The Black Panther is a marvel movie that came out in 2018 and was a box office hit that produced over a billon dollars (Smith). The movie has made many advancements for African Americans in the film industry since it was directed and acted by African Americans. Throughout the Black Panther, numerous topics like racism and colonialism were prevalent as well as Pan-Africanism. Pan-Africanism is the idea that people of African descent should be unified (Kuryla). During the 19th century, the idea of Pan-Africanism came about by African American individuals in the United States and Africa. The idea was introduced to the world in 1900 at the Pan-African Conference (Maloney). At the conference, many of the worlds African American leaders attended to discuss Pan-Africanism and its cause, which is racism and colonialism. The leaders at the conference agreed that African people need to unite to overcome the colonialism and racism that is throughout the world. By eliminating those factors, the unity of Africa can be achieved.
The idea of Pan-Africanism was introduced within the Black Panther. The movie takes place is Wakanda which is a highly developed and technological advanced country, but they allow the rest of the world to believe they are undeveloped. Part of the ideas of Pan-Africanism is to create societies that reclaim their country’s power, history, and culture. Wakanda and its leaders protect their country by staying hidden. They don’t want the rest of the world to take their power source, vibranium, or the culture they have built. Another reason that Wakanda stays hidden from the rest of the world is to limit the possible racism they could face. They are an extremely powerful country, so if other nations and countries were able to discover them, they could face racism for being strong leaders. Wakanda and the people living there oppose the racist idea that African Americans are unable to be powerful leaders and have great wealth or technology.
At the end of the movie, T’Challa, the leader of Wakanda and the Black Panther, starts to share Wakanda’s resources with the rest of the world. They believe in the support and aid that countries can provide to each other rather than colonialism. Another one of the ideas of Pan-Africanism is that colonialism must be eliminated for unity of Africa and African people. The movie shows that Wakanda is a prime example where countries can be successful and unite without the colonization of other countries. The Black Panther is a great superhero movie, but by looking at it in a different light, can exemplify relevant topics within the world and society.
Work Cited:
Kuryla, Peter. “Pan-Africanism”. Encyclopedia Britannica, 1 Oct. 2020, https://www.britannica.com/topic/Pan- Africanism. Accessed 3 Apr. 2021.
Maloney, Wendi A. “African-American History Month: First Pan-African Congress.” African-American History Month: First Pan-African Congress , Library of Congress, 19 Feb. 2019, blogs.loc.gov/loc/2019/02/african-american-history-month-first-pan-african-congress/. Accessed 3 Apr. 2021.
Onyango, Rosemary A. “Echoes of Pan Africanism in Black Panther.” Journal of Pan African Studies, vol. 11, no. 9, Aug. 2018, p. 39+. Accessed 3 Apr. 2021.
Smith, Jamil. “How Marvel’s Black Panther Marks a Major Milestone.” Time, Time, time.com/black-panther/. Accessed 3 Apr. 2021.
hello, I do believe that this movie asked the hard question that so many people do not have to ask themselves because the problems do not effect them. I think the way you wrote was very well and brought light to so many different thymes in the movie. I understand the reason of not wanting to the world to know about what they have and about their existing because the wrong people could do a lot of damage. I also agree more on the idea of trying to help people if you have the resources. I did notice that his friends did bring up the idea of helping others around the world through out the movie but the idea was pushed aside until the end. Great work