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Arisia: Wakanda Forever
Jan. 16th, 2023 10:19 amPanel description:
When Black Panther was about to drop, we were excited to see beautiful Black people in fabulous action adventure, but wondered would Marvel, Disney, and corporate Hollywood roll out an entertaining apology for colonialism, imperialism, and on-going white supremacy? And what of the women? Wakanda Forever continues the conversation. In Black Panther, Wakanda Forever, and The Falcon and The Winter Soldier, there is no individual victory over (nasty) villain who seeks to destroy a (good) world. These stories seem to demand not just vanquished foes but changes in the world. Are these tales of Wakanda revolutionary or reactionary-poison disguised as revolutionary? Are they a praise song to Africa, the Yucatan or a sloppy mish mash of nobody’s culture? And what about the women?
Panelists: Andrea Hairston (Author GoH, who wrote the description); Jadie Jang; K. Ibura (moderator); Marianna Martin
(You may also know Jadie Jang as Claire Light; you may also know K. Ibura as Kiini Ibura Salaam. Both are now publishing under the names in the listing.)
I did not take extensive notes, and sadly I had to leave before audience questions (as the panel was—deservedly!—running over.
Before I get into the spoilers for Wakanda Forever, two things:
Here is an article by Andrea, It’s Our Time: The Women of Wakanda, in the Los Angeles Review of Books, from 2018.
Also whenever I see Andrea on a panel I am filled with envy of her students. I hope they recognize how amazing she is while they're in her class (I know I didn't really appreciate some of my professors until much later).
Andrea: regarding the mish-mash question: that characterization is from the
assumption that the audience is white and ignorant. Instead here we have
creators who use all that they know and riff on it. Ruth Carter is doing
that to create new culture through costumes; Baaba Maal and Ludwig
Göransson are doing the same for the music. They are not trying to set the
record straight or teach African history, not doing that post-colonial
labor: and so inevitably they run into the danger of people who assume that
they know is all there is to know. Jadie: canonically Wakanda is between Ethiopian and Kenya; close enough to
coast, central Africa to have influences from both and generally be
pan-African Jadie con't: compare to Namor and undersea world: bleh. Movie doesn't even
tell the viewer what culture he is from, what country it was. He razes one
village instead of going all over. The design was also very superficial, no
cultural moments of ritual like funeral, royal challenge that we see in
Wakanda. K.: I've seen actors talking about powerful the representation was against
the utter lack nevertheless Andrea: I was clear that it was Yucatan, but I saw three times; the movie
didn't front load that, needed more time there Marianna: thought change to Talokan from Atlantis was clever to build on
rules knew from Wakanda, thereby reducing exposition needed K.: a lot of these characters were created at time when celebratory
representation was also denigration (e.g. Luke Cage), world is different now Andrea: not just that characters revised in this movie, been a constant
development and change audience q: really uncomfortable with fighting between black and brown
people K.: reactionary/revolutionary question from panel description: really
thinks about centrality of rage to movie Andrea: it's popular culture therefore it's both. The French try to steal,
the CIA wants to exploit ... never goes anywhere. OTOH when people are
depicted in full humanity, groups don't have to be in concert and these
groups, in particular, don't have precedent for dealing with other groups.
Hopes that next movie leads to growth not tragedy Jadie: went out of way to give Western hegemony good (Martin Freeman's
character) and bad people, not for Talokan Marianna: interested in how decentralized Europe and America were in story,
thought they were players but irrelevant. References commonality of
cultures, so much time spent establishing that: so the conflict is
heartbreaking (as I think I said in my post, to me it made it hard to take seriously
because it was so obviously forcing the story into the necessary MCU
format; I spent most of the movie hoping for a third-act mutual enemy to
appear because they so transparently should be on the same side) K.: rage, self destruction, aggression: think we're used to seeing pain
depicted in a different way, this movie was bringing something different to
the table, it was almost healing to sit in that question of what if we burn
it all down, what are the options K.: discusses significance of Haiti, recognition of its history and the
deliberate choice to situate the future there finally: women K.: so much more central; web of relationships, complexity Marianna: mentions Riri asking Ramonda if can call my mom K.: Ramonda reaction to Okoye coming back without Shuri, navigating layers
of trauma Andrea: so many variations on being a woman, didn't cater by putting in
more men K.: M'Baku role remained authentic to him Jadie: irritated about Riri's role, as African-American inventor, would she
really not think through the consequences of her invention and/or why
should she be given that burden? What if she was the inventor of a
protection against that detection technique? Andrea: thought she was a critique of the oppressed internalizing
oppression, as she was on the verge of "oh capitalism rules." Shuri v MIT.
Gives a personal anecdote about pressure to sell her soul by making money.
Again, it's pop culture, it's doing both things at once. (me: see her comics origin which is tied into Tony Stark instead) K.: points out that Riri was completely alone, had no community network And that's where I had to leave, so I didn't get to ask whether they also
thought Shuri's origin story was truncated or deflated by the reveal of
T'Challa and Nakia's son!Spoilers for Wakanda Forever
+1 (thumbs-up, I see you, etc.)?
