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Osei, Elisabeth Abena. "Wakanda Africa do you see? Reading Black Panther as a decolonial film through the lens of the Sankofa theory." Critical Studies in Media Communication 37. (2020): 378–90. Added by: joachim (8/12/23, 7:59 PM) Last edited by: joachim (4/6/24, 2:28 PM) |
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| Resource type: Journal Article Language: en: English Peer reviewed DOI: 10.1080/15295036.2020.1820538 BibTeX citation key: Osei2020 Email resource to friend View all bibliographic details  |
Categories: General Keywords: "Black Panther", Adaptation, Africa, Architecture, Colonialism, Film adaptation, Gender, Superhero, USA, Writing Creators: Osei Collection: Critical Studies in Media Communication |
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Sankofa is an Akan principle which philosophizes that in order to move forward and build a future, one must reach into the past to retrieve that which is at risk of being left behind or forgotten. Marvel Cinema’s Black Panther which is usually perceived as a speculative, Afrofuturist representation of Black identities has a strong concern with the historical African past. In its construction of the futuristic, high-tech African nation Wakanda, the film brings into play some aspects of erstwhile ancient African cultural practices which faded out, or were disregarded during and after colonialism. In this paper I argue that in its treatment of the futurist African space, Black Panther shows many analogies consistent with the Sankofa theory and also shows a de-colonial agenda. I first elaborate on the Sankofa theory by outlining its history and relevance. Secondly, I examine the treatment of three indigenous practices in the film: Wakandan architecture, Wakandan writing systems and the representation of Wakandan women, as elements Black Panther retrieves from the ancient African past in order to build its futuristic African space.
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