THURSDAY 5 MARCH 2020‘For me to play a character who
is privileged is crazy’
Black colonisers oppress the white race in new BBC drama ‘Noughts +
Crosses’. South African actor Masali Baduza tells Kuba Shand-
Baptiste about a uniquely challenging role
Baduza believes the show will spark overdue conversations on race and power (Getty)
New BBC1 prime-time drama Noughts + Crosses has got everyone talking, and not just because it stars
grime superstar Stormzy as a newspaper editor. It’s an adaptation of Malorie Blackman’s award-winning
novels, set on an island not too dissimilar to Britain. In Blackman’s alternative history, black people
(crosses) are the oppressors, who colonised “Albion” 700 years ago from “Aprica”. The noughts are white –
brutalised and systemically discriminated against.