Black Panther and Philosophy. Группа авторов

taken by an ally or foe, even if that state was the aggressor, for fear of starting another world war.⁷ The aggressor cannot always be easily identified and even if the aggressor can be identified, that party may not always be morally wrong. Trying to right a previous wrong is not necessarily wrong, nor is trying to make just a prior injustice always unjust. Ultimately, collective security in practice supports and maintains the status quo, leaving victims of oppression, both domestically and internationally, looking for answers.

      Killmonger’s Pan-Africanism

Pan-Africanism represents the expression of shared values and common interests of Africans across the diaspora. Intellectually, it tends to view Africans and descendants of Africa as belonging to a single race and sharing cultural unity. This group has a shared historical experience of domination and nationalist struggles for their cultural, economic, and political liberation. Pan-Africanism was thus conceived as a liberation movement designed to regroup and mobilize Africans in Africa and the diaspora against racial discrimination, foreign domination and oppression, and economic exploitation.⁸

Pan-Africanists led by Kwame Nkrumah of Ghana, and including Ahmed Ben Bella of Algeria, Patrice Lumumba of the Congo, Ahmed Sekou Touré of Guinea, and Modibo Keita of Mali, proposed, following the blueprint of “Africa Must Unite,” immediate political and economic integration in the form of a “United States of Africa.” This would consist of an African common market, African monetary union, African military high command, and a continent-wide Union government.⁹

Ignace Kissangou proposes the creation of a federation of African nation-states with a common defense and security policy, a continent-wide army, a common currency, and such Pan-African institutions as a security council for African development, an African parliament, and an African senate (or representative council of African institutions).¹⁰ In 2018, in response to the visit of the British Prime Minister Theresa May, Julius Malema, the leader of one of South Africa’s most significant opposition organizations, the Economic Freedom Fighters (EFF), evoked the spirit of Pan-Africanism. Malema called for a united Africa with a common language and an end to Africa’s colonial borders. Ultimately, peoples of African descent, wherever they are, must take on the tradition of their forebear Pan-Africanists and unite their vision and talents to survive in the increasingly hostile global village.¹¹

In a departure from liberalism toward a more realist theoretical approach, African Americans realized with frustration that the expectation that emancipation would end exploitation of Blacks and restore their dignity was mistaken.¹² We can view Killmonger as realistic in this way. He was educated and had traveled the world, witnessing violence and destruction and the oppression of dark skin people everywhere. Killmonger was not out to dominate the world and become a global dictator. His goal was liberation.

      When Competing Philosophies Collide

      T’Challa and Killmonger each see their respective philosophy as superior. Whereas Killmonger wants Wakanda to free oppressed Black communities all over the world, T’Challa wants to work through global institutions and the international community.

      There are many positive elements of Pan-Africanism, and one cannot deny the collective conditions and oppression of Black people around the globe. Should African countries do for self, or should they rely and depend on other countries and other groups to defend and work in their best interests?

History has numerous examples of Africans uniting to oppose oppression. In eighteenth-century London, for example, African writers and campaigners such as Olaudah Equiano formed the Sons of Africa, perhaps the first Pan-African organization. Its members asserted their pride in a common African heritage and campaigned against Britain’s role as the world’s leading human trafficker at the time. The most important event to undermine both racism and the slave system during the eighteenth century occurred when revolution broke out in the French Caribbean colony of St. Domingue in August 1791. The result was the creation of Haiti, the first modern “Black” republic anywhere in the world. The revolution produced new heroes of African descent, such as Toussaint L’Ouverture and Sanité Bélair. Moving into the nineteenth century, early Pan-Africanists included Martin Delany from the United States and Edward Blyden from the Caribbean. Delany, an abolitionist, writer, and medical practitioner, welcomed the “common cause” that was developing between “the blacks and colored races,” clearly stating his policy: “Africa for the African race and black men to rule them.”¹³

      So what about Wakanda? Did Wakanda really just sit on its vibranium and wealth while African descendants were enslaved? Did they really just sit back and watch all of their neighbors experience colonialization? Did they do nothing about Apartheid? Did they ever reflect on these atrocities and think maybe they should do something, even if from the shadows?

      Whatever some Wakandans may have thought, the nation as a whole did not act. It’s no surprise, then, that Killmonger decided that disbursing arms to the African descendants was the best way to liberate them. While in the military, he had seen the benefits of war and the strength of arms. Can we really suppress our racial and historical ties of oppression in the name of international interdependence? Hadn’t international security failed Black people? Would the United States ever grant the UN permission to intervene on racial violence and oppression within its own borders?

      Pan-Africanism does not deny the idealistic hope and possibilities of collective action, and it does not denigrate the importance of international institutions. But it does recognize that that those outside of the diaspora have continually made little to no effort in assisting in the liberation of African descendants globally. Hasn’t the status quo done a pretty good job of maintaining itself, even after the atrocities of World War II, and more recently the environmental disasters in Puerto Rico, New Orleans, and Japan? The system of international institutions and collective security may be a formidable opponent for superpowered aliens from outer space, but it is no match for the hegemonic superpower of states in the real world. It’s easy to identify an alien threat coming from outer space, but a little more difficult to recognize human atrocities taking place across the sea by an important trading partner.

      If anyone is going to save Africans, it is going to have to be Africans, on the home continent and across the globe. Africans must fight to save themselves and will be better off doing it together – and the African homeland is the most logical place for such a revival to take place. But why didn’t Killmonger ask for financial assistance for Africans from Wakanda instead of weapons? Is violence the best way to liberate Black people? Or is it just the only thing that the oppressor respects?

What are the barriers to Killmonger’s Pan-Africanism? First, and most importantly, selfishness and feelings of superiority by one nation, or group of people, over another. This is different from nationalism or protectionism where a nation establishes economic policy or creates institutions in the best interests of its own people. One can advocate for one’s specific racial or ethnic group based on shared history, experiences, and culture without pronouncing one’s group to be superior to another. But in the case of Black Panther, Wakanda clearly had it figured out. It was safe, secure, wealthy, and powerful. It also felt no real obligation to save anyone outside its borders or interfere with the oppression of Blacks throughout the world. In some ways, this is eerily similar to the way many Blacks in Africa and in the diaspora see African Americans. Like Wakandans in their defense bubble, African Americans may know very little of the conditions experienced by other Black peoples. With access to wealth and power, shouldn’t African Americans do more for the liberation of oppressed Black peoples around the world? African Americans tend to feel more American than African, and they feel like they have a completely separate culture and set of beliefs than other members of the diaspora.

      What if Killmonger had won and Black people around the world were able to liberate themselves? Then what? Despite a similar history and experiences, the lack of homogeneity amongst Black populations makes Killmonger’s Pan-African vision difficult. Would they all migrate to one place? Would Wakanda accept Black people from across the globe into their separate world? If Blacks across the globe were willing to adopt Wakanda’s