(Re)Imagining Africa in Ryan Coogler’s Black Panther (2018)

Abstract

This article examines Ryan Coogler’s film Black Panther (2018) and the critical conversations it raises, which are problematized by its perceived failure to accurately represent Black diasporic experiences, the racist vitriol against it and its concern with commercial success. The present article deepens and advances this conversation by focusing on Coogler’s strategies of representation in the film, which foreground a compelling positive image of continental Africa within the tenets of postcolonial theory. Coogler utilizes three strategies, including 1) contrasting settings and counter-narratives which challenge prevailing notions of Africa in media/popular representation and museum exhibitions; 2) the use of inversion of the traditional dynamics between the centre and the periphery, which challenges dominant power structures by emphasizing Africa’s agency and significance on the global stage; and 3) the positive characterization of continental African women as war generals and geniuses, highlighting their empowered agency and challenging gender stereotypes. Such representation stands in opposition to the ‘dark continent’ metaphor and Afro-pessimism, which have historically perpetuated negative perceptions of African countries as the spectacle of the Other. This article argues that, by employing these strategies, Coogler invites readers to engage in a dialogue that reconsiders Black Panther as a text that contributes to the postcolonial reconstruction of narratives on the people and continent of Africa.

Keywords

• African Women
• Afro-pessimism
• Black Panther
• counter-narrative
• postcolonial Africa