As 'Black Panther' hits screens in Africa, 'the hero is all of us'
| Johannesburg, South Africa
鈥淭ell me something,鈥� demands Ulysses Klaue, a one-armed white South African arms dealer, in one of the early scenes of Marvel鈥檚 鈥淏lack Panther.鈥� 鈥淲hat do you know about Wakanda?鈥�
鈥淭extiles, shepherds, cool outfits,鈥� replies Everett Ross, the CIA agent interrogating him, flippantly describing the fictional African kingdom at the heart of the film. 鈥淚t鈥檚 a third world country.鈥�
On a recent afternoon in a Johannesburg movie theater, the audience laughed appreciatively. It was a biting African stereotype 鈥� the kind all too common in Hollywood 鈥� but for once, it didn鈥檛 sting.
That was because this time, everyone watching knew, the joke was on the white guys. In the 鈥淏lack Panther鈥� universe, after all, Wakanda is secretly the world鈥檚 most advanced civilization, a gilded city-state that looks like Star Wars met Singapore in the center of Timbuktu.
鈥淚n South Africa, we鈥檝e been watching these movies all our lives 鈥� 鈥楤atman,鈥櫬犫�楽uperman,鈥櫬犫�楥aptain America鈥� 鈥� and every time the mask comes off it鈥檚 a white man,鈥� says John Kani, a celebrated South African theater actor and writer who plays the father of Wakanda鈥檚 king. 鈥淏ut this time you take off the mask and the hero is me. The hero is all of us in Africa and the diaspora. It鈥檚 a remarkable thing.鈥�
But if many here saw themselves in the film鈥檚 heroes, some also saw glimmers of themselves in its villain, a man whose struggle for racial justice holds many parallels to African history.聽Still, for audiences across Africa,聽鈥淏lack Panther鈥� has inspired widespread celebration, offering up a world that many here have never before seen on the big screen: their own. The film in East and West Africa on its opening weekend, and a week later continues to screen to sold out audiences across the continent.聽Worldwide, it has already earned more than $427 million.
鈥淚t was so unexpected, I can鈥檛 even begin to describe it,鈥� said Nomthandazo Hlanguza, a banker, as she walked out of a Johannesburg cinema earlier this week. 鈥淚t鈥檚 exactly the opposite of everything we鈥檙e taught to think of as African.鈥�
Alt-Africa
Indeed, the fictional Wakanda, a place that was never colonized and made wealthy by its mineral resources,聽feels like a kind of futuristic alt-Africa, a vision of what the continent might look like without European domination (and with the help of some otherworldly superhero technology).
鈥淪ometimes we think that we have two choices to make in Africa,鈥� wrote Anyang鈥� Nyong鈥檕, a Kenyan politician and the father of the film鈥檚 star Lupita Nyong鈥檕, this month. 鈥淐hoice one: We maintain our traditions and cultures and stay backward forever. Choice two: We modernize by becoming westernized and forgetting our cultural traditions which, by their very nature so we think, are stuck in the past. The experience of the Wakanda people teaches us otherwise.鈥�
Meanwhile, the film鈥檚 repeated nods to the continent鈥檚 real-life languages, fashion, architecture, and music are a raucous celebration of the Africa that is. Wakanda鈥檚 warriors dress in traditional woven Basotho blankets from Lesotho and checkered east African Maasai prints. Their skyscrapers look like sleek modernist updates of the spiked earthen towers of Timbuktu. Its teenage rocket-scientist聽princess blasts South African house music while she tinkers with her inventions, and Wakandans speak to each other in isiXhosa, a South African language.
鈥淎t the premiere in Johannesburg, the first time you hear my son speak to me in isiXhosa, the audience erupted,鈥� Mr. Kani says, recalling last week鈥檚 opening here. 鈥淎t that moment it stopped being just a movie. It became something that connected us all.鈥�
Uneasy echoes
But if African audiences saw themselves in Wakanda and the film鈥檚 heroes 鈥� the king T鈥機halla and his chiseled ensemble of Wakanda鈥檚 warriors and royals 鈥� many also saw glimmers of their own experience in that of Black Panther鈥檚 nemesis N鈥橨adaka, aka Erik 鈥淜illmonger鈥� Stevens.
Killmonger, played by Michael B. Jordan, is T鈥機halla鈥檚 cousin, who grew up in a rough corner of Oakland, Calif., marred by drugs and violence. He聽returns to Wakanda bent on using the kingdom鈥檚 formidable resources to free oppressed black people around the world.
鈥淲here I鈥檓 from, when black folks started revolutions, they never had the resources to fight their oppressors,鈥� he explains. 鈥淭hat ends today.鈥�
In the black-and-white moral universe of the superhero movie, Killmonger is indisputably the bad guy 鈥� but for Africans whose recent history is littered with violent uprisings against white rule, his experience has shades of gray.
鈥淚 think he left the audience very conflicted 鈥� he was a hero and a villain at the same time,鈥� says Rashieda Witter, an art historian and cultural critic in Johannesburg. 鈥淓ven if they鈥檇 disagree with his methods, I think a lot of people would agree with his idea that an African country with those kind of resources should be able to use them to uplift other countries.鈥�
For Kani, meanwhile, Killmonger鈥檚 presence in the film was a reflection on the choices black communities make every day.
When he first read the script, he says, he thought of South Africa in the years after Nelson Mandela was released from prison in 1990. Should the country set up tribunals to punish apartheid鈥檚 villains and send them to jail, many asked? 鈥淏ut we decided ultimately that we didn鈥檛 want to do that because we didn鈥檛 want to hand over the baggage of our past to future generations,鈥� he says. 鈥淚n a way, Wakanda had the same choice to make.鈥�
But he says the film鈥檚 politics aren鈥檛 as important as the simple fact of its existence. Now, he says, there鈥檚 indisputable proof that an African superhero can be a blockbuster success in America.
鈥淪ome people have said to me, this film is anti-revolutionary,鈥� he says. 鈥淎nd I say, 鈥極h please, don鈥檛 overthink it. It鈥檚 a comic book story.鈥� 鈥�
