Suppressing Black Power through Black Panther's neocolonial allegory

Abstract

This essay argues that the superhero movie Black Panther (2018) operates allegorically as a neocolonial text. The central conflict between T'Challa/Black Panther and his nemesis Killmonger maps onto debates and mediated discourses about Black Power ideologies that proliferated during the mid-to late 20th century. The film resolves this conflict through the involvement of a white Central Intelligence Agency agent, paralleling the agency's long history of interventions in the Global South. Ultimately, Black Panther portrays openness to the United States as the best solution to global inequalities caused by colonialism and its attendant racism in the United States. By containing Black political agency within arenas that sustain global inequality, this movie illustrates how inclusion portrayals of Blackness may function as a project of neocolonialism that ultimately maintains whiteness without centralizing white bodies.

The Vacillating Imagination of ‘Us' in Black Panther (2018)

“…Thus, the movie projects “Afrofuturistic (re)imagination of an interconnected past by tapping into mythical memory, through the future, for the present” (Asante and Pindi, 2020: 211). In this way, the fictional nation, Wakanda, not only enables viewers to reimagine a “pan-African cultural heritage” (Bucciferro, 2021: 171) but also imaginarily “stands in for this vision as it reflects a Black nation free from the influences of white hegemony” (Johnson and Hoerl, 2020: 271). 1…”

“…Nevertheless, many studies devote more attention to critical analysis of the text through the lens of postcolonial cultural critique (Asante and Pindi, 2020; Johnson and Hoerl, 2020; Žižek, 2018). For example, Asante and Pindi point out that the movie reduces various languages, cultures and histories of Africa and African diasporic perspectives to a unified fictional visual aesthetic in line with “Western neocolonial and cinematic fantasies of Africa” (2020: 221).…”

“…Specifically, a few critical scholars have paid attention to the character of white CIA agent Ross, who restrains radical Black anticolonialist Killmonger and contributes to Wakanda's opening to the world through a close relationship with T’Challa (Johnson and Hoerl, 2020; Žižek, 2018). According to Johnson and Hoerl, “Ross's involvement in the conflict stands in for the history of US-backed coups designed to overthrow governments inimical to the US” (2020: 274). Žižek (2018) also points out that Ross, with whom white viewers can identify, could play a significant role in suturing the tension between African aesthetics and global capitalism.…”

“Show Them Who You Are!”: Ritual Combat and Masculine Identities in Ryan Coogler’s Black Panther

“…Critics have understandably examined Erik “Killmonger” Stevens since his character has been recognized as perhaps the most complex in the film. Johnson and Hoerl (2020) comment that “Killmonger’s angry militancy is contrasted with T’Challa’s calm resolve” (p. 273) because, as Griffin and Rossing (2020) argue, Killmonger wants the throne in order to “arm and empower a global Black community” (p. 205). Johnson and Hoerl (2020) further suggest that the contrast between T’Challa and Killmonger “positions the audience to empathize with T’Challa’s commitment to protect his country from anticapitalist, Fanon-inspired politics of Black liberation and to celebrate when he succeeds” (p. 273).…”

Wakanda Forever

“…While it offers "a rich embodiment of African culture,… [Black Panther] is surprisingly removed from the reality of today's African social issues and its politics" (Garside, 2018, p. 109;see Faramelli, 2019;Zizek, 2018). The film's use of other African countries as foils to Wakanda has been criticized as Western stereotyping, and its solution to the question of Wakanda's responsibility to Black people has been found to be, variously, and relatedly, neoliberal and Western development-oriented (Hanchey, 2020;Johnson & Hoerl, 2020;Varda & Hahner, 2020). Varda and Hahner (2020) argue that representational diversity alone is not enough to guarantee revolutionary representation, and Johnson and Hoerl (2020) accuse the film of maintaining whiteness despite its centering of Black bodies.…”