THE WAKANDA MINDSET
2018 has been a big year for marvel studios, following on the heels of their crazy smash hits last year that included psychedelic and philosophical masterpieces like Doctor Strange, and giving a very beautiful new way of seeing Thor in Thor: Ragnarok, they released Black Panther in February 2018, and following that, the much anticipated Avengers: Infinity War in Late April. It’s an understatement to say that both have been hits, both movies are possibly era defining, and as much as I am a diehard DC fan, DC hasn’t even come close to this scale of storytelling on the big screen. For this post, we want to take a look at Black Panther, I actually watched it at the cinema twice, for nefarious reasons ;) , but on my second viewing, light bulbs kept going off in my head. I was seeing the links and the story behind the story and jokes and awesome fight scenes. Note: From Here On, Spoiler Alert
Black Panther follows the life of the young King T’Challa (Played by Chadwick Boseman), from the fictional country of Wakanda, whose father was recently murdered in a terrorist attack on the UN Headquarters in New York. It concerns his actions around a particular situation caused by his father’s mistakes, who murdered his brother and abandoned his orphaned nephew. This nephew, nicknamed Killmonger (played excellently by Micheal B. Jordan) seeks revenge. That’s not comprehensive, but you get the point, T’Chaka is a young inexperienced King, and his first taste of kingship is a rock thrown at him by his family’s past, a rock named Killmonger, his cousin.
What struck me first was the concept of Wakanda, I’ve read Black Panther comics before, but to see it brought to life opened my eyes, I saw that it is not just an African version of New York with Danshikis, beads and Rhinos rather than designer suits, wristwatches and automobiles. Ignore the impossibility of how an Absolute monarchic civilization can thrive in isolation, I know it can’t, but look at how a thriving African civilization is portrayed, it is not a safari paradise with no advanced technology like some people would want us to revert to, nor is it a western style techno nation with polluted cities and environmental neglect. It is a nation striving to maintain the balance between tradition and progress, respect the past and strive to our future. We youth tend to scorn the past as irrelevant, or if we don’t scorn, we idealize, as if the past was a paradise where nothing went wrong. T’Challa, and his mostly elderly advisors, however imperfectly they tried, did make mostly right decisions during the crisis of succession Killmonger started, you could debate that they shouldn’t have given him the opportunity to gain the throne, but they know that bending the rules in their favor like that is a slippery slope that will come to haunt them later on, as Killmonger or someone else will definitely turn such a move against them.
Wakanda also showed Love for youth, T’Challa’s younger sister, Shuri (Played by Letitia Wright, who is now my roommate’s crush) is head of R & D (Research and Development) for Wakanda. She develops all the cool science stuff that T’Challa uses as the Black Panther. It’s awesome to see an older brother take advice and help from his younger sister, it shows a respect for the youth and their concerns, and their loyalty to each other reminds me of the many times my sis would help me out when I’m stuck. Shuri symbolizes the progress of Wakanda, she is part of those who would lead Wakanda into the glorious future it aspires to.
T’Challa represents the balance between Tradition and progress, He listens to the advice of His elder statesmen, but also the advice from his peers. Seeing through the mistake of His father, He shows that a King is the embodiment of His people’s hopes and dreams. He ensures His people the peace and stability they had in the past, but they only gain this by moving forward, isolation is the mother of stagnation, and in its Isolation Wakanda had turned inward and self-serving, and as the incident with Killmonger indicates, it’s only a matter of time till the bubble bursts, and the raging fires of hate burn the country down.
Killmonger himself is the rotten fruit of Wakanda’s Isolationism, If T’Challa’s reform were enacted by his father, his persona of Killmonger wouldn’t be born in his hate, by cutting off the world, you wound yourself with the knife, and you scar others with its blade. But even then, Killmonger's quest for Justice was misguided, and in his hubris, he believed senseless violence solves senseless violence. The fires of senseless violence are quenched by the seas of Love, and you don’t even need to be a Christian to see this, Just look at Gandhi’s life and you see an example. Lastly, there’s the weird initiation ceremony for the King of Wakanda, the appointed King is given extracts from a purple herb to drink, this herb causes uncontrollable spasms and the King is buried alive as his skin and veins turn purple. He then travels into the afterlife to meet past kings to commune and is resurrected a new man, with enhanced abilities. First of all, if you don’t see the parallels between this and the Death and Resurrection of Jesus, look again. And secondly, the theme of tradition and progress plays out again, before T’Challa can be king, He must make peace with the Kingdom’s past so that He can take it to the future. He must die to the frailties of His body and arise stronger than ever before in order to hold firm the future awaiting Him. That’s all I could fit into this small space, there’s definitely a lot more that could be said about this movie, and there are others that have found more interesting facts, and I’m sure you’ve also seen more, so if you have something to share about this fantastic movie, share in the comments. Thank you for reading.