Has #Hollywood laughed out loud, once again, at Africans in the #BlackPanther?

I have, finally, watched #BlackPanther. Thought I was so late to watch it until I saw how full the cinema theatre was.

The characters are marvellous. The  three ladies (Nakia, Okoye, and Shuri) who were the main characters are so beautiful. Wow, #AfricanBeauties indeed…and so are the two men (T’Challa and T’Jadaka) – super super handsome. I also loved how well they acted- in terms of performance. Each of the main character was my favourite.  Shuri was especially super sweet and cool. 🙂

Well, there are a number of excellent reviews on #BlackPanther,  and so I do not need to do another one- neither can I try since am not a student of films neither good at reviewing aesthetic.

Nevertheless, I’ve a few observations to make – and a brief conclusion.  Here we go:

Africa has lots of resources and brain powers but there are so many factors that fail us from properly using them. These resources have remained “potentials” and also our “identity”.  Wakanda was not known for anything else (its people, culture etc…neither its advanced scientific lab) but for Vibranium. Africa is always identified by its natural resources- never so much its people, culture, talents,etc… 

Other issues in the movie in relations to resources, etc…

  • Foreign possessions of Africa’s natural resources- most of the little Vibrinium  that had been extracted was in London .  Wakanda had not used Vibranium to gain any benefits beyond its borders.
  • Power rivalry and fights for the power seat always hinder Africa from moving forward to important things. The young leaders, T’Challa and N’Jadaka, who were expected to drive change found themselves fighting for the throne. No time to move ahead. When the fight was over, Wakanda was left , again, trying to defend itself and begging for the mercy from the world, through the UN – ….a!
  • Although I loved character T’Challa (of course Hollywood would make me to), I felt like .N’Jadaka was “demonised” for his desire to conquer the world for the sake of giving Wakanda full self-determination. T’Challa was soft and diplomatic – he could even “accommodate” a CIA guy and rescue him. When T’Challa’s  general, Okoye, tried to challenge the CIA guy, she was gently reminded to be a “diplomat”.  T’Challa was a good acceptable diplomat of the Western standards.
  • Well, one of the good things about the movie is- it showed that democracy can be practiced even in an African monarchy. There was a lot of consultations in the monarchy.

All in all, I think the movie should be a WAKE UP CALL and a BITTER REMINDER to all of us, Africans, of the doomed situation we are in. I almost feel like Hollywood, has once again, laughed at us- openly.  And I wondered…why most Africans got so excited at what almost looked like depreciation.

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