Black Panther and Philosophy. Группа авторов
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question to answer, especially since the characters of Black Panther present conflicting perspectives – Nakia wants Wakanda to offer aid to the world; W’Kabi believes refugees bring their problems with them; T’Challa initially believes that it is not his place to offer justice to the world; and Killmonger wants to use Wakandan technology to liberate oppressed Black people throughout the world. But is this how we should look at justice? Should studying justice only focus on how we (or nations like Wakanda) respond to injustice? Or are there other ways to view the issues of justice and injustice? What does justice/injustice really mean?
As we’ll see, through the debate on how Wakanda should respond to global injustice, Black Panther illustrates various issues regarding the nature of justice and the types of injustices we can inflict upon one another. We’ll also see, however, that the film does not approach these questions from the perspective of the African philosophies; philosophies that the characters would’ve likely engaged with through the roots of their language and culture.
Knowledge Is Power: What Would You Do With It?
RAMONDA: Son, we have entertained this charlatan for too long. Reject his request.
Why does Ramonda label Killmonger a charlatan? Is it because she’s afraid of his words or is it because Killmonger is a stranger to her? Even when she learns of his true heritage, she doesn’t really respect him. Why? Perhaps it’s because of the knowledge Killmonger possesses.
In wanting to deny Killmonger, Ramonda is guilty of an epistemic injustice, which, as Miranda Fricker observes (in a field-defining characterization), is the occurrence of harm to one’s status as a knowledge-bearer.1 One classic category and example Fricker presents is testimonial injustice, where one’s view is considered less credible because of one’s status – this is what Ramonda does to Killmonger; he is not credible because of his status as an outsider. Seeing this type of injustice directed toward Killmonger allows us to also see the broader epistemicide (the killing of knowledge) that many African peoples experienced throughout the world, especially from missionaries and colonial governments that enforced new, Western ways of being and standards for what counts as credible knowledge. This is a key feature of colonizers who, by imposing a new knowledge paradigm, destroy the old one – or, like Ramonda, when those in power who control knowledge don’t want that knowledge challenged. That’s why Killmonger is a charlatan called Killmonger and not a son of Wakanda called N’Jadaka.
As Dennis Masaka argues, “the tendency to deny other geopolitical centres the capacity to contribute to human civilisation has been the defining character of Eurocentrism.”2 This is, in part, why the narrative of Wakanda possessing valuable, civilization-creating knowledge resonates so deeply for many. Most African communities did not get a chance to develop and grow their ways of being into the modern era, and are even now faced with a racist view that in a counterfactual world with no colonialism, they would not have reached anything worthy of being termed “civilization.” Wakanda is a powerful counter-narrative to this view.
So, understanding the underlying injustice of epistemicide can help us understand the extent of this power; I do not wish to undermine this great achievement of Black Panther – I am not challenging the fact that Wakanda is portrayed as a possessor of powerful, world-changing knowledge. Rather, in this chapter, I want to question the content of the attitudes and way of life that the creators imagined this reality would create. Wakanda provides a powerful opportunity to imagine a scenario counterfactual to colonialism; have we done enough with this opportunity?
“Y’all Sittin’ up Here Comfortable. Must Feel Good.”
Wakanda is portrayed as an extreme isolationist state – a state that does not engage with other states. It is not just that Wakanda remains neutral in war, like, for example, Switzerland, but that it does not engage at all with trade, cooperative ventures, human rights enforcement, and so on. We are provided with a few reasons for this isolation, and the most pressing seems to be the protection of the valuable knowledge and technology that could be used for evil if in the wrong hands. For example, when talking to Killmonger, T’Challa explicitly states that his responsibility is to ensure that “vibranium does not fall into the hands of a person like you.” It is not clear why this necessarily involves keeping the technology secret rather than well protected. Nevertheless, it is an underlying theme throughout the film that if outsiders were to know of the technology it would lead to war and destruction.
Perhaps bearing witness to colonial epistemicide around them stoked Wakandans’ strong impulse to protect their knowledge at all costs. Other reasons offered speak more directly to the typical way of life of a resident of Wakanda and the desire to protect it from a reality of foreigners visiting and becoming dependent on them. As W’Kabi says to T’Challa: “Foreign aid, refugee programs. You let refugees in, they bring their problems with them. And then Wakanda is like everywhere else.”
The people of Wakanda appear to have a classic “us vs. them” attitude. Even those who wish to do something about the injustices of the world appear to view it as a case of us, Wakanda, protecting, aiding, and cleaning up after outsiders. For example, Nakia wants T’Challa to provide aid, but her framing of the issue still implies an “us vs. them” perspective. There is also T’Challa’s view that Wakanda cannot judge people who are “not their own,” which is a slightly different argument, speaking not to the resources to aid but to who gets to decide what is the right way to behave: we have our way, but we cannot impose it on others.
Here we see a glimpse of the way Wakanda chooses a different path from their Western contemporaries. We are invited to take the view that Wakanda is on the moral high ground because they do not use their technological strength to conquer or dominate others. This is indeed virtuous, but refusing to assist refugees or other states while they were colonized and sent into slavery is evidence of an extreme commitment to prioritizing one’s own interests. Wakanda’s foreign policy is extreme isolation, a position that is questioned by individuals at various moments, but appears to be largely accepted as the societal norm. How does this portrayal sit with what we do know about traditional African societies, and what contemporary African scholars suggest as possible modern-day applications of their traditional values?
What about African Philosophy?
W’Kabi speaks in isiXhosa, but has he heard of ubuntu? IsiXhosa is a Bantu language of the Xhosa people, spoken mainly in the Eastern Cape Province of South Africa. Beyond South Africa, some may have heard of the term ubuntu, whether it be through using the open-access software by that name, following the vibrant former Archbishop Desmond Tutu, or receiving something like a gift soap or tea labelled as Ubuntu soap! The typical South African will have grown up with the moral ethic of ubuntu as a commonplace feature: “I am because we are, and since we are, therefore, I am,” motho ke motho ka batho babang (isiXhosa); umuntu ngumuntu ngabantu (isiZulu).3 Afro-Canadian philosopher Edwin Etieyibo explains, “Ubuntu reflects the life experiences and histories of people in sub-Saharan Africa and defines the individual in terms of humanity or interdependency with others.”4
In African philosophy, scholars often analyze or draw from proverbs and language use as a way to explore moral and political principles within an oral tradition. Because the characters of Wakanda are speaking a traditional African language, it is particularly important to consider proverbs and linguistic usage. Certain principles and approaches to life are contained within the language, the way of speaking. It is striking therefore that the character W’Kabi speaks isiXhosa but seems not to have heard of one of its key guiding values. Let me elaborate.
Philosophers in recent decades have explored the concept of ubuntu to unpack its moral and philosophical implications and to consider its modern-day application. A core idea of ubuntu is that one’s humanity is intricately bound up with the humanity of the other. As Etieyibo observes, in order to be a person, one has to establish “human relations.”5 To be human, as ubuntuism holds, is to “affirm one’s humanity by recognizing