Beyonce has come under fire from a South African chief who says the pop star "lacks the basic human dignity" to be writing her next film project.
During the long weekend, it was announced Beyonce was looking to write and star in a film based on the life of a Saartjie "Sarah" Baartman, a South African woman who was enslaved in a freak show in the 1800s.
According to South African History Online, Baartman's large buttocks and "unusual colouring" made her the object of fascination for colonial Europeans and she was taken to London where people paid to see her half-naked body on display.
The Sun newspaper reports Beyonce has assembled a team of acting coaches and writers to help with the project.
But local chief of the Ghonaqua Peoples, the First Indigenous Peoples of South Africa, Jean Burgess argues it is not the superstar's story to tell.
"She lacks the basic human dignity to be worthy of writing Sarah's story, let alone playing the part," Chief Burgess told South African news outlet News24.
"Ignoring the fact that the KhoiKhoi is alive and that Sarah's story would have an impact on how we are portrayed, is a mistake of great magnitude.
"Why Sarah Baartman? Why not a story about an Indigenous American woman? I can only see arrogance in her attempt to tell a story that is not her's to tell."
Gamtkwa Khoisan Council member Kobus Reichert also told News24 they did not object to the film so long as the community in the Eastern Cape where Baartman was born, was not sidelined, and the film was made with the right "cultural understanding".
The Sun claims Beyonce has recruited acting coaches and writers to help her bring Baartman's story to the big screen.
Beyonce has appeared in a number of films, including 2002's Austin Powers: Goldmember, and Dreamgirls.