[dropcap]P[/dropcap]eople remember how you make them feel; so does a good movie. Before Black Panther was released in Saint Lucia, family and friends in the US persuaded me to see it. I received a video of a mixed-race kid crying in protest over his light brown complexion. He wanted to be 100% black, like his dad. Still, I could not fathom what was so different about that movie. True, the cast was mostly black, and it was directed by a young, black man. Even fantasy has its limits, I reasoned. Besides, no matter the story, producers aim for a healthy return on their investment. The modern computer is often employed to generate imagined creatures and scenes accompanied by loud multi-dimensional stereo noises, designed to detract from mediocre stage craft. To please those who insisted, I went to the movies.
I had not patronized Caribbean Cinemas since its opening some eleven years ago. Instead, I make a point of going to the movies when I am in the Big Apple. At home, I prefer to read to reboot my fading knowledge and to acquaint myself with that which I may have missed during my busy political life.
I was an hour early last Thursday, having received the wrong start time. I grudgingly accepted that wasted hour. Whilst there, I overheard that the movie had nothing to do with the Black Panther movement started in the US by Huey P. Newton and Bobby Seale, in the mid-60s. Yet, I remained convinced that the name and popularity harked back to an earlier period of increasing black consciousness in the US. Indeed, the timing of its release may well have been a reaction to deteriorating race relations in America. Things are certainly getting worse for non-whites from ‘shithole’ countries, who overstayed their visa welcome.
The movie was alluring in the face of a US administration that is more fixated on certain sections of the US constitution than on its other provisions. That focus is a cousin of racism, a subtle disease, which erodes self-confidence and negates progress for minorities. In reality, it is a deep systemic failure, rather than the weakness and greed of one man. Neither is it the fault of republican thinking. It lies in the lack of self-confidence of minorities, and like-minded whites to inspire and achieve a revolution in attitude and conduct.
We must therefore be careful not to follow blindly the failed attempts at producing graduates that are anti-revolutionary in their attitudes. A prerequisite to a new attitude is pride and confidence in one’s race and history. In other words, young men and women who believe that they are capable of achieving anything they put their minds to. This is essential in building a better country and people. In a Christian society, this belief is strengthened by the knowledge that God has set no limits on us.
The confused mind may mistakenly interpret the pro-western model of society, which tends to breed failure and frustration among minorities, with negative social outcomes. Such mistakes are often followed by the blame game, using history and skin tone as excuses. In that negative mindset, opportunistic politicians and their hacks beat a restless drum, to which the unhappy come. The drums exaggerate, rather than ameliorate, poverty and ignorance. Listeners and adherents become stuck in the past even when a new way beckons. Within that drum beat, new ideas are an anathema as they threaten local totems, cultural and religious taboo.
Inevitably, and subtly, a new lease on life emerges, when an imagined lost African kingdom with advanced, exquisite technology and daring, black, female warriors, untouched by western ideas of beauty and strength, are unleashed in leading roles in a movie. Enter Black Panther, the movie. It captures the hearts and minds of the African Diaspora longing for a dream homeland as its reality.
The largely black cast is a surprise to audiences that have been fed on white, western and imperialist cultures, in which blacks are often portrayed as inferior. Exposure to the expert cinematography of the movie finally brings black people face to face with the visionary Huey P. Newton, Bobby Seale, Malcolm X, Eldridge Cleaver, Stokely Carmichael and others, within the calming balm and sweet reasonableness of Martin L. King Jr. Those who are aware of these men and others of their ilk are likely to be more appreciative of the movie, Black Panther.
It should not be lost on anyone that similar voices as above were raised in the Caribbean in the 1960s, echoing the US path blazers. It is therefore poetic justice that a Trinidadian/American should play a lead role in the movie, giving voice to another Trinidadian in Stokley Carmichael, and his Black Power philosophy. For good measure, there are two Guyanese in the movie.
We learn valuable lessons about survival and endurance of the African Diaspora through the limitlessness imagination of the movie. We glean that past abuse need not be answered with revenge. Better to use one’s superior knowledge to assist humanity by sharing wisdom. Better to resolve never to allow past abuse to be repeated.
Beautiful black women (without chemical enhancements and make-up) were on show in Black Panther. The technologically advanced African medical doctor, a young woman, could not have been lost on the mothers and daughters who saw Black Panther. And if we feel squeamish about the tribal in-fighting for power, check out Cain and Abel, review the history of the world, recall the divisions in Islam and Judaism, then think men, not black-men. And eureka! The fight for power makes sense.
Finally, never before in my recollection has a white man been referred to as a boy by a black person in a movie. How did the precious element which held the secret to the kingdom’s technological advancement get in a European museum? It was stolen (again?) by one who was not black. For my part, the youth of every race and culture should see Black Panther because it excellently portrays an imagined advanced African kingdom, in which black people are more than the poor and unfortunate products of western civilization. That makes us feel good.
