IMDb listing
CNS/USCCB (J. Mulderig) review
Los Angeles Times (K. Turan) review
RogerEbert.com (O. Henderson) review
AVClub (I. Vishnevetsky) review
Black Panther [2018] (directed and screenplay cowritten by Ryan Coogler along with Joe Robert Cole based on the Marvel comic by Stan Lee [wikip] [IMDb] and Jack Kirby [wikip] [IMDb]) premiered in Los Angeles at the annual 26th Annual Pan African Film Festival held at the Rave Cinemas in the Baldwin Hills. Yes, it was a big deal.
The release of the film was a big deal because it is the first superhero film involving an Afrocentric story and cast. Yes, the story fits into Marvel Comics' (Avengers) Universe [MC] [Wikip]. But it also stands on its own.
Set largely in a fictionalized kingdom called Wakanda [wikip] [MC] located "somewhere in the mountains of central Africa," a kingdom that was able to cloak its technological prowess (FAR MORE ADVANCED than the rest of the world) from the outside world thanks its sitting on an enormous deposit of "vibranium" a mineral brought to the mountains of Wakanda eons ago by a meteorite.
The mineral proved able to store and redirect energy, which made even ancient Wakandan battle axes and spears more effective than their rivals' weapons. Over the centuries the Wakandans found all sorts of ways to take advantage of "vibranium's" properties, to build (and again, even _cloak_) their entire technologically advanced civilization based on the material.
The central question facing said Kingdom and especially its Royal Family was the degree that the Kingdom ought to engage with the outside world.
After all, Africa is supposed to be backward and poor. Indeed recently our (U.S.) President apparently declared the entire continent of Africa to be made-up of "s-hole" countries... Yet here, in Marvel Universe [MC] [Wikip] was a [fictionalized] country, Wakanda [wikip] [MC], that did not fit the image.
Now truth be told, Africa IS a continent that's ENORMOUSLY RICH in mineral wealth, from OIL to GOLD to DIAMONDS to VARIOUS METALS / SEMICONDUCTIVE SUBSTANCES that drive the world's reusable batteries and cell phones -- A good part of the reason for the nearly decade long conflict in the 1990s across the Democratic Republic of the Congo [wikip] [CIA Factbook] in Central Africa was PRECISELY ABOUT control of those deposits of SEMI-CONDUCTIVE SUBSTANCES present there. Yet, of course, most Africans remain desperately poor. Why?
Well, a good part is, of course, the legacy of the exploitation that occurred during the European Colonial Era. Yet, there remains much more current problem of endemic corruption:
I remember about a decade ago attending a presentation "Bottom of the Barrel" at the annual Catholic Relief Services Conference in Washington D.C. about the oil wealth existing in central West Africa and being surprised to hear the CRS officials asking us to lean on multinational oil companies working in those countries to declare how much oil they were actually extracting in that region. This was because OIL PRODUCTION STATISTICS WERE ACTUALLY BEING HELD AS _STATE SECRETS_ by VIRTUALLY ALL THE WEST CENTRAL AFRICAN COUNTRIES INVOLVED. Why? Well ... the governments of pretty much all of these countries DIDN'T THEIR OWN PEOPLES TO KNOW how much oil was being drilled AND SOLD / EXPORTED out of their countries. Why? Because their leaders were pocketing the ABSOLUTELY STUNNING PROFITS from these sales.
And Dear Readers, this is just one commodity -- Oil. North Africa is sitting on lakes of Oil. Central Africa has Copper, Chromium, Diamonds various rare semiconductive materials as well as Oil. Southern Africa has GOLD, Diamonds (again) and Coal.
So there _is_ an ENORMOUS AMOUNT OF MONEY BEING MADE in Africa, it's just that it's "hidden" (KEPT FROM) the vast majority of its people [Transparency Int'l] [CRS].
Well, in the story here, the fictional mountain kingdom of Wakanda [wikip] [MC], perhaps modeled after some of the more isolated African kingdoms like Lesotho [wikip] [Recent Film] in Southern Africa, untouched by colonization because it seemed just too remote and (unbeknownst to the Western Imperial Powers cloaked by a "vibranium" powered shield) appeared "just as poor" as the rest of Africa to bother with. This allowed the Kingdom of Wakanda [wikip] [MC] keep its independence and continue its remarkable "vibranium driven" development path, respecting traditional African institutions (notably the Monarchy) free from Western interference.
To be sure, the Wakandians prudently sent both spies and diplomats to the West to learn how things were going in the outside world, but they were _very reluctant_ to share with outsiders as to how things operated at home. Keeping the level of its technological prowess secret actually proved quite easy as most Westerners considered Wakanda to be "just another poor isolated African "s-hole" of a country ... AND ACTUALLY many Wakandians from the Royal Family on down WERE JUST FINE WITH THAT. Western dismissive Racism actually kept the Wakandians safe.
Yet even as Wakanda [wikip] [MC] proved capable of keeping the level its technological development a secret ... its diplomats and spies had become keenly aware of the poverty, backwardness and sufferings of their African neighbors and kin. What to do?
That becomes the central question of the film. T'Challa who becomes "The Black Panther" King (played by Chadwick Boseman) after his father's death, initially wished to continue to keep the true capabilities of his Kingdom secret. However, his cousin, M'Baku (played by Winston Duke), whose father had been one of those spies sent out by Wakanda [wikip] [MC] to better learn about the ways of the outside world returns to the Kingdom with the demand that Wakanda use its vibranium-based technological power TO HELP ARM / FREE their African (and African American) brothers and sisters suffering outside.
Also appalled by the way Africans and African Americans are treated, yet wanting to protect his own Kingdom, T'Challa has to "grow into the job" of being King quickly to chart a wise and sustainable course.
The rest of the story ensues ...
Now Dear Readers there are some great performances, often by women, in this film -- notably Leticia Wright's performance as Shuri, T'Challa's ever smiling technologically savy teenage younger sister, Danai Gurira who plays Okuye the head of a bad-A all African female "vibranium spear-wielding" Palace Guard, and Lupita Nyong'o who plays T'Challa's once and presumably future fiancee' Nakia, and as also a trained Wakandian spy, is no wilting flower either.
Yet, I've chosen to focus my attention on here on the story's central question -- what should a good / wise African "with some means" DO in face of the sufferings of so many Africans and members of the African descended diaspora around the world? -- because it's a question that the Catholic Church has actually challenged Africa's political leaders with as well. Some 25 years ago, in the aftermath of the Synod on Africa, some of Africa's political leaders (many of which remain in power to this day, or until recently ...) apparently asked then Nigerian Cardinal Arinze: "Do you want us all to become 'Saints'?" To which he famously responded: "Yes, Africa needs a number of its Leaders to become Saints."
I've noted above that Africa is rich in all kinds of special and often extremely valuable minerals. There should be a way that this mineral wealth could used to transform the destinies of the vast majority of Africa's people for the better rather than just make a very small number of people (both African and non) mind-bogglingly rich.
Africa does need strong leaders with superhuman wisdom and honesty. Yes, (like all the world) it needs its Saints [1] [2] [3] [4].
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