What Does The Black Panther Movie Tell Us about Black People?

The Black Panther Warrior Women

The Black Panther movie tells us a great deal about Black/African people, psychology, traditions and potential.  I saw the film last night and I enjoyed it immensely. It is doing brilliantly at the box office, breaking all kinds of records, as well it should. 

 

Lest we forget, the first Marvel comic films were the Blade trilogy, which did so well at the box office that they enabled Marvel to bankroll all the other superhero films they subsequently produced, yet, somehow, they have been left out of the Marvel narrative.

Further, lest we forget, Black filmmakers, notably Oscar Michaux, have been making films giving positive depictions of Black filmmakers since at least 1919.

I have a few quibbles about The Black Panther, as follows (this contains spoilers): 

• I do not like to see two Black men duking it out as they do in the film, albeit displaying awesome fighting skills;  

•  I particularly disliked seeing Black men and women fighting each other on the battlefield, and I'm not even sure what they were fighting about; 

• The brother from U.S. appeared conflicted – he addresses a white woman as “Coloniser” and makes reference to the plunder of African artefacts, yet he partners with a white thief of, and dealer in, such artefacts;

• Perhaps my strongest objection is to Martin Freeman's role – he plays a duplicitous, double-dealing CIA man (in other words, a CIA man) who allies with the Wakandans and, at the end of the film, is shown in the United Nations like some kind of benevolent paternalistic figure.

Having said all that, the visuals are amazing, the storyline and the depiction of African people as masters of technology are – well, masterful, and The Black Panther offers us a largely positive view of African people and traditions. The Wakandans, from the fictional African state of Wakanda, are depicted as kings, queens and heroes. And the movie is highly entertaining.  
 
The Black Panther is a dazzling sci-fi romp.  I am old enough to remember a time when Black people did not exist in the future, i.e. in science fiction.  So I greatly enjoy this film's strong characters. 

The characters' inner and outer conflicts mirror, to a certain extent, similar conflicting emotions within and among people from the Diaspora and the African Continent. I found this fascinating. 

 

One thing I particularly liked was that the men, and the women, were so beautiful to look at and so strong, brave and fearless. These sistas looked awesome. The characters carried themselves with great pride and dignity and the sistas were warriors, fully ready to throw down. 

 

I need to see this film again, soon, to gain clarity and because it is such great fun!  If you have not seen it yet, see it! 

What did you think of The Black Panther movie?  Please share this with your networks and please leave your comments below. Thanks.  

 

Lest We Forget: The Haitian Revolution

Toussaint L'Ouverture

Lest we forget, the 23rd of August is African Remembrance Day, marking the day when enslaved Africans on the island of Haiti rose up against their oppressors and freed themselves.  

The Haitian people, under leaders including Toussaint L'Ouverture and Jean Jacques Dessalines, fought off the French, British and Spanish armies, and then fought off the French again under Napoleon.  The Haitians were never defeated.  

The use of traditional African spirituality was a significant factor in the victory of the Haitian people and their emancipation from slavery.  Click here to read more about the use of African spirituality. 

However, a treaty signed by Haiti required them to pay reparations to their former masters, which has led to the impoverishment of people in what was once the most prosperous island in the Caribbean.  The devastation of the Haiti earthquake in early 2010 was greatly compounded by the impoverishment of the population and the lack of resources in Haiti. 

Click here to read more about the Haitian Revolution.  

Click here to read more about modern Haiti. 

Why We Need to Identify as Black

From time to time, I receive comments from people about the fact that I use the word “Black” to refer to people of African heritage. Thus, my books are called Black Success Stories, Success Strategies for Black People and More Black Success.

The history of the word Black is an interesting one. In traditional African spiritual practice, the colour black is considered to be the strongest, most powerful colour in existence. When we want to attract something, we use the colour black to attract it.

To take an example from nature, a black hole in space attracts everything to it.

My opinion – this is a personal view – is that white people, people of European descent, as well as other light-skinned people such as Arabs, were aware of the power of the colour black, and that is why they feared it. So they started to associate blackness with negativity.

However, as African people, we have no reason to fear the colour black or the word “black”. Plus, many of our ancestors were black, the colour of the earth, and there are still many black-skinned African people in the diaspora, all over the world.

The rich, deep dark blackness of Black skin - "coal-black, plum black, blue black" to quote Maya Angelou.

So Blackness is an important part of our identity.

As an African American, I am proud to identify myself as Black and I shall continue to do so.

This blog contains hundreds of Black history resources. If you type “Black history” into the search box, you can access them.

Please leave your comments below.

John Hope Franklin Dies at 94

John Hope Franklin, author of From Slavery to Freedom, advised Thurgood Marshall in the historic Brown v. Board of Education case. To read more, see Obituary for John Hope Franklin.

This article also includes a review of the book Milk, Money And Honey: Changing Concepts In Rwandan Healing. Plus Black history events and more.