Setting the Stage
The events of Wakanda Forever are entirely fictitious, but for many; the actors, the setting, the costumes, the music - the mise en scene, if you will - is very much ‘real’. You see, the stories themselves are fictitious, but the traditions, the discourse and the construction of meaning by both indigenous nations in the film: The Wakandans and the Talokanil, are very much rooted in reality.
To understand what I mean by this, I need you to start thinking of reality as a collection of stories fuelled by a dominant ideology, enacted and facilitated by stories and language. Reality is very much tied to narrative, tied to stories. Our story, or at least the most dominantly accepted of our stories, is rooted in modernity, facilitated through reforms outlined in the Washington consensus, and disseminated through neoliberal concepts… what we call capitalism.
I promised myself I wouldn’t make this about political economy, so instead, let’s use cinema to illuminate this idea. You see, the world of cinema tends to break films down into one of 3 categories, 1st, 2nd, or 3rd cinema. Each of these categories are framed with the ‘modern nation state’ as the normative structure for the narrative to take place within.
In my Indigenous media in global contexts class in my undergrad, shout out to professor Brady, we learned of a 4th category of cinema, coined by Mauri film maker Barry Barclay. For Barclay, 4th cinema is an expression of indigenous community. It’s a presentation of unfamiliar relationships between human and nature as a narrative that connects diverse experiences. Indigenous communities are diverse in nature, and history has scattered their cultures, traditions, and practices across national and international geographies. Black Panther: Wakanda Forever celebrates that by allowing BIPOC creators to share their cultures through their art.
Each scene is littered with artistic cultural exchange. Costume designs emphasize African and Yucatec Mayan traditions, like Queen Ramonda’s South African Zulu headress, or the elders Lip Plates from the Mursi and Surma tribes of Ethiopia. Namor’s jade earrings, and the language of his people are pulled directly from the history books on Yucatec Mayan culture. Mayan and Yoruban instruments and sounds are littered throughout the score of the movie, and performances by Guyanese actress Letitia Wright and Mexican actor Tenoch Huerta Mejía have generated so much international praise that their respective countries have expressed gratitude and pride in their performances. Lietta Wright was even hosted by the Guyanese government and received an honorary doctorate from the University of Guyana, the same University my uncle attended when I was a child growing up there. As a Guyanese living abroad, it feels special to have our country recognized on the world stage.
You see, fourth cinema is different; It extends Indigenous cultures within media outside of “national orthodoxy,” allowing for alternative outlooks and constructed meanings that subvert traditional frameworks of modernity – laying the foundations for more diverse outlooks that prioritize indigenous ontologies and traditions (Barclay, 2003). Tenoch Huerta is no stranger to this, and in his book “Orgullo Prieto,” or “Brown Pride,” he speaks about his experiences of discrimination and his attempts to assimilate his appearance in order to receive opportunities his lighterskin countrymen would so easily be handed.
The cast and crew of Black Panther have certainly subverted representations of historically exoticised cultures and ethnicities by presenting them as powerful, diverse and beautiful. Historically, this has not been the case, and modernity has consistently relegated the value of indigenous nations to that of the ‘Nobel savage’. For centuries, western media and institutions have treated us as second class and inferior.
Kudos to Ryan Coogler and the entire cast and crew for their hard work in bringing so many unrepresented cultures to the big screen. There is however 2 large elephants in the room… and there names are Disney and Marvel. You see the very involvement of Marvel brings into question if this film is truly within the category of 4th cinema. Films like ‘Kanehsatake: 270 Years of Resistance’ by Alan’s Obomsawin and Sgaaway K’uuna: Edge of the Knife by Gwaai Edenshaw and Helen Haig-Brown were made in collaboration with and led by community leaders of the Haida Gwaii and Mohawk Nations respectively. Wakanda forever is a conundrum, as Disney and Marvel are very much benefactors and contributors to the modern nation state and stand against many fundamental principles of ecocentric ethics. This is tricky to me, because that fact should be acknowledged, but I don’t think it should bar us from celebrating the story, the actors, and the artists that were apart of this project. Wakanda Forever is fictional, but the stories are very much told from the perspectives of the colonized. Relationships between Wakanda and Talokan are directly affected by their fear of Western actors and their interests. The hunt for vibranium by the United States and France fuel Namor’s hatred for the ‘surface world’ and his harm to the Wakandans are directly fuelled by colonial trauma. Both nations investment in protecting their communities is driven by the traumatic histories of their ancestors relationships with the ‘Global North’ .
This trauma manifests as a dominant ideology used to interpret international relations known as ‘realism’. Academics spend their entire lives interpreting scenarios using theoretical frameworks based in realism to determine why and how actors make decisions – but we need not go into that. All we need to know is that realism is often split it into two types; offensive and defensive. Offensive realism assumes the system is anarchic. This means states will ensure their survival over others and seeks power and influence through domination because it is assumed power equates to stability. Defensive realism may not be so trigger happy, but the safety is still most definitely switched off. Defensive realists will bide their time and wait, trying to find the perfect circumstances for guaranteed success. This type of framing creates conditions where by if one state increases its security by obtaining more power or influence, the security of other states will decrease - creating what is known as Security Dilemma - as all actors sit there waiting to pull the trigger on one another. it’s kinda like that meme of the three Spidermen all pointing finger guns at one another.
As the movie unfolds and tensions grow higher, irrational acts by both Wakanda and Talokan are fueled by the fear of western powers like France and the United Sates obtaining their resources and exploiting them in order to generate more power and influence. Because of this, the respective leaders; Shuri and Namor, are forced to think within the same paradigm as the very states they fight to protect themselves from. This ‘fictional’ story is riddled with complex problems and responses that I believe creates more awareness to our struggle as minorities. In ‘mainstream’ media, we do not often get to see history told from our perspectives - from the perspectives of the ‘other’. In mainstream media, we do not often get to see people of colour, let alone women of colour carry a storyline as they do in Wakanada Forever. Even though the events of Wakanda Forever take place in a fictional setting, it’s plain to see that the pain, the trauma, and the strength of indigenous nations is very real. As a closing remark, it’s important for me to remind readers that the black diaspora is and was indigenous, until they were swept from their homes and forced into slave labour.
If you found this piece of value, I drew inspiration from an assignment I wrote in Miranda’s class where I applied Barclay’s fourth cinema to the film ‘Kanehsatake: 270 Years of Resistance’. Ask me about it, maybe i’ll post it here.
References
Brady, M. (2021). COMS4316A. An Introduction to Indigenous Media: The Ethnographic Gaze and Show Biz. [Lecture/Module].
Brady, M. (2021). COMS 4316A. Sovereignty and Dispossession. [Lecture/Module].
Wendy GayPearson, & SusanKnabe. (2015). Reverse Shots: Indigenous Film and Media in an International Context. Wilfrid Laurier University Press.
Barclay, B. (2003). Celebrating Fourth Cinema. Printed in Illusions Magazine, NZ.
Jigyasu. (2018, February 21). Black Panther costumes: 9 cultures they come from. India Today. Retrieved February 12, 2023, from https://www.indiatoday.in/education-today/gk-current-affairs/story/black-panther-costumes-9-cultures-they-come-from-1174649-2018-02-21
Guerrero, J. (2022, December 26). Guerrero: In 'Wakanda forever,' black filmmakers did right by Indigenous Peoples. Los Angeles Times. Retrieved February 12, 2023, from https://www.latimes.com/opinion/story/2022-12-26/wakanda-forever-namor-tenoch-huerta-indigenous
