The movie "The Black Panther" has been out for a while now and we are told that in North America it has beaten "The Titanic" in box office revenue.
If we have to look further than the revenue generated by this movie only, we cannot deny that it has been of a great symbolic importance to the black community. One has to look only at the great welcome the movie was given to understand how much the lack/little representation of people of colour in Hollywood has for a long time been a silent pain they have suffered from. As a matter of fact, even though many people of colour revolve around major productions in Hollywood it is quite uncommon to see this level of black casting in a major Hollywood production; from the director to the producers and of course the superhero himself.
Another glass that mirrors the lack of representation /recognition is the very little awards that go to black people; notably the Oscars which is the oldest and most prestigious movie award ceremony in the USA. And the few black people who have been recompensed have often won because they have played roles that have portrayed common stereotypes against black people.
Take Hattie McDaniel for example; in 1940 she won the Oscar for Best Supporting Actress for her role as a housemaid in the movie “Gone With The Wind.” Halle Berry won the same award in 2002 for her role in “Monster’s Ball.” Many who have watched the movie remember the very explicit sex scene her character engaged in with a white man played by Billy Bob Thornton. Lupita Nyongo’o got her Oscar in 2014 for her role as a slave in “12 Years A Slave.” I shed a tear when I watched the scene wherein she was tied to a pole and whipped mercilessly by a white man.
This is usually the representation black people get in major Hollywood productions wherein they get Oscar-worthy nods; that of a slave/servant or sexual object.
The feeling of pride that was birthed in the black community at the release of Black Panther is therefore perfectly understandable and legitimate. The feeling of at last being in the foreground and not placated to a secondary role; the feeling of being able to brandish one’s identity and being able to tell one’s own story. One can even compare this to the election of Barack Obama to the highest office.
Even though his political tenure cannot escape some criticisms, a black man becoming the most powerful person in the world is highly symbolic because it can boost pride, spirit and open the doors of hope. Perhaps it would now take a black pope to give the impression that at last, black people matter in this world largely dominated by white people.
As a matter of fact, since we are on the subject, a lot of black people believe in Jesus but I am convinced that if Jesus were represented as a black person, a lot would change in the view that black people have of themselves. I mean, let’s be frank if we have to talk about superheroes, Jesus is the most powerful and most ancient there has been. He changed water to wine, multiplied fish and even made the blind see. Except that he is represented falsely as white and so it is difficult for us to identify to him.
It is the image of a present father that makes the son want to look like him. For the child, his father is a superhero in his everyday life and he therefore builds his life around emulating his father or at the very best surpassing him. And it is the proximity with his father that builds this great idea in the mind of the child.
The greatest ill, therefore, that befell the black community was not the number of whips and lynching nor the derailment brought on by colonisation but the deconstruction of our identity. The pushing away of ourselves from ourselves by ourselves.
The destruction of our bearings was savagely orchestrated to the point of almost erasing our identity; the proof today being we do not love ourselves as we are. Many elements of our culture and of our beliefs have been branded as diabolical and we have injected into ourselves the virus of self-destruction and self-hate. The recognition of the greatest of one of us rarely comes from us; but on the contrary, obliterating what looks like us is our forte.
To be able to recognise ourselves in a hero is essential for a community which wants to get up from its knees. We need some form of bearing and for that, the image of one of us who has succeeded becomes a compass.
It is by taking the example of someone close to us who has succeeded, and who looks like us, which gives us the desire to be like him someday. Many do not find their way because they walk with their head down or again because pride is what makes us walk tall with our chests out.
If we had understood this, we would not wait for a superhero from Hollywood, a black president in the White House or a black pope at the Vatican but rather create our very own superheroes in our everyday lives in whom many people can easily identify. We would put on a pedestal those of us who succeeded out of merit because many can identify with them, and can get aspiration from their journey to success.
I say this because the danger with superheroes built by others is that it can fall under mass manipulation which in effect would be the continuation of the deconstruction that began centuries ago; i.e., having the illusion that one is evolving and that one is being considered whereas we have remained stagnant, stuck in the same place.
Black Panther is certainly a superhero movie that we can be proud of: But these superheroes would never be worth the heroes in the story of the lion hunt that we know about; or warriors like Shaka Zulu, Menelik II and Samory Toure. They are not worth Um Nyobe, Felix Moumie, Ernest Ouandie or our contemporary heroes like Roger Milla and Samuel Eto’o.
Un Mbom Prêt
Translated by the Poise Team.