The Black Panther Effect: Pan-Africanism Commercialized
Pan Africanism. Wikipedia states that it can be defined as “a worldwide intellectual movement that aims to encourage and strengthen bonds of solidarity between all people of African descent.” Though this is an expansive topic, I think the Black Panther movie brings so many aspects of it to light.
I must state to begin with that I don’t believe in ancestral reverence as was strongly depicted in the movie. Having said that, I think the hype around the movie and some of the themes are important though this is entertainment first. I like the depiction of Africa from the different perspectives shown; from the history of the continent, Africa’s wealth, the technology, the differences in the people on the continent, their views and the infrastructure developments. Africa today is as diverse in every way that a place can be diverse. Yet, most times the rest of the world only gets to hear about or see what the continent wants or needs.
Black Panther Image from Disney Australia Movie
This movie, is a window into some of the things that the continent celebrates; our history, different cultures, landscapes, cities and ways of life. I love that it laughs at some of the ways we are viewed as well – poor, “third world countries” and a place with little to offer the rest of the world.
Africa has triumphed over so much in history. As knowledge increases so too does the information now available about the ancient kingdoms of Kush, Egypt Mauretania and others. There were several kingdoms as well in the post classical and modern eras such as the Ghana Empire, Luba Empire, Lunda Empire and of course the influential Zulu Kingdom. The wealth of the continent is un-paralleled with natural gas, oil, gold, platinum, diamonds, emeralds, fresh water, food! Africa as a continent exports a lot of food and food products.
However, there remain many in the rest of the world who only see and hear the negative things happening in Africa. So, back to Pan-Africanism. The movie has the antagonist Eric Killmonger who wants to re-distribute the wealth of Wakanda (the African country in which the story is based) to black people everywhere. This is a very pan-African ideology to ensure that Africans and people of African decent wield economic, political and social power. The challenge was how Killmonger wanted to do this. The Black Panther who is also the king of Wakanda – T’Challa is his name then battles first within himself regarding this concept and then with Killmonger about the execution of the ideology. Women also have significant roles without the movie.
Kwame Nkrumah was the first President of Ghana when it became independent from Britain in 1957 and he spearheaded the Pan-African movement on the continent along with Ahmed Ben Bella of Algeria and later Muammar Gaddafi of Libya.
Black Panther is great entertainment but to the “woke” it has a number of topics to unpack. This is just one of them. I hope it sparks your curiosity to research on black history around the world, Africa, African development and also on some of the people mentioned in this blog.