Richard Kamei
PhD Candidate TISS, Mumbai
The movie for all it stands as Marvel’s production and on Black people, also encapsulates the reality of indigenous society in the movie succinctly. There is no other popular movie in recent time than Black Panther where depiction of indigenous people is at minimum controversy. It is not without problems but considering the magnanimity it captures of the reality of oppressed and indigenous people, Black Panther delivers a strong message that needs reflection. The Revenant, released few years ago, for all its grandeur usurp the reality of Indigenous people to pre-empt the saviour complex of white people and its romanticism for heroic figure in white men. I am writing this as my response to having viewed this movie and I have not read its comic book yet.
The movie has presented racism in which Black/indigenous people face through remarks like 'savages', ‘cannibalism’ reference and 'third world country'- the ‘third world’ reference is an embodiment of dominant culture's saviour complex in its quest for colonising, and ‘savages’ and ‘cannibalism’ in asserting the civilised notion of white people. The intricacies of these remarks are self-explanatory where one can gauge the magnitude of it.
Wakanda of Black Panther has a striking resemblance to 'imagined communities' of Benedict Anderson wherein Wakanda thrives in full glory among five tribal communities by isolating itself from the colonisers. People of Wakanda are aware about the political economy of war, and aid, and oppression against the minority in the developed and developing nations. Their stance tells that they take a firm position to not step into these forms of domination and exploiting others through war and aid. They live in isolation by making sense of their approach to life from within. All of these depictions in the movie can be read into the history of Naga people and their struggle to make sense of changes they face and in reclaiming past glory. The genesis of Naga movement is on the ground that they were not ruled by anyone and they want to continue living in full freedom without any interference from outsider.
The "vibranium" which enriches Wakanda and its advancement is a metaphor to natural resources residing in the nations of indigenous people. In the movie, the King justified the reason for not utilising its resource in ruling other nation is to not become the entity they are in antithesis with. This position is a familiar territory where resistances across the world often leave no choice in the context of ethnic tension between various ethnic communities where they become of what they oppose in its quest for survival. In close to that, indigenous knowledge and its practice has done more wonders to existence of Wakanda. Likewise, the character of Killmonger shows how a person who have experienced and seen racism and oppression in other country came back home (Wakanda) to overthrow colonisers by reaching out to the oppressed communities of the world. The urgency in his revolution to redistribute Wakanda resources to oppressed people of the world in waging a war against the colonisers is a powerful act. His main aim is in liberating oppressed people through empowerment from the resources of Wakanda.
Another striking feature of the movie is the Jabari tribe of Wakanda who lives in separation from other powerful tribes of Wakanda. Jabari tribe in the movie, continued to practice its culture, tradition and customs in the purest form passed down from its ancestors unlike other tribes of Wakanda who in their worldview derived progressiveness with the advancement of technology by making use of vibranium. The advancement of technology here caricatured the introduction of power relation among the tribes of Wakanda. The relationship between Jabari and other tribes takes us to the situation of othering. Jabari tribe were scoffed at for retaining ancestral cultures and way of life in relation to advancement reaped by other tribes and the notion of progressiveness. This aspect shows that Wakanda is far from being a Utopia. The aspect of this part in the movie can be traced into the friction between Christian followers and ancestral religion followers within Naga tribes. To be specific, the contestation among different religions followers in Rongmei Naga tribe where followers of Christianity placed themselves to be more advanced and civilised than the ancestral religion followers.
The tension between 'collectivism' and 'individualism' where individual pursuits drawn from clan lineage and personal choice and liberty are shown in the light of the introduction of external forces into their societies. The significance of collectivism is highlighted in its true form, and how it makes interface with individualism. This conundrum has become a reality even in Naga society where personal liberty and choice are at loggerheads with customary law and collectivism. The tone of feminism is also presented in various scenes of the movie and one such prominent is of the ownership of technology and its maneuvering by a female character named Shuri.
All in all, Black Panther is far from perfect yet it can be interpreted as the celebration of indigenous people and present to the world that the world view of indigenous people has its own epistemology far from the scholarship of western countries and dominant societies. It is not a movie to draw a lesson for indigenous people for they already have the values that define them, and the immediacy for now is to protect and preserve these values and in expressing them freely.
The reality of Naga and its identity politics as located in this movie are similar to neighbouring tribes in equal or varying measure. The contemporary situation in northeast region of India has become an inverse of the supposed Utopian Wakanda and their consciousness of the outside world, and the notion of collectivism. Black Panther in its attempt has offered a glimpse of unfulfilled dreams of Indigenous people and how these can be reflected in the contemporary complexities, racism, exploitation and marginalisation they experience. The advocacy of not waging war in the movie is an important message in the path of institutionalised violence, and what it means in desperate time when struggle is the last hope to cling to through identity politics.
