I enjoyed watching Black Panther in Dar es Salaam, Tanzania. The crowd was into it. So was I. It's a fun Marvel Studios movie. If you love superhero movies, you'll love Black Panther.
There are no spoilers in this review.
What I loved
I loved how Black Panther challenges stereotypes. Examples:
- Tough women. Yes, with Wonder Woman and Black Widow, it's not an original idea. Also, the stereotype of a tough black woman is nothing new. But it's still nice to see.
- Most blacks have natural hair. This is a big issue among the black community in the US but Africans are still into artificial hair and chemical treatments. It's nice to see a movie that celebrates natural black hair. There's a scene when a woman complains about her "ridiculous" wig.
- Afro-futurism is an inspiring concept.
My wife's criticism
My wife, who is from Cameroon, gave the movie 8/10 stars.
There's one thing that she disliked. When the white CIA man wakes up, the black female doctor says, "Don't scare me like that, colonizer."
Although the theater filled with Tanzanians laughed, Rejoice did not.
She said, "Some Africans would like to say such things to whites but they refrain out of politeness. Now that they see it in a movie, they may do it more often."
She added, "Blacks would hate it if you called them 'slave' or 'nigger.' Calling a present-day white person 'colonizer' is equally bad. You're using a term of a bygone era on people living today who had nothing to do with colonization or slavery."
I understand her point. I just don't care. I know it's just a joke.
Africans often say to me, "Hey white man!"
Even though this does not bother me, it irritates the fuck out of many whites who work or volunteer in Africa. They said, "They would hate it if they go to Eurasia or the Americas and people say, 'Hey black man!'"
Frankly, I don't care because I know Africans don't mean it in a bad way.
The one terrible idea
The movie has one dangerous idea that will reinforce this dangerous and stupid idea:
That a country/region can prosper by isolating itself.
I've traveled to all 54 African countries and I've read a lot about the continent. These are the pernicious ideas that many Afro-nationalists believe:
- The best way to "fix" Africa and to help Africa advance is to kick all the foreigners out and close Africa off from the world.
- Africans need to come up with "African solutions to African problems" by not listening to foreign ideas.
- Africans need to do things their way without any outside interference.
- Africans need to stop buying non-African goods and services; Africans should only buy African things.
- Isolation is the solution; integration with world markets is bad.
- Any integration should happen within Africa and not with the rest of the world.
- Africans should be self-sufficient.
I hear these ideas often. They all sound great, patriotic, and empowering. The reality is that they're all terribly wrong.
No country or region has ever become powerful or technologically advanced by closing itself off from the world
Albania (1945-1990) closed itself off from the world. During that time, it was the poorest country in Europe.
North Korea today is a complete disaster.
Eritrea, which is often called the Hermit Kingdom or Africa's North Korea, is also technologically in the last century. When I visited it for 2 weeks last year, they didn't have mobile internet. At cybercafes, the Internet rarely could load an image.
How many tech innovations have come out of Cuba?
China was poorest when it practiced Mao's closed policies. After Deng Xiaoping opened China up in December 1978, it began its spectacular boom.
The USSR did produce some innovations but only because its empire was so vast and it had access to so many resources (which is why its closed sphere was called the 2nd World). However, even its innovations were limited mainly to military and space exploration. Had the Soviet Union been a tiny country like the fictitious Wakanda country in Black Panther, then it would be dirt poor, like the small countries listed above. And as large as it was, the USSR's closed policies ultimately doomed it.
Openness, freedom, and trade is the only way toward technological supremacy
Let's consider examples of technological superpowers:
- The Roman Empire.
- Ming China.
- The Ottoman Empire.
- The Venician Empire.
- The Mongolian Empire.
- The British Empire.
- Modern Japan.
- The USA.
Even tiny countries can become technologically advanced when they are open to the world:
- The Free City of Danzig.
- Israel.
- Hong Kong.
- Singapore.
- Luxembourg.
- Lichenstein.
- UAE.
- Switzerland.
Finally, if you look at Africa's biggest and best empires, they were open, not closed off to the world:
- The Ancient Egyptians.
- The Mali Empire.
- The Great Zimbabwe.
- The Abyssinians.
In conclusion, no matter where or when or the size of a country, the secret to making a technologically advanced and economically prosperous country is clear: stay open and trade. Open societies prosper. Closed ones never do.
The UAE and Equatorial Guinea both have a lot of petroleum and a small population. UAE is open and has one of the highest GDP per capita in the world. Equatorial Guinea is closed and far poorer.
If any small African country could be like Wakanda, it would be Equatorial Guinea. It has a wealth-producing natural resource like Wakanda's vibranium. Although it's Africa's richest country (by GDP/capita), it's nothing special on the world scale, mostly because it's a closed country. Try getting a visa to it if you're not from the USA. It's almost impossible.
The UAE's magical city of Dubai is a real Wakanda, not Malabo (the capital of Equatorial Guinea).
Yes, Africans need to come up with their own solutions for their problems. However, those solutions should be based on a careful study of world history to see what has worked and what hasn't.
What's abundantly and indisputably clear is that Homo sapiens can't produce a technologically advanced and fabulously wealthy society by keeping the door closed.
I'd love it if Wakanda could exist one day. I would love it if Africa led the world technologically. Let's just be clear about how it will get there. It will never, ever be via isolation.
If you can think of a small country that became fabulously rich by isolating itself from the world, please put it in the comments below.
