BLACK PARTNER: WAKANDA FOR NOW, AFRICA FOREVER
Over the years we have seen sprinkles of African culture in western pop-culture. It is evident in their music, movies and fashion. This has brought some attention to the continent, making the world aware of the “African cultural heritage”. But is this really true? And how has this really helped us as a continent?
In 2005, American film studio, Marvel Studios announced the Black Panther film. Finally, there was going to be a movie on a fictional superhero of African descent. How inspiring and uplifting. Some years later in 2018, the film was released. This created buzz around the world; it was everywhere in the news, in every cinema, on social media and on the lips of possibly half of the world’s population. The movie tells a story about an African prince, T’challa, who returns home after his father’s death to inherit the throne as part of his rights as prince in a country — Wakanda, which possesses vibranium: a fictional metal that has the ability to absorb, store and release large amounts of kinetic energy. Wakanda is seen to the outside world as another regular third world African country but within its walls holds technology unknown to mankind.
The movie grossed about $292million in its first week and, as of today, has grossed a whopping $1.35billion and also broke numerous box office records. It was the highest grossing film in 2018 in the U.S and Canada as well as the second highest grossing film worldwide. If we’re being honest, the film did so well not because it was a Marvel Studios film. It wasn’t just another superhero movie. The. “African, black power” narrative had a very huge impact on the success of the film. The movie having a large number of Black Americans as part of its cast and also featuring one of the very dark sides of Africa — terrorism, in one of its early scenes, did not do justice in exhibiting today’s Africa. As a matter of fact, it did satisfy the average American’s idea of Africa: people living in deserts, men riding on the backs of animals and people clothed in wrappers. For example, “African prince”, is another term that satisfies the white man’s idea of Africa. A lot of average Americans still believe African nations still run under its traditional monarchy as of pre-colonial Africa. Also, along the line, in the film, Prince T’challa is challenged to a duel by a prince from another of the five tribes in Wakanda for the throne. This mode of transfer of power can also be seen as taken from pre-colonial Africa. Don’t get me wrong, monarchy still exists in most, if not all African countries , as it does in other countries in the world. But it is no longer a major system of government in most African countries, as portrayed in the movie.
Along with the movie came a music album featuring various Black American artistes, having no African sound. In a time when Afrobeats is still trying to find its way into mainstream America, having artistes of this genre on this album would have been an awesome form of support. Also, I think that if some African actors and actresses were featured in the film, it would have really helped our growing movie industry. In the end, the movie goes on to break a number of records, bag certain awards and fill the pockets of everyone involved in its production, leaving a featherweight impact on today’s Africa.
As we have seen in the “The Lion King: The Gift” an album released by American pop music icon , Beyonce in 2019, I really hope in the nearest future, we would have more of today’s Africa featured in western pop culture, be it music, film or fashion, as this would create more interest from the outside world to Africa and would also kill the misconception of Africa being just another jungle. We as Africans also need to do more to achieve this; we need to learn to appreciate and embrace the culture of one another and also show support to our artistes and actors, whether from your country or not. Also, the need to produce more presentable content in our movies and music is vital if we really want to get more features and collaborations from the western world. Let’s get Africa working!
