Black Panther, Wakanda Forever and the Hollywood Problem – An African Perspective
Black Panther and Black Panther: Wakanda Forever were both global hits set in a fictional African kingdom and featuring a world of black creative talent. What’s not to love about the franchise? A lot, believes cultural and literary studies researcher Jean-Marie Viljoen. We asked her to explain.
What are the limits of Black Panther when it comes to diversity?
Although the Black Panther films did not represent Africans on their complex terms, they were still a major cultural phenomenon. They highlight issues of racial representation for Hollywood audiences that remain largely white. They do this by using black talent, both in front of and behind the camera.
In the first film, the black superhero, T’Challa, is crowned king of Wakanda, a legendary African kingdom with advanced technological prowess. Drama ensues when he is challenged by Killmonger, who plans to use the kingdom’s power to start a global revolution. In Part 2, Wakanda’s leaders fight to protect their nation and its valuable resources in the wake of King T’Challa’s death, as his sister Shuri becomes the new Black Panther.
The first film was a huge success at the box office, with more than half of its sales coming from the American market. The sequel, although not entirely successful, was more successful in global markets. In my view, Hollywood’s investment in these films is driven by a narrow Western definition of spectacle. American audiences marvel at the visual spectacle that entertains and sells. This has the effect of distancing them from the actual content of what they are viewing (Africa and diversity).
This is not because of the films themselves, but because of the way they were received by Hollywood audiences who understand the spectacle in a very special way. So movies like Black Panther backfired in some ways. They made the Hollywood public believe that enough was being done regarding diversity. The 2019 Hollywood Diversity Report highlights Black Panther as a good example of how a large number of American movie viewers (42%) were convinced that the power of diverse images was done regarding diversity in Hollywood. This makes matters worse, rather than helping to increase diversity and ultimately decolonize the mainstream imagination in the United States.
This indicates that Hollywood viewers are lulled by such films and their spectacle. They don’t feel there is another reason to learn more about Africa, African filmmaking or audiences. This means that the Hollywood audience is not invested in a more nuanced understanding of the kind of scene we see than the Nollywood audience in Nigeria, for example. This not only limits understanding of diversity, but also limits the way films are made about such topics.
What can Hollywood learn from how films are received in Africa?
While Black Panther’s costumes draw from various authentic African cultures, this is merely an appropriation of some of the more popular visual aspects of certain African cultures (such as lip plates and neck rings). In the sequel, critics point out that the average (presumably American) viewer would not know that the language used in the film is IsiXhosa, a South African language, or that some of the clothes are made from Ghanaian kente cloth and designs. Since Africa is a continent of more than 50 culturally and geographically diverse countries, this “borrowing” could suggest that its cultural markers are common and interchangeable. True empowerment can only come through more “direct engagement in African political and social issues” and less focus on profit.
However, despite these inaccurate and inauthentic representations of Africa, Wakanda Forever has performed better in Nigeria than it has in the local Hollywood market, relatively speaking. The film became the biggest grosser ever at the Nigerian box office, and the first film to earn one billion naira. This is because Nollywood audiences have a more nuanced reading of the scene and how to combine politics and entertainment than Hollywood audiences.
Pius Otomi Ekpe/AFP/Getty Images
Nollywood has developed its own conventions about the cinematic landscape that Hollywood largely neglects. According to these conventions, audiences engage with social, cultural, and socioeconomic issues in a way that goes beyond mere visual displays. Therefore, the Nollywood blockbuster movie includes a visual spectacle and reflection of the living conditions and social issues faced by the Nigerian people. Some academics argue that, for African audiences, African superheroes are not just a visual spectacle, but are also an integral part of political and social issues. They provide ways to understand the world today. This explains why, in African criticism, Wakanda has become a potential source of imaginative transformation, not just escapism.
This may explain why the film became so popular in Nigeria, despite its unrealistic portrayal of Africans. It has been interpreted through the evolving lens of the Nollywood scene. Wakanda Forever addresses political issues, though it does so in a limited way. For the Hollywood audience, this scene stops them from engaging more deeply in politics. In Nollywood, this connection to politics is something people are comfortable with and want to achieve more of. They use this to build knowledge about Afrofuturism and co-construct political knowledge.
Why should Hollywood look to Africa for a better future?
Hollywood should look to Africa to expand and decolonize what Hollywood envisions cinema can do in terms of building knowledge about diversity and filmmaking. By focusing primarily on Hollywood audiences and largely ignoring African audiences, Hollywood is not letting its audiences believe that the limited progress this film makes in terms of inclusion and diversity is enough. It also fails to tap African audiences both in terms of their appetite for films and in terms of what can be learned about inclusion and filmmaking from their more complex understanding of diversity politics and the cinematic landscape.
Read more: Black people beware: Don’t let the joy of Black Panther mask Hollywood’s racism
This limits the types of social problems that Hollywood audiences can solve, as well as the films that Hollywood can produce. This is unfortunate when one considers Africa’s global authority in the arts, and when one notes that Africa boasts several strong film industries of its own. If Hollywood took African audiences into consideration, Hollywood could do more for diversity and inclusion instead of repeating the same old tired scene we are used to seeing in Hollywood superhero movies.
