Don't Let Me Be Misunderstood

 It would be wrong to say that Nina Simone was not her abusive relationship, she was not her undiagnosed bipolar disorder, she was not her troubled relationships, she was not her sense of failure as an activist, it made her all that she was. But for the sake of her memory, remember what she said,

But oh, I'm just a soul whose intentions are good
Oh Lord, please don't let me be misunderstood

If I seem edgy
I want you to know
I never mean to take it out on you
Life has its problems
And I get more than my share

Oh, baby, I'm just human
Don't you know I have faults like anyone?
Sometimes I find myself alone regretting some little foolish thing
Some simple thing that I've done

'Cause I'm just a soul whose intentions are good
Oh Lord, please don't let me be misunderstood
Don't let me be misunderstood

I try so hard so please don't let me be misunderstood

For me, Simone story is of resilience. it is a story of her standing against all odds but not of the odds that stood against her.

How do we choose to remember Nina Simone? Do we choose to remember her by a documentary titled “What Happened Miss Simone?” and starts with a miscontextualised excerpt by Maya Angelou “Miss Simone, you are idolized, even loved, by millions now. But what happened, Miss Simone?”  that insinuates a downward spiral of Simone’s glory days falling into a pit and questions Simone in a way of holding her accountable for falling victim to the challenges she faced, even after death. Even if we try to look past the accusatory tone that the documentary might have accidentally, or for the purposes of attracting attention, one could have hoped to see Simone and her legacy to answer the questions raised, to tell her story. By perhaps, doing without giving her abuser a voice in the documentary and more with her diary, more with her own voice.

The documentary sets the question - What happened? After setting a stage of a succeeding artist, a loving wife with a doting, determined to her career so determined and then the scene changes.

The question rises again – what happened, Miss Simone? Your life was perfect. But you began to resent your husband for pushing you to your best capabilities and then revealing the abuse as an afterthought, shedding light to the grim reality of the extent of the horrors that Simone faced in her life and the battles that she was fighting.

The way this is set up makes you double take on this character of Andy, her husband, a strategy that is commonly employed to portray how unsuspecting characters can be harassers or abusers to challenge our mindsets and deliver shock to our socialization.

Is this the best way Simone’s story could be told?

 Her words ring in my head,

Oh Lord, please don't let me be misunderstood
Don't let me be misunderstood

I try so hard so please don't let me be misunderstood

The legacy that she left behind could be done away with the misunderstanding or even such an attempt to understand and have someone else speak for her.

Her portrayal in the documentary as an activist was the saving grace. Her character of resilience, her voice through her songs – Mississippi GODDAMN! – once you let her speak for herself, the story tells itself. It shows how activism saved her, in a way and she devoted herself to it. Her daughter described it as, “A voice that broke and never returned to its former octave.” She became a voice of self-affirmation.

Nina Simones beckons to be known for what she brought to the Black rights movement. See her for the voice of the resilience and for the affirmation of the identity that she embraced of being fiery, loud and vocal, and not non-violent. See her for how her identity was exploited as an artist, and see her not merely as a voice but instead the voice personalized in Nina Simones, a person more than the demons she was fighting, more than the artist that was seen as made for commercialized consumption, more than an activist that felt failed by the times. 
Hear through her voice as she sings,

You know sometimes, baby I'm so carefree
Oh, with a joy that's hard to hide
And then sometimes again it seems that all I have is worry
And then you're bound to see my other side

But I'm just a soul whose intentions are good
Oh Lord, please don't let me be misunderstood.