What do I think of the film? I can tell you that it lives up to the hype and more. Suffice it to say that I went to watch Black Panther determined to enjoy it. As I have preached to everyone who would listen, there are periods for just recognising and appreciating that something momentous has happened. Black Panther, the movie, is one of such landmark moments.
You do realise that Black Panther is more than just another movie from the Marvel Comics Universe. Ryan Coogler, the 31-year-old director had a point to prove. And he set about stamping his authorial authority on the movie, superhero tag notwithstanding. I think those who call it a “love letter to Africa” are on to something.
It’s true Wakanda, where the story of the Black Panther takes place, is a fictitious African nation; but the inspirational boost to our collective egos cannot be quantified. There are a few people who cannot understand what all the fuss is about. In fact, I saw one of such people griping on one of the social media websites about how the film was not shot in Africa, and how this was not the first time a film would be made about Africa, bla, bla. This is pure nonsense of course!
Although the point must be made that no race can go it alone. Unlike some people, I’m mindful of the fact that the success of this film goes beyond colour. Sure, Black Panther has over 90 per cent black cast. The $200m from Marvel Studio, which is stated as the film’s budget, couldn’t have been 90 per cent black; which doesn’t mean those who put the money down were doing charity.
If there’s any message from Black Panther at all, it would have to be that we as black people should go on to celebrating what’s good in our heritage.
No Nollywood comparisons, please
Even though I haven’t really heard anyone making the inevitable “If it were Nollywood…” jokes, it’s safe to assume that someone somewhere is thinking this. I must confess that thought has crossed my own mind too.
Nonetheless, let’s agree that it is very unfair to compare any Nollywood film to Black Panther. The humongous budget aside, the film has the backing of a massive structure offered by Marvel Studios, Walt Disney, etc.
However, there are still a few things we all, Nollywood included, can learn from the success of Black Panther: depth. This depth comes through in the research that went into the film – a lot of history that many of us who live in and are from the African continent don’t even know about.
Naija accents, hard to crack
What is it about the Nigerian accent that makes it so difficult for even accomplished mime stars to crack? Think of the Daily Show host, comedian Trevor Noah. Noah is extremely good at mimicking people and getting all kinds of accents. But try as he can, he cannot crack the Naija accent.
In Black Panther, we also see this. In one of the opening scenes, some actions take place in the once dreaded Sambisa Forest, North-East Nigeria. A group of girls obviously kidnapped, are rescued by the Black Panther himself. He was actually looking only for Nakia (Lupita Nyong’o). During that action, there is a confused mixture of what’s supposed to be Nigerian accents, Pidgin English. Ghanaian maybe! Anything but Nigerian. The closest they come is the girls crying out in Hausa.
That said, M’Baku (Winston Duke) is positively oozing the Nigerianness of his character. He speaks Igbo unlike the others who speak one of the South African languages, Xhosa
COME AGAIN?
Of snakes and monkeys
So we started from baboons, moved on to lions. We later downsized to rodents or simply rats. Then, before you could say JAMB, we got into snakes, or was it the other way around. You will recall that snake farming has become one of the world’s most successful ventures. So profitable that people are abandoning oil wells for snake farming. Little surprise that we now have snakes swallowing millions of naira.
And now courtesy of the northern senators, as if to say what a snake can do, a monkey can better, we hear that monkeys may be responsible for the missing N70m a certain senator is being accused of misplacing.
All this would be funny were it not so tragic.
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