{"id":43370,"date":"2018-03-14T14:53:30","date_gmt":"2018-03-14T20:53:30","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/saitjournalism.ca\/?p=43370"},"modified":"2021-02-07T20:44:17","modified_gmt":"2021-02-08T03:44:17","slug":"to-fans-black-panther-not-just-a-movie-but-a-movement","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/saitjournalism.ca\/thepress\/2018\/03\/14\/to-fans-black-panther-not-just-a-movie-but-a-movement\/","title":{"rendered":"To fans, Black Panther not just a movie but a movement"},"content":{"rendered":"

T<\/span>o many Africans at home and abroad, the Marvel movie \u2018Black Panther<\/a>\u2019 which was released on Feb.16, 2018 was more than just a movie but a movement.<\/p>\n

T<\/span>his was the first time Marvel had produced a movie with an entirely black lead casts that included Africans and African Americans.<\/p>\n

The Black Panther casts included African Americans such as Chadwick Boseman, Michael B. Jordan and Forest Whitaker, and Africans such as Lupita Nyong\u2019o who is from Kenya and Danai Gurira, from Zimbabwe.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis is the first time that Africa has been humanized in Hollywood,\u201d said James Frunwi, an African immigrant from Cameroon.<\/p>\n

Frunwi said Africa had always been portrayed as the dark continent, full of malnourished people.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt was a breath of fresh air to see something different from what we have been accustomed to seeing,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

The movie has become a huge hit around the world.<\/p>\n

Forbes magazine reported on March 14 that the world-wide box office for the film had topped $1.1 billion.<\/p>\n

Black Panther is set in the fictional African country of Wakanda, which was never colonized and had a lot of resources.<\/p>\n

\u201cAll African countries except for Ethiopia and Liberia, were colonized,\u201d said Frunwi.<\/p>\n

\u201cThough fictional, we get to see what African countries would have been if they weren\u2019t colonized,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis movie just showed us what we would have been if we were allowed to write our own history without the evil deeds of colonialism,\u201d said Frunwi.<\/p>\n

Frunwi said beyond the beauty of the film, Black Panther showed the deeper relationship between Africans and African Americans.<\/p>\n

\u201cThings are starting to change and a lot more people are starting to have these conversations to see how they can progress,\u201d said Frunwi.<\/p>\n

To some Africans, Black Panther is a source of hope that Africans will start being portrayed in a different light in the media.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe should never underestimate the power of TV in human lives,\u201d said Chimamda Okoye, a Nigerian immigrant who lives in Calgary.<\/p>\n

\u201cFor a very long time Africa has been portrayed as the poor continent, always needing aid,\u201d said Okoye.<\/p>\n

\u201cNow the narratives are starting to change and people will start seeing Africa in all its beauty,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n

Okoye said what struck her most on a personal level was seeing women being equals to men in the movie.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt was a beautiful thing to see, given that the African continent is a deeply patriarchal society where women are still seen as inferior to men,\u201d said Okoye.<\/p>\n

\u201cSeeing those women in powerful positions fighting for their country is something that should change our narrative in Africa,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n

Okoye said from the movie, it is evident that women, if given the opportunities, will do a lot for their respective countries.<\/p>\n

\u201cA Marvel movie had a language that I understood,\u201d said Okoye.<\/p>\n

We should never underestimate the power of TV in human lives.- Chimamda Okoye<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

\u201cBlack Panther started with a scene from Nigeria and I am from that area where they speak that language,\u201d said Okoye.<\/p>\n

Okoye said she has never felt more proud being an African after watching Black Panther.<\/p>\n

\u201cI felt immense pride and joy for my people and hopefully this is just the beginning of many more to come,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

To many Africans home and abroad, the Marvel movie \u2018Black Panther\u2019 which was released on Feb.16, 2018 was more than just a movie but a movement. [ READ MORE ]<\/a><\/p>\n<\/div>","protected":false},"author":404,"featured_media":43373,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"image","meta":{"_ef_editorial_meta_text_assignment-slug":"S3 Black Panther","footnotes":""},"categories":[1589],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-43370","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-image","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-film-video","8":"post_format-post-format-image"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/saitjournalism.ca\/thepress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/43370","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/saitjournalism.ca\/thepress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/saitjournalism.ca\/thepress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/saitjournalism.ca\/thepress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/404"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/saitjournalism.ca\/thepress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=43370"}],"version-history":[{"count":7,"href":"https:\/\/saitjournalism.ca\/thepress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/43370\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":44121,"href":"https:\/\/saitjournalism.ca\/thepress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/43370\/revisions\/44121"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/saitjournalism.ca\/thepress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/43373"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/saitjournalism.ca\/thepress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=43370"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/saitjournalism.ca\/thepress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=43370"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/saitjournalism.ca\/thepress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=43370"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}