We wish our readers a happy and hopeful International Women’s Day! As part of our series of multi-sited reviews of the movie, Black Panther, we hear today from our partners at the University of Ghana – Legon, Professor Akosua Adomako Ampofo and Edwin Adjei, who emphasize the role of gender, identity, and diasporic relationships, among other issues. In case you’ve missed earlier posts from this week’s series, you can find Gerald Acho’s post here highlighting the importance of positive narratives about the continent; Akosua-Asamoabea Ampofo’s post here who appreciated the movie more than she initially expected to for a variety of reasons; and Minenhle Nomalungelo Khumalo’s post here, which provides a more critical perspective. Stay tuned tomorrow for our final post on the film.
“Long Live Wakanda!”
By: Akosua Adomako Ampofo, University of Ghana – Legon
If you haven’t watched Black Panther yet, that’s your own wahala[1] as we say in Ghana—so no apologies for spoiler alerts here.
Like many American and (especially) trans-national POCs who had long anticipated the movie, I had, ill-advisedly, read some reviews on the movie: including from people of my ilk, aka “intellectuals”, but also reflections by some of the actors themselves. One could be forgiven if one forgot that this was a Marvel creation, and if one believed, instead, that the movie was the latest important text on afrofuturism or even simply Pan-African relations. Indeed there is a new course on Wakanda [link). It seems to me that the analyses enjoyed as much hype as the theatre premiers. I began to worry that I would agree with the critical intellectual analyses—Wakanda presented an undifferentiated Africa rolled into one country; the actors had these annoying Hollywood African accents; Wakanda emphasised an African Utopia for Euro-American eyes; the Wakandans reinforced the difficult-to-cross chasm between Africans on both sides of the Atlantic and caricaturised African Americans as angry and violent. Even our hero T’Challa is accused of not being radical enough—why is Killmonger the bad guy?[2]. I had told myself going in that I was not going to wear my academic hat. It is a feature of the epic movie viewing culture in our home that we critique everything from how realistic the script is, through the historical accuracy if applicable, to the logical sequence of events, and of course the quality of the acting. A visitor to our home once said, ‘it’s just a movie’! And though we enjoy this process, I determined that I would not wear my intellectual hat and would just enjoy what portended to be good acting from a selection of Black folks who are pretty easy on the eyes. And now I’m almost afraid to say how much I enjoyed Black Panther. I will watch it again, soon too. Wakanda Forever!
So here’s what I’d like people to take away from Wakanda.
The acting, the cinematography, the colours, the costumes—exquisitely executed. And the women were simply incredible; they were my highpoint and embodied, for me, the roots of the survival of African peoples on the continent and in the diaspora. Yes, Lupita Nyong’o is in there as Nakia, a Wakandan spy and king T’Challa’s love interest. She is cunning, beautiful and smart; but also kind-hearted. And then there is princess Shuri, the technical genius. However, my favourite character is General Okoye, the mighty warrior and patriot played by Danai Gurira. When her lover W’Kabi (T’Challa’s former best friend, now supporting Killmonger, the usurper) asks, “You would kill me my love?” Okoye responds without flinching, “For Wakanda? Without Question.” (I didn’t know W’Kabi was her lover until he asked this, so clearly she doesn’t lay too much store by romance). And yet, when Killmonger overpowers T’Challa in a fight and takes over as king, Okoye refuses to leave with T’Challa, his sister princess Shuri, queen Ramonda, and Nakia, insisting that she is loyal to the throne, no matter who sits on it. For me she embodies the intricate balance any leader must find between patriotism, due process, love and respect for an individual, and keeping faith with one’s conscience—all without a second’s thought being given to personal gain or survival. Okoye is passionate in her love for Wakanda, yet it is this very love that calls the viewer to complicate the role of hero and villain, to question who is fir to be king—T’Challa or Killmonger—and why. I love all her fighting scenes, but mostly the one in which she hurls off a most oppressive camouflage wig at one of the bad guys. It is pure cinematographic excellence and acting to gush over. But let me offer a little bit of context to my movie viewing.
I went to the Silverbird theatre at the Accra mall on a Tuesday morning with my husband, sister, and a friend. In Accra. I had recommended the viewing time. This seemingly minor fact is important, for I had been warned by one of my graduate students, Edwin (see below) that queues to get in to the theatre were a mile long, with no guarantee that one would even get tickets for the show one had stood in line 2 hours to get tickets for. I had also seen pictures of the Ghana premier, and people had taken it “world cup”[3], with special attire, dance troupes and more. This is a measure of how eagerly Ghanaian fans had awaited the movie. Getting to and from the Accra mall at any time after 5pm, irrespective of where you are coming from or going to can be a traffic nightmare in a city well known for its traffic nightmares. I wasn’t taking any chances. To our delight there was no queue and the theatre was not even half full. This had its down side as there was none of the crowd to raise a cheer when Wakanda’s heroes threw us a stunner—and when my friend Barbara and I ventured to clap, my husband sought to restrain us. Although we all know the blowman[4] can’t die, at one particularly tense moment, when Killmonger tosses king T’Challa over a waterfall (and thus wins the fight and becomes king), the collective sigh of grief in the theatre was palpable.
I should like to focus on the subject of the relations between Black people on the continent and in the (especially) US diaspora. Our complex relationship, both glorified and marred by popular culture (Hollywood), the media and academic discourse, is given full treatment in Wakanda, however one wants to interpret the events that led to Killmonger leaving his Oakland home and coming to Wakanda to claim the throne. I am neither interested in highlighting nor explaining the so-called chasm that divides us. I am interested in pointing to the many strands for hopeful connections that I find. Firstly, the film’s Director, Ryan Coogler is a native of Oakland. At age 31, he is almost a millennial and so can speak to their reality, their hopes and dreams. As he tells it, he invested in researching Africa for the film—proverbs, clothes, different cultural communities — and while some have criticised the resulting Wakanda he creates, alleging it is merely a reimagining of Africa for Euro-American eyes, reinforcing the Africa-is-a-country narrative, I feel it does (and can do) much that builds an afrofuture. If we want it to. From the continent’s side many young (and not so young Africans) have been thrilled to find something of their country in Wakanda. Even though I am used to seeing kente cloth at Black students’ graduations in the US, and it always gives me a sense of pride, I was particularly pleased to see the late king T’Chaka don it with flair as he met T’Challa during his ordeal. For Black youth on the other side of the Atlantic, but also those on the continent, Wakanda’s amalgamation of multiple African nations provides opportunities for curiosity, interest, and even pride in African cultures and heritage. Let’s just see google searches and purchases of Asante kente, Basotho blankets or Ndebele beads surge. Sure, this may be an opportunity for Chinese companies to churn out more replicas, but isn’t copying the highest compliment? Of course I am not being entirely uncynical, and we won’t go down the road of why Euro-America is so concerned about a Chinese presence in Africa. The point is, if Wakanda will pry the door open a teeny bit wider so all things Africa gain a presence in global knowledge and art markets, that’s not a bad thing.
Then there is the magnificent cast of actors, the majority of the major roles being played by persons from Africa or of very recent African descent: Lupita Nyong’o (Kenya); the Danai Gurira (Zimbabwe); Daniel Kaluuya (Uganda); Letitia Wright (who plays princess Shuri, another powerful, Wakandan woman; Guyana); Florence Kasumba (another female warrior, Ayo, Uganda); John Kani (who plays king T’Challa’s (dead) father T’Chaka, South Africa). And there are others Nabiya Be (Brazil); Isaach De Bankolé and Bambadjan Bamba (Cote d’Ivoire); Connie Chiume, Atandwa Kani, Thabo Moropane and Zani Mogodi (South Africa); Janeshia Adams-Ginyard (Jamaica); Sope Aluko (Nigeria); Sasha Morfaw (Cameroon). And though, as a Ghanaian I really think they could have cast Abraham Atta (Beasts of No Nation) as one of the Wakandan children, I am sure that as we follow these actors’ rising careers, it will invigorate a sense of pride in our identities as POC. The actors will do well, they all seem to have knowledge of and interest in Africa and her diaspora—whether they choose to be or not they are our story tellers.[5] The story telling project is alive, well and thriving among African millennials, often crossing borders not only on the continent, but major transatlantic projects. This might be most visible in the hiphop culture that brings artists and DJs together in genre mixing (look out for the work of Msia Clark that catalogues the transatlantic hiphop project), but is also evident in spoken word, film photography and so forth.
The CIHA blog is about humanitarianism so let me end on that note. Africans from both sides of the Atlantic have accused each other of abandonment, memory loss, erasure, of not looking out for each other (enough); sometimes we have judged and mistrusted each other. In the post-credits scene, T’Challa speaks at the UN: Wakanda takes the risk of coming out from its self-imposed isolationism (a survival strategy to escape any form of colonialism and take over), and expresses its intention to share its precious vibranium as well as technological know-how for the world’s good. Beyond that, Wakanda will work to fix what broke Killmonger’s heart and drove him to a frenzied anger to protect Black people globally no matter the cost. Wakanda would invest in training America’s forgotten, neglected, deprived and abused Black youth. Surely, this is a spirit of Ubuntu? I am well if you are well! I am reminded too of Martin Luther King’s exhortation that hate cannot drive out hate, only love can. Forgive me if you think this is too syrupy: this must be afrofuturism while being simultaneously Sankɔfa[6]! Long live Wakanda!
[1] A Pidgin word meaning trouble, or ‘burden to bear’
[2] But who says Killmonger is the bad guy? Not Ryan Coogler. This must be left for another day, but I think Coogler deliberately casts hero against villain through Wakandan eyes precisely to prod us to re-think these simplistic categories.
[3] A local expression, taken from the world cup football tournament (otherwise known as soccer), to mean one had taken a matter very seriously (and often personally).
[4] A Ghanaian term for the strongman hero of the film
[5] Many of the actors have extra-curricular knowledge and experience on things ‘African/a”. For example Janeshia Adams-Ginyard holds a Bachelor’s degree in Linguistics and minor in African-American Studies with an emphasis on Caribbean Culture from the University of California, Berkeley.
[6] Sank ɔfa is epitomised by the Asante Adinkra symbol of the bird with its beak reaching backwards to pick an egg off its back. It is often associated with a proverb, which, translated means something to the effect that “nothing is lost if you go back and fetch what you have forgotten or left behind”. While often used for cultural revivalism, we can think of Sankofa as the important decolonial project of seeking, understanding, acknowledging and revitalizing the knowledge that built us up (Adomako Ampofo, forthcoming 2018)
REFLECTIONS BY EDWIN ASA ADJEI: A BLACK PANTHER COMICS AND MOVIE LOVER
By: Edwin Asa Adjei, University of Ghana – Legon
I have been an avid reader of comic books from the age of eight and have often loved comic heroes. As an adult, I have watched almost all of Marvel Studio’s superhero movies: Batman, Spiderman, Doctor Strange, X-men, Guardians of the Galaxy, Avengers, The Incredible Hulk, Thor, Iron Man and so many other films which would take a page to list. Watching Black Panther was however a bit different. I did not watch Black Panther with the same lens that I have used to watch all other movies because of the hype around it and the many reviews that were out there on the film before I watched it. I still enjoyed watching the movie and would love to watch it again. Much has been said about the film’s positive portrayal of Africa against the backdrop of its constant portrayal as unenlightened and backward-leaning, but three key things especially caught my attention: identity, race and portrayals of gender.
The answer to the question “who am I” often lies at the root of the many struggles people face in life. Killmonger, has a similar struggle. As a Wakandan with an American upbringing, he is torn between his Americanness and his Wakandanness. He goes to Wakanda to fight for what he believes is his entitlement but with an American mind-set due to his socialization in America. He therefore wins the fight for the throne but not the hearts of all his citizens. This later causes a civil war as he attempts to achieve his own goals as well as those who supported his ascension to the throne. Some would argue therefore that Killmonger is more American than Wakandan and that belonging and identity go beyond where one’s father is born (as I have argued in earlier posts about identity).
I see Killmonger’s choice of death over imprisonment as settling the question of his identity; especially his words, “Just bury me in the ocean with my ancestors who died in the ships. They knew death was better than bondage.” In his moment of death, he associates himself with his black American ancestors, not his Wakandan ancestors. He therefore sees himself as black American and not Wakandan. Was his claim to be Wakandan, then, merely a ploy to get what he had craved since childhood: vengeance?
Portrayals of gender have often been viewed keenly due to movies being a form of socialization. As usual, men are portrayed as strong and aggressive in fighting for what they want. In this movie, not only are the men portrayed as aggressive and strong, but the women are portrayed fighting and being as aggressive as the men; and moreover, completely capable of taking decisions in regards to national affairs. This is a significant contrast to the portrayals of African women as infantilised and subordinated. The chief scientific brain in the movie is also a woman, unlike in almost any movie, where the scientists are inevitably male.
The movie does not shy away from issues of race as well. For example, Klaue says, “where did you get this weapon? You savages don’t deserve such weapons.” T’ Challa is also described as king of a third world country in the movie which shocks him as one can see his upbringing has not prepared him for the realities of racism outside Wakanda. In the news, Wakanda is described as “one of the poorest countries in the world” despite its wealth of resources and technological advancement. It is this same portrayal that has influenced some people who have never been to Africa to assume that Africans sleep in trees, use magic for everything and are incapable of technological innovation.
Black Panther has some positive portrayals of Africa but, can one movie change how Africa has been perceived for centuries and probably millennia? Maybe not, but my hope is that, as Hollywood has embarked on the project of portraying Africa in a more positive light in this film, other movies will follow suit. In this way, a generation of people will grow up who will not only see Africa in terms of what their countries can gain from African soil, but also as an equal partner in the development of the world. A partner with the natural and human resources to develop to be as impressed as the Wakandans have shown in Black Panther.
Featured Image: Erik Killmonger and King T’Challa in Black Panther. Source: Marvel Studios