I want to see the movie. I like the very idea of an all black, high budget, futuristic movie. At the same time, I don't want black people to see themselves as small people. If a "White Lion" movie came out, would you be as excited? Can other groups or races celebrate their identity without you feeling threatened?
Do we have Panthers in Africa? It sounds like an American fantasy. Maybe I should just stop analyzing too much and just watch the damn movie. Nice review, brother.
Three gbosas for you, my dear brother. You have just laid out my heart on paper. The hype the movie is getting is because Africans are awed by the fact that they are on TV, on proper TV. When Funke Akindele or Genevieve Nnaji, whichever, was announced to be the Dora Milaje for the Avengers, which is still in the works, you need to see the way everyone went crazy. I just wonder why we can't celebrate ourselves without peeping out to see if others feel the same way about us.
Because fashi that thing, Hollywood so far has the best quality. If you want to be the best, you either join the best or you beat the best. The people that made this movie? They took all their skills, combined it with Disney and Marvel's money and JOINED THE BEST. That's why they made the best.
Lupita Nyong'o is Kenyan. Danaii Gurira is from Zimbabwe. Daniel Kaluuya is from Uganda. Florence Kasumba, also Uganda. African actors doing it BIG on the BIGGEST movie stage there is. If Nigerian actors want to play at that level, they know what to do.
When those stories of Genevieve in Spectre abi Skyfall and Funke Akindele in Black Panther came out, I knew they were nonsense. You know why? Because I cannot imagine Funke Akindele entering gym to train herself to Dora Milaje level the way Lupita Nyong'o or Danai Gurira did. I cannot imagine Genevieve doing sex scene with Daniel Craig or training to be action girl. Our actors and actresses never reach that level.
By contrast, Chadwick Boseman is 41 years old:
Danai Gurira was 39 when she filmed the movie. She is 40 now.
That's training, that's dedication to craft. How many Nigerian actors at their age will put in that kind of work to look that good and move that well? Just for a movie?
If Nollywood wants my money, they know what to do. Until they are international standard or at least showing that they can progress to that level, I will continue to look elsewhere.
It, frankly speaking, is an African-American fantasy. Wakanda is the Africa of their hopes and dreams and fantasies, the one that they can never see because it was taken from them -- or they were taken from it by slavery.
For Africans, colonialism took that from us before we could even have that dream and slavery cut us off from them. Now we are separated by an ocean and by mutual ignorance, calling each other "akata" and whatnot.
Pan-Africanism is due for a 2.0 upgrade.