how important creators are(and by this I mean writers, painters, illustrators, animators, sculptors, anyone who makes something that wasn’t there before) until the Oppression starts stripping away what they gift us with. Toni Morrison wrote that freedom starts to die when writers are silenced. She is right, without people writing and creating pieces that speak truth, oppression can keep people in “their place” without being questioned. And so I loved that Dandara freed the Artists. It’s a reminder that we must protect creativity at all times, if only so that we can continue to hold those in power accountable.
Dandara travels across the world of Salt to free her world from Oppression, which is characterized by poison and opulently gold areas to show their consumption and corruption of whatever they touched. Over her travels she gains new ways to fight off the Oppression, frees spirits who have become corrupted, and inspires those she speaks with. Eventually, she finds herself in the heart of the Oppression preparing to fight the enemy who has orchestrated the plans and attacks of the Oppression. She overcomes the fight, freeing the world of Salt from the Oppression, and watches as the world regains its stories of freedom.
Overall, I really loved the experience of playing as Dandara. The movement took a lot to get used to, but once I did the feeling of flying across the screen (and running into enemies and spikes more often than not) was incredible. There were times that I felt under equipped to fight the enemies I was facing, but that too echoes how I often feel in the fight against injustice in the world. But we all bring something to the fight and it’s important to use what we have to fight against the forces that oppose us.
My Rating: 9/10
This review and discussion took longer than I thought it would, to be honest. But I wanted to pay respects to the story behind the game Dandara and wow, was that story more important than I imagined.
I really enjoyed Dandara when I played it, it’s a great mix of difficulty and reward with a movement mechanic that took a lot of getting used to. I love that it centers the story of a Black woman fighting Oppression to save her world. And then I started researching the story of Dandara the real woman from Brazilian history.
Dandara of Palmares was a warrior and leader in her own life. She was married to Zumbi of the quilombo known as Palmares. Zumbi is remembered and venerated as one of the greatest leaders in Afro-Brazil, but Dandara is largely left out of the tellings of history. Which is another reminder of how the world forgets and tries to leave behind Black women, no matter their contribution. Not much is known of Dandara’s true history, but the little we know of her life shows that she fought for justice for all people. Some of the research I did made note that Dandara was likely a large part of the reason that her husband, Zumbi, broke ties with his uncle, Ganga Zumba, after his uncle signed the Tratado de Paz with the Portuguese government. Many people in Palmares opposed this treaty, which stated that residents and those born in Palmares wouldn’t have to worry about being returned to slavery, they would be considered free persons. However, the treaty also required that the people of Palmares returned fugitive enslaved people. Dandara believed this to be unjust, knowing that it would lead to both the destruction of Palmares as it was and a return to slavery. The treaty would also required Palmares to move where it was located.
Dandara led a phalanx of women warriors into battle to defend her people, but she was not solely a warrior. Hers was a culture of people working as a community to support each other. She was also a mother, an agriculturalist, and an active member in maintaining the safety and prosperity of Palmares. But history has left her story largely untold. Now, I write this piece as someone native to the United States of America. The story of Dandara is not directly my story, it may be that Brazilians tell her story and celebrate it. It was difficult to find stories of Dandara as I researched this review. And that really made me think about how history, and our present, treats Black women, who really do carry the world on their backs.
Reading the accounts of Dandara’s story that I could reminded me of how Black women and Black trans women are currently being treated. We have cases like Breonna Taylor, a woman killed while sleeping in her house, that still have not been brought to justice. The people who killed her have still not faced any kind of consequence for murdering a person in cold blood. But Breonna Taylor’s name isn’t trending anymore. Without the work of Black women and members of her community, Breonna Taylor’s name would become another name in the list of #SayHerName only to not find justice for what happened. It’s echoed in the stories of Dominique “Rem’mie” Fells and Riah Milton who were both recently murdered.
And I remember that it’s Black women, Black transwomen, and Black non-conforming folk who hold each other up. We know that justice for some of us leads to injustice for all. We also know the true effects of what it means to bear the burden of the injustice that befalls all of us.
Dandara, the game by Long Hat House, celebrates the story of a dark skinned Black woman fighting to save the world of Salt from Oppression. I’m thankful for that because it inspired me to take the time to learn more about Dandara of Palmares and the ways that she impacted her world. It encouraged me to think about the communities that I’ve become a part of that hold me up when I’m feeling like the world is getting to heavy. And I was reminded how important it is to continue to tell our stories, because they are valued and needed and important. Dandara was one of the better games that I played in 2020, and I look forward to replaying the Trials of Fear in the future.
A screenshot of the loading screen in Dandara with the words “Dandara: A Review and Reflection”