Afro-Futurism in the “Black Panther” Film Essay

Introduction

The Black Panther character was created during the public rights movement and reflected the political climate of the time. The character possessed superhuman strength and agility and a brilliant mind. After much expectation from the worldwide community, predominantly individuals of African ancestry, the film edition was unconfined in February 2018. Although this film represents the conventional American cinematic style, it has attracted the attention of a global audience claiming to be more than a mere film adaptation of a comic book. This essay focuses on the Black Panther movie, its depiction of the essence of Afro-futurism, cultural representation, and its importance in the socio-cultural setting. Black Panther’s significance is based on its emphasis on the African agenda in contemporary culture. It is claimed that using Afrofuturism to integrate fantasy, science-fiction, and reality, the creators of Black Panther managed to portray the uniqueness of African experiences, including cultural underrepresentation, discrimination, and gender roles.

Why Black Panther is Important

Black Panther is a film about being black in America, Africa, and the world. According to Griffin and Rossing, the film acknowledges various central cultural services in discussion for admiration and profit (216). Nonetheless, rather than avoiding multifaceted themes like identity and race, the film challenges the hitches that influence the existence of the Black community in the contemporary world. Black Panther was the initial big-budget crusader film to use a black protagonist, leader, and chiefly black actor (Kunsey 38). It is fun, with abundantly enjoyable humor, well-choreographed deed, and attractively lighted persons of all ethnicity. The film Black Panther draws on a long tradition of Pan-Africanism longing for homecoming (Washington 15). Black Americans have yearned for recollections of a world before the invasion, life before colonialism, since their presence in a World marked by bondage, such as enslavement in colonial times and mass incarceration today.

Afrofuturism

Afrofuturism delivers African American creators with a way of conveying black narrations when picturing alternative reality in different types of art. Indeed, Afrofuturism is a cultural movement that finds its manifestation in literature, music, paintings, cinema, and digital media (Peattie 161). The aesthetic, practical, and artistic ideology of research and archaeology study the growing convergence of African-American or African technology and culture. For the past decades, the combination of art, philosophy, and music has enriched Afrofuturistic ideals. Nonetheless, no film has had as much success in society as the Black Panther. In complement to critical praise and film series, this Science Fiction action picture has sparked thoughts and dialogues about race portrayal, cultural imperialism, political change, and, most importantly, the spread of Afrofuturistic standards.

Afrofuturism improves the film manager’s ways of conveying the involvement of black persons to the renown when picturing alternative practicality. In the Black Panther film, directed by Ryan Coogler, an Afrofuturistic depiction of Africans and Africa has been brought into the mainstream (Karam and Kirby-Hirst 10). Marvel Cinematic Universe featured a romantic image of an African nation ruled by a black hero for the first time. The director skillfully balanced the depiction of a technologically progressed society with careful deliberations toward Afrocentric styles. Coogler designed the nation whereby the protagonist, T’Challa, originated to respect African culture. Various elements of the African culture in the film include the regular appearance of the Bathoso blanket that the Sotho often wears in Lesotho (Laurent 54). In addition, Chadwick Boseman adopted a Xhosa accent while playing the role of T’Challa. This accent is attributed to the Xhosa people in South Africa. While it may be evident that African traditions would inspire a movie set in Africa, Black Panther contrasts with traditional representations of African values in how it embraces African cultures instead of depicting them in a regressive manner.

Black Panther was a superhuman with a unique face; he was not only black but also African, having been born in Africa and still living there. Black Panther depicts what it implies to be black in America, Africa, and worldwide. Rather than dodging hard questions about identification and race, the movie confronts the challenges affecting present-day black people in their discourses. In the film, the advanced state of Wakanda is portrayed as a land free from colonization and with traditional attributes that connect it with Africa, including language, clothing, and other features (Osei 388). The Black Panther is a portrayal of Afrofuturism because it integrates magical realism advancements, African myths, and fiction science to disprove ancient black peoples’ images. T’Challa was royalty and well-educated and portrayed as commanding, which replicated the occurrence of intercultural consciousness among the relegated essential co-cultures and people.

Scholarly Accounts on Cultural Representation and Feminism in Black Panther

When analyzing the film and its implications for cultural representation, one should refer to the academic perspectives on the issue presented by scholarly researchers. In particular, Copeland claims that the creators of the film use Afrofuturism to transform the reality into the opposite, where the Black dominate the world and do not suffer from discrimination or gender inequality (1-3). Indeed, Wakanda is not only highly evolved and financially viable since it is independent of colonialism, but still, its inhabitants have never suffered discrimination, white superiority, or racial inequality. Blackness as an identifier is designed to express ethnicity or give resistance to prejudice in the economics of representation. Coogler’s depiction of Wakanda pays to the positive extension of agendas for discerning Africans (Copeland 14). Since the Wakanda habitats are not affected by discrimination, they do not consider resistance, highlighting the Africana Studies Afrofuturism reputation. The genre propagates inspecting Black life, promoting public awareness and inclusion of the African culture as mainstream.

Similarly, the ability of movie creators to merge multidimensional issues into one work has been addressed in academic literature. Indeed, another scholarly account of the themes conveyed in Black Panther has been presented by Griffin and Rossing, who appraises the movie’s revolutionary approach to intersectionality (203). The movie’s capacity to depict an innovative and substitute uncolonized Africa offers spectators positive representations of Africa outside clichés of political conflict and brutality, sickness, scarcity, and other societal evils. The researchers state that the creators successfully triggered African underrepresentation in society by addressing the same issue in Hollywood in particular (Griffin and Rossing 204). Thus, this scholarly opinion is valid and supports the argument on the movie’s far-reaching transformational impact on Africans’ cultural representation.

The Researcher’s Position

Given the accuracy and evidential basis of the analyzed scholarly opinions on the role of Afrofuturism in cultural representation and feminism in Black Panther, one should state that both views should be supported. Indeed, Copeland’s account of the movie’s strengths in integrating cultural and feminist themes within a Black narrative help promote African issues (2). Similarly, one might agree with Griffin and Rossing’s claims on the multidimensional criticism of African underrepresentation through the film’s plot and characters (206). Building one’s position on the presented scholarly arguments, the researcher might state that the revolutionary concept of the film touches on issues of discrimination against and inferiority of Black culture in the predominantly white world. These subjects are articulated in deliberations between the opponent Eric Killmonger and Black Panther. Some people believe Killmonger is much more than a real villain. Considering how he and various black people worldwide have been excluded and disempowered, his wrath is understandable. Killmonger and T’Challa symbolize multiple groups of the African population overseas (Sinanan 89). Killmonger uses Wakanda’s technological advancements for Blacks’ liberation from Western imperialism. Killmonger disdains Wakanda’s aristocracy because it symbolizes the Black elites in the diaspora who have embraced colonialism for economic and political gain.

Importantly, in addition to the accounts presented by the two referenced scholars, the researcher might claim that the emphasis on technology is used by film creators to highlight the superiority of the African community. In the film, Coogler effectively balanced the portrayal of a technically sophisticated universe with thoughtful thought of Afrocentric creative choices. To give a compliment to reliable African social customs, Coogler built the land where the character, King T’Challa, originates. One of several African influences in the movie is the blanket depicting Bathoso, worn by the Sotho tribe of the Southern part of Africa (Laurent 54). Furthermore, despite Marvel’s wish for the Wakandas to own British accents, Chadwick, who plays T’Challa, adapted a Xhosa dialect for his role. Although it may look logical for a movie based in Africa to be inspired by African cultures, Black Panther distinguishes itself since it honors African traditions rather than depicting them from a retrograde or “savage” perspective.

Wakanda suggests that an African refinement may be technologically progressive and grounded on Afrocentrism and not Eurocentrism. In the film, it is stated that “the Wakandans used vibranium to develop technology more advanced than any other nation” (Coogler 00:01:13-00:01:19). The civilization sends a more comprehensive and sophisticated message about African people and the beliefs and locations they originate. The non-stereotypical dream of the African nation represented in the film performs a crucial function in removing unfavorable racial prejudgments regarding Blacks and their offspring held by individuals worldwide. Fiction and culture have long been employed by Afrofuturism to describe the Black experience in the African Diaspora through painting, music, literature, and various media forms (Peattie para. 1). It uses alien abductions methodology, teleportation, and futuristic civilizations, among other themes, to place the fantasy at the core of understanding Black emotions. Still, Black Panther engages Afrofuturism to portray the Black in an unaggressive means of whiteness.

Black Panther’s descriptions and thematic tone trail the comic’s preceding creations by prominent black protestors Ta-Nehisi Coates and Roxane Gay, which endeavored to dismiss Eurocentric typecast related to Africa. The movie’s sheer creation is a formula of confrontation in a philosophy emaciated by everyday regressive radical and social white-nativist and ethnocentric and male groups. Revolutionizing the conventional women’s depiction, Black Panther portrays female characters as strong and equal to men. As Nakia states in one of the scenes, “I would make a great queen because I am stubborn…if that is what I wanted” (Coogler 00:34:32-00:34:37). Thus, black women have a crucial role in the protagonist’s achievement. Indeed, Gillum states that women’s past experiences at the intersection of racial discrimination and diminished gender roles are intertwined with the movie’s feminist theme (740). Thus, the film is meticulously designed to address the intersectionality of experiences faced by the African community to promote their equal representation in contemporary culture.

Conclusion

The film portrayed African identities’ tremendous wealth and variety from lineage to language, appearance, and costume. Although Afrofuturism did not begin on the African continent, Black Panther cannot be dismissed as unrelated to Africa. Firstly, Africa’s geographical idea is primarily a Western creation; it would be challenging and a repeat of the area studies blunder to restrict its traditions and culture to the continent. Second, Afrofuturism’s cultural and aesthetic depiction in a global setting is crucial in linking the long-lost African children in exile and their roots. Lastly, the integration of the themes of feminism and cultural representation allows the creators of the film to emphasize the uniqueness and value of the African diaspora’s experiences.

With the predominantly Black cast and crew, Black Panther defied typecasting by grossing more money than the Marvel films before. Black Panther is just one piece of a much bigger media culture that includes far more than filmmaking. As an example of a well-tailored Afrofuturistic artistic work, the movie conveys the implied opposition between Whiteness and Blackness, freedom and colonization, and discrimination and equality. As demonstrated by its outcome, the film has strapped Afrofuturist thoughts into a prevalent mainstream broadcasting culture. It has offered a pathway for numerous Afro-centric creative media cultures carrying alternative narratives and social comments.

Works Cited

Coogler, Ryan, director. Black Panther. Walt Disney Studios, 2018.

Copeland, Tiffany Thames. “‘Did He Freeze?’: Afrofuturism, Africana Womanism, and Black Panther’s Portrayal of the Women of Wakanda.” African Identities, vol. 20, no. 2, 2021, pp. 1-19.

Gillum, Tameka L. “African American Survivors of Intimate Partner Violence: Lived Experience and Future Directions for Research.” Journal of Aggression, Maltreatment & Trauma, vol. 30, no. 6, 2021, pp. 731-748.

Griffin, Rachel Alicia, and Jonathan P. Rossing. “Black Panther in Widescreen: Cross-Disciplinary Perspectives on a Pioneering, Paradoxical Film.” Review of Communication, vol. 20, no. 3, 2020, pp. 203-219.

Karam, Beschara, and Mark Kirby-Hirst. “Guest Editorial for Themed Section Black Panther and Afrofuturism: Theoretical Discourse and Review.” Image & Text, vol. 33, no. 1, 2019, pp. 1-15.

Kunsey, Ian. “Representations of Women in Popular Film: A Study of Gender Inequality in 2018.” Elon Journal of Undergraduate Research in Communications, vol. 10, no. 2, 2019, pp. 27-38.

Laurent, Geneviève. Media Matters: A Critical Analysis of Black Panther’s Role in the Pursuit of Cultural and Racial Media Representation. 2021, pp. 1-80.

Osei, Elisabeth Abena. “Wakanda Africa Do You See? Reading Black Panther as A Decolonial Film Through the Lens of the Sankofa Theory.” Critical Studies in Media Communication, vol. 37, no. 4, 2020, pp. 378-390.

Peattie, Peggy. “Afrofuturism Revelation and Revolution; Voices of the Digital Generation.” Journal of Communication Inquiry, vol. 46, no. 2, 2022, pp. 161-184.

Redmond, Michelle L. et al. “Exploring African‐American Women’s Experiences with Substance Use Treatment: A Review of the Literature.” Journal of Community Psychology, vol. 48, no. 2, 2020, pp. 337-350.

Sinanan, Jolynna. “Understanding the Reigns of T’Challa and Killmonger Through Hannah Arendt.” Black Panther and Philosophy: What Can Wakanda Offer the World?, edited by Edwardo Pérez and Timothy E. Brown, John Wiley and Sons, 2022, pp. 87-93.

Washington, Salim. “You Act Like a Th’owed Away Child: Black Panther, Killmonger, And Pan-Africanist African-American Identity.” Image & Text, vol. 33, no. 1, 2019, pp. 1-26.