N’Jadaka Lost: A Black Panther Character Analysis

This is going to have spoilers. You’ve been warned. If you haven’t seen Black Panther yet, exit whatever app you’re reading this on, open Fandango and get your damn tickets already. Or, read at your own risk, but stay out my inbox because YOU’VE BEEN WARNED THAT THIS WILL CONTAIN SPOILERS.

I am fresh from my second viewing of Black Panther, and I have thoughts. A lot of thoughts. A “filled five pages taking notes in a dark ass theater” amount of thoughts. There is sooooooooo much to unpack with this film, I’m not even going to try to cover it in one piece of writing. Or maybe I will. I do what I want.

Obviously, I noticed some things on my second viewing. While I took a lot of notes, most of my musings focused on the villian, Erik Killmonger. While his tactics definitely lean towards chaotic evil, I also found his reasons and motivations to be quite sound. His anger comes from a logical place. It’s not his anger that makes him the villain. But what does? I find myself wanting to know more about how N’Jadaka became Erik Killmonger, and I’m not talking about the little back story speech that barely scratched the surface. Who was his mother, for instance? Why do we know nothing about her? Are we supposed to assume her ethnicity? How, when “American” is not synonymous “white,” despite all the efforts from various institutions to make it seem that way?

But until we get “Killmonger Begins,” (hey, we’re getting a Venom movie so it shouldn’t be off the table…), I have to stick with the film as the source material. Does Erik represent something more than revenge and anger in this film? I whole heartedly believe so. The movie itself alludes to it.

Consider when we first met Erik- in a museum. The location has more meaning than just holding the artifacts he was plotting to steal (back)- the museum often represents stolen knowledge withheld from the people who should own it. Killmonger is seen in his swaggeriffic finery of ripped jeans, dreads, and Dwayne Wayne spectacles. The glasses were especially poignant for me, as Dwayne Wayne was a character from the Golden Age of Black Television- when shows like a Different World, Family Matters, and the now tainted Cosby Show portrayed Black American culture in a non-othering, positive light. So before he even opens his mouth, we know two things- he’s black, and he’s extremely proud of being black. When he does open his mouth, we learn one more thing- he’s smart enough to use the curator’s own biases against her. He’s also got an impeccable poker face, able to hide the rage he must feel listening to a white woman, “the expert,” explain the history of the stolen African artifacts. He uses African American Vernacular English not only to continue to dupe the curator, but also because fuck her and her perceptions, he knows who they BOTH are. He is (arguably) the rightful claimant to the culture, and she is the exploiter of said culture. Her opinion of him is meaningless. When he corrects her on the origin of the weapon hiding the vibranium, he is as cool as calm as when he was playing dumb to lure her in. I cheered a little when he said “you had security so focused on me, you weren’t even paying attention to what you were putting in your body.” Anyone who has been followed and surveilled while trying to shop should totally understand EXACTLY where he’s coming from. The execution of the heist shows the depth of Erik’s strategic abilities, to the point that the “big reveal” of Erik betraying Klaue later was pretty anticlimactic. There was never a doubt in my mind that Erik was the mastermind behind everything- he manipulated Klaue so well that Klaue didn’t even know he wasn’t in charge.

Erik’s use of African American Vernacular English (AAVE) doesn’t just shape the biases of “colonizers,” but also the Wakanda elite. When Erik speaks in the Wakandan court, AAVE serves to paint him as an outsider, a perception that persists even when his royal heritage is revealed. Erik speaks like an American- a Black American- and not like the Wakandans. However, being raised in Oakland is not why Erik is an outsider. A major point of Erik’s backstory is that his isolation was a deliberate choice by King T’Chaka to hide Erik’s existence. Erik is an outsider because his birthright was stolen from him by a man riddled with guilt… just not quite enough guilt to do right by his nephew. Did T’Chaka have a reason to kill N’Jobu? Eh. N’jobu was attempting to kill Zuri, but he just found out that Zuri had lied to him for at least 10 years. Tensions were high and no one in that room was innocent. T’Chaka, however, further compounded his guilt by leaving his brother’s body to be found by the orphaned Erik. I mean, I assume he’s orphaned because we have absolutely no explanation why Erik’s mother was not in the picture. Anyway, T’Chaka’s actions caused unimaginable trauma to Erik, and T’Chaka couldn’t even be arsed to apologize or properly bury his brother. How did Erik feel, seeing his uncle on the news, giving speeches about how the Avengers actions affected Wakanda, when T’Chaka chose to let him fend for himself after killing his father?

However, what turns Erik from a character study in misdirected pain into an allegory for the Misguided Black Male is his treatment of black women in this film. Possibly due to having no strong female influence (seriously, WHAT HAPPENED TO HIS MOTHER?!), Erik’s treatment of black women throughout the film shows his tendencies towards misogynoir. His female sidekick, whose name escapes me, has approximately two lines of dialogue, including “I’m sorry” before he executes her for being a liability. The last time we saw them together on screen, they were kissing before the ambulance door closed, yet he doesn’t even blink poignantly before pulling the trigger. I’m sorry, I refuse to believe that a man with that amount of training didn’t have the skills to kill only Klaue, especially since it’s a movie and “magic bullets” are a thing in cinema. No, it was a deliberate direction to show that Erik believes black women to be expendable, especially if it can further his goals. Toxic Masculinity 101.

In fact, the few times black women are physically mistreated are at Erik’s hand. He sacrifices his lover. He forcibly chokes the priestess when she protests to burning the heart-shaped herb. The only onscreen casualty of the intra-Wakanda battle is when he kills a member of the Dora Milaje. There’s probably at least one more, but suffice to say that Erik has a very low opinion of black women, especially when they are in his way. Or maybe it’s all women- the only non-black woman we see him interact with is the curator, and we know how that turned out. I believe, however, that his treatment of her stems more from her position than her womanhood. Intersectionality, y’all.

Considering all the nuance and layers Coogler and Cole put into writing Erik, I’m convinced that Erik’s treatment of women of color is a statement on how some black men mistreat black women, whether it’s domestic violence, or not protesting police brutality against black women with the same fervor as black men, or sabotaging black women to further their own goals. The majority of black men do not mistreat black women, but enough black men pimp, kidnap, beat, rape and kill black women for it to be a relevant theme to present, especially if Erik is supposed to represent the Black Man Gone Wrong.

Finally, and most revealing, are Erik’s plans for world domination. It is not enough for him to be accepted in Wakanda, or for black people in the diaspora to be free. No, Erik wants to burn the world to ash and start over, using Wakanda’s weapons. I believe this represents black men who purport to want to free black people, but really just want to replace white men as the oppressors, and show it by oppressing others when the chance arises. There are those who want revenge instead of reparations, who believe that only the chaos of genocide can bring true power and peace. When T’Challa accuses Erik of becoming “just like the people you hate,” Erik doesn’t really have an answer besides “I know how they think. I studied them.” But thoughts become actions, and actions define your character, and your character is who you are. A man as adept at psychological manipulation as Erik is knows this even if he doesn’t admit it. He probably doesn’t care, especially as he sees his goal in sight. Erik is the Black Radical all the white supremacy groups fear, a monster born from all the hate they directed towards black people for centuries. Erik is the twisted ambitions of dreams deferred, the embodiment of the trauma of this country’s crimes against the people it forcibly brought here to build it. Erik is every single insecurity that racist white Americans project onto black people- he is a mirror of the very mentality that made Wakanda isolate itself. What makes Erik the villain is not that he is angry or a criminal mastermind. What makes Erik the villain is that, as incredibly intelligent as he is, he lacks the self-awareness to see that the hate he harbors is yet another example of white supremacy’s affect on the psyche of the oppressed, and that only by rejecting that hate could he ever truly be free of the colonizers.

While I am thoroughly impressed with Erik Killmonger as a villain and the depth of development of the character (with one exception… WHO WAS HIS MOTHER?!), I can’t help but hurt for the little boy who never had a chance to heal. What would Erik be like if he was able to rid himself of the hate? If he had been accepted into his family and country as a boy? Shoot, how would the movie be different if the Wakandan Elite had called him “nephew” instead of “outsider” when they learned of his heritage? It is easy to see the hurting boy when you look at Erik Killmonger. Maybe this movie will finally help the United States of America see the hurting boys in the faces of the many black men who remain marginalized in this country.