Fact And Conservative Fantasy

“Black Panther,” film directed by Ryan Coogler, 2018

This poor film can’t carry the burden placed upon it.  It is to give all 10 year old black boys someone to look up to.  It is to show strong black women capable of incredible combat or technical feats.  It is to change the history and image of Africa and perhaps the world.  It is to finally have many black people in a film.  One excited and clueless reviewer even thought it would spark a ‘revolution.’  

Come on, this is a Disney film.  Disney is the second largest media conglomerate in the world.  Disney owns ABC, ESPN, A&E Networks, Pixar, Marvel Entertainment, Lucasfilm, the Muppets Studio and 21^st Century Fox films.  Their ‘diversity’ strategy is to sell tickets to under-served groups that might go to a science fiction / superhero film but haven’t.  It succeeded wildly, being the highest grossing film in 2018 so far.  This was also the tactic behind ‘Wonder Woman,' another film which will not liberate anyone.

Lowndes County, AL Freedom Organization

In 1965 the Lowndes County Freedom Organization was started under the leadership of Stokely Carmichael and other early Student Non-Violent Coordinating Committee activists.  This Alabama county was 80% black but no black people were registered to vote.  Their symbol was a ‘black panther.’  ‘Black Panther’ the comic-book character was conceived in 1966 by two white guys at Marvel comics, Jack Kirby and Stan Lee, who were picking up on the ferment of the times.  Later in 1966 the “Black Panther Party for Self-Defense” was created in Oakland, California, to defend black people from police violence.  The Panthers were to the left of 'cultural nationalists' of the time, like Ron Karenga of US, who worshiped Africa and was later exposed as an FBI plant. From this you might be able to tell who the real black panthers are ... and aren’t.

One of the continuing problems of science fiction in the U.S. is that it is based on high technology that accompanies medieval social structures. The ‘Dune’ series is a good example. Black Panther’ follows the same trope.  Here is a king, T’Challa, who has to fight to the possible death for the kingship of Wakanda, in the backdrop of something like Victoria Falls.  Yet this is a film clearly set in the present.  Leadership is given to the best royally-born fighter, it is not based on any kind of democracy except that of personal violence. The clothing worn by the Africans is beautiful and ornate, but reminds one of a tourist or Hollywood conception of cliché’d ‘native dress’ that few wear in present-day Africa.  Though these clothes may be a boon to black cos-play groups in the U.S., they misrepresent modern Africa.  What powers this secret kingdom isolated from the world is ‘vibranium’ – a powerful mineral delivered by a meteor from outer-space.  It provides power, weapons, protection, technology, medicine and much more.  Wakanda is ostensibly a beautiful and peaceful place, a sort of Eden in a conflicted world, with huge skyscrapers, magnetic trains and also grass huts, goats, mountains and rhinoceroses.  The people are seemingly happy in their isolation, a sort of hidden black utopia as yet unmarked by imperialism or colonialism.

The mining of conflict minerals in Congo - Tantalum

Africa right now is full of minerals being exploited by various countries and corporations, and ‘vibranium’ echoes the valuable conflict mineral ‘tantalum,’ refined as ‘coltan,’ which Apple and other companies use in every computer and internet phone.  It is mined in the Democratic Republic of Congo and Rwanda by primitive methods, and has brought war and misery to many, while making some rich.  This, I think, is the real African ‘vibranium.’

One black film reviewer said he’d never seen so many black people in a film (there are only 2 white ones in this one).  Odd, because there are many films with nearly all black actors, so you have to wonder what he's looking at.  You can go back to “Shaft” and “Foxy Brown,” “The Color Purple, or more recently any Madea film, the “Friday” stoner comedies, many films by Spike Lee, "Fences" or “Straight Otta Compton” as a few examples.  You might be able to come up with more, but it is not hard. 

Here is the political ‘nut’ of the film.  Most of the fighting occurs between black people!  It is not with the one white villain, Klaue, who is trying to steal some vibranium.  What is that fight about?  Evidently a member of the royal family, N’Jobu, is sent to Oakland, California   N’Jobu wants to use the vibranium to win freedom for black people in the U.S.  Wakanda’s policy is to keep to itself and ignore the plight of billions of black people around the world.  So N’Jobu is killed by T’Challa’s father because he somehow gave the evil white man Klaue some vibranium. (Why he would is unknown…nor is it logical.)  At any rate, N'Jobu's little son Erik, who is re-christened ‘Killmonger’ in the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq, seeks revenge for the murder.  And also a world-wide revolution against the oppressors of black people.  This implies that he means killing all white people or some such thing.  This would involve using vibranium as a weapon in New York, London and Hong Kong against the oppressors.  So the political heart of the film is a conflict between a-political isolation and later, liberal social work …or black nationalist revolution against oppression.  The ‘bad guy,’ Killmonger, is for the latter, and so are some Wakandan male fighters.

One ally of T’Challa and the moderates is a white nebbish CIA agent, Ross, who helps them combat Killmonger.  So our Panther king is a collaborator with the CIA.  Logically the CIA does not want a revolution against oppression and would prefer social work. They too are trying to get their hands on some vibranium.  So would every capitalist corporation and military in the world.  As we know, the CIA has agents and the military has bases all over Africa now, with JSOC/military attack abilities.  

Which character in the film are they closest to?

T’Challa wins the struggle, with help from the female Wakandan Praetorian guard, the CIA agent and a formerly alienated tribe of Wakandans, the Jabari. The female guards serve as a prop for one man or another through the whole film.  T’Challa spares Killmonger’s life, but Killmonger wants to die like so many other black people have.

The film ends with T’Challa giving a speech to a UN-type body, sounding like a saintly Nelson Mandela, promising to lead the world out of misery through ‘kind’ example and vibranium.  So the Wakandans are coming out of isolation and starting a social-work institution in Oakland.  As we know from the history of South Africa, after ANC leader Mandela's death, Jacob Zuma took over the ANC.  He has just been kicked out of the presidency of South Africa for corruption.  His job has been taken over by Cyril Ramaphosa, who is a former ANC labor leader and now billionaire.  Ramaphosa collaborated with mining companies in South Africa in the Marikana massacre of striking diamond miners in 2012.  So leading by example didn't really happen in South Africa.

Fact and conservative fantasy.  Fact and fiction.  What is clear is that super-hero fantasies quarried by entertainment conglomerates do not deal with the real problems of Africa or black America.  They in fact give reactionary solutions and embrace reactionary ideas.  As in the execrable film “Wonder Woman,” which dresses up fighting Germans in WWI with doing something about the oppressed status of women.  They might be pleasant diversions, temporarily 'empowering' or irritating fakes, but this poor film did not go anywhere near showing a way out.   It in fact is a right-wing movie attacking a more left-wing position, picturing"Killmonger" as an evil nasty person with a few good ideas.  They deform radical politics and then promote corporatism.  But again, this is Disney.  What do you expect?

Related reviews:  "Black Sails," which is partly about black maroons who escaped slavery and hid up in the mountains of various islands in the Caribbean.   Also re Africa or partly about Africa:  "Last Train to the Zona Verde," "Searching for Sugar Man," "Monsters of the Market," "Famished Road," "The Race for What's Left," "Southern Insurgency" and commentaries on Morocco and FGM.

Athens, GA

Red Frog

February 25, 2018