Challenging Power Structures
One of the dominant themes in Black Panther is that of challenging power structures. T’Challa is the leader of Wakanda, and throughout the film we find that many people want him out of power, beginning with M’Baku and of course ending with Killmonger. T’Challa faces indirect challenges to his authority (though not his throne) from his own friends and allies W’Kabi and Nakia. But there are also broader examples of this phenomenon in the film. As king, Killmonger attempts to topple the Western-dominated world order and the structures that oppress black people worldwide. Despite the fact that most of these challenges come from adversaries, upsetting power structures is ultimately cast in a positive light by the film. T’Challa learns from Killmonger that Wakanda has become stagnant and needs to do more in the world, and so he ultimately challenges and reforms the traditions of his ancestors to help the world. Though always a controversial topic throughout history, overthrowing powers that are unfair or unjust is an important part of a successful society.
Absence of Fathers
Both Killmonger and T’Challa have lost their fathers by the time the events of the film begin, but the circumstances in which they lose them are very different. T’Challa grows up entirely with his father’s guidance and affection. Though T’Chaka is killed prematurely, T’Challa is already an adult who is ready to take his father’s place. He even gets a chance to speak with his father in the Ancestral Plane, presumably within days after T’Chaka had died. Killmonger, conversely, loses his father as a young child and is forced to grow up without his guidance or influence. Less prominently, we also learn that W’Kabi lost both of his parents to Klaue’s attack when he was a child, and we are not meant to see it as a coincidence that he is the Wakandan most willing to join Killmonger. A missing father is a common trope in cultural depictions of African American life, and occurs more often than people of other races in real life due to premature death or incarceration. This loss weighs heavily on Killmonger, and he holds a fanatical, all-consuming obsession with completing N’Jobu’s mission of black liberation.
African diaspora
The issue of the African diaspora is highlighted throughout the film, in large part through Killmonger's and T'Challa's characters. Although the two had the same origins—both Wakandan by birthright—they had very different upbringings. T'Challa grew up with wealth and had a strong sense of who or what he was (the future Wakandan King) whereas Killmonger grew up facing all the struggles that befall disadvantaged black youth in America. He also has no strong sense of identity, other than the knowledge that he had been 'lost' or 'abandoned' by Wakanda (as his father said). It is this need to go 'home' that drives Killmonger to commit heinous crimes, including murder. Although he appears to have a ‘rags to riches’ story, as he graduated from MIT, he is still unable to shake the deep-seated feeling of anger he felt towards Wakanda. And yet, even though it is T'Chaka, king of Wakanda, who kills his father, and even though he had never laid eyes upon Wakanda, he is driven to return and leave his life in America behind. What T’Challa ultimately learns from Killmonger is that Wakanda has a responsibility to the broader African diaspora, leading to his policy changes at the end of the film.
The West's Views of Africa
Analysed from a post-colonial perspective, the movie offers some conflicting images. On the one hand, it depicts a proud and self-reliant African people who stand out from normal depictions of black life in American film. On the other hand, it has been described by some critics as embodying the perspective of colonialism. The film is certainly aware of the Western gaze on Africa and is willing to critique it: for example, the depiction of Ross’s casual disrespect to the Wakandans, Klaue’s use of the word “savages,” and the U.N. diplomat’s dismissal of T’Challa’s proclamation. Yet in spite of these examples, the film still traffics in certain colonial tropes. The country of Wakanda is depicted to be highly advanced technologically, while still rife with infighting among tribal structures, with mortal combat as a means for determining leadership. It has been discussed by writers such as Patrick Gathara that this upholds an image of Africa as the dark continent which Westerners made it out to be in early colonial stereotypes, rather than a strong, scientifically inclined and prosperous society. Others have critiqued the role of African royalty and aristocracy as the only virtuous characters, leaving the struggles of ordinary and working-class Africans unmentioned. The movie seems to walk a fine line between black empowerment and concepts that are safe for white viewing, leaving critique of colonialism only to the motivated interpreter.
Tradition vs. Change
Black Panther finds the nation of Wakanda at a precarious moment in its history. They are transitioning to a new king after the sudden death of his predecessor at a time when the nation is being challenged from all sides: by M’Baku, by Killmonger, by the reappearance of Klaue, by internal division, and most fundamentally by a rapidly-changing world. We see clashes of old and new school frequently throughout the film, from Shuri’s mocking of the coronation ceremony to Nakia and Okoye’s explosive argument over loyalty to Killmonger. Wakanda grows more and more technologically advanced by the year, and yet the country is still governed by hereditary monarchy while the rest of the developed world has almost uniformly moved on to some form of democracy. But the Wakandans hold on to their traditions because they have come to believe it is these institutions which keep them safe from the outside world. But ironically these institutions actually leave Wakanda vulnerable to outside incursion. Killmonger exploits the tradition of ritual combat to take the throne, thrusting the country into the hands of an outsider. Killmonger rapidly and dramatically changes Wakanda’s position on isolation, threatening Wakanda’s way of life and the balance of the world in the process. What T’Challa learns from these events is that too rigidly adhering to tradition leads to stagnation and that he must allow for at least some change in order to strengthen the country. But the issue is not completely resolved by the film’s end. Okoye is never forced to confront her obstinate loyalty to the throne. Wakanda does not fundamentally change its government despite the new policies. T’Challa is trying to strike a balance between preserving the old ways and effectively leading Wakanda into the future. Whether he will succeed is left to the audience’s interpretation (or, more likely, sequels).
Conflicting Identities
Writing about Black Panther for The New Yorker, Jelani Cobb describes African-American identity as “two feuding ancestries conjoined by a hyphen.” He posits that there is a fundamental tension in the very notion of being African-American because to be black on some level means being not totally accepted as an American by much of society. And yet they cannot reject this identity because it has been forced upon them by history and circumstance. This tension is at the core of Killmonger’s character, who quite literally has two names for each identity. His very identity is at war with itself, and so he is filled with contempt for both the African (his hatred of T’Challa and the Wakandans) and the American (his attempt to bring down the West) aspects of his own identity. In this split identity, Killmonger faces a challenge that T’Challa does not and can never fully understand. N’Jobu, despite his disillusionment with Wakanda, is far more secure in his African identity, and so he is able to find peace in death even though he was murdered by his own brother. We get the sense that Killmonger will never find peace in life or in death. However, Killmonger also takes a certain level of pride and pleasure in this dual identity. In the first throne room scene when he challenges T’Challa, he expresses these identities through language, flaunting his African-American dialect to needle the Wakandans. When he switches to Xhosa and reveals his identity it hits the room like a bomb, totally changing the demeanor of everyone inside. Killmonger plays the role of both outsider and insider, a living paradox.
Violent Masculinity
Throughout the film, we see male characters reacting to challenging situations with violence, often unnecessarily or unproductively. N’Jobu helps initiate an attack on Wakanda to get the vibranium he needs, and T’Chaka kills N’Jobu during their confrontation. T’Challa attacks an entire militia just to retrieve Nakia. Killmonger responds to virtually every situation with violence. Obviously, we can account for some of this by the fact that Black Panther is an action movie, and the female characters get in on the action plenty of times. But there is a trend of the women in the film acting or attempting to act as moderating influences on men who are ready to leap into action. Nakia stops T’Challa from killing the young militia member in Nigeria and Okoye stops him from killing Klaue in Busan. In general, the women of this film are very constructive in their attitudes and actions: Nakia is the foremost proponent of opening up Wakanda’s relations with other countries, for example. In contrast, Killmonger goes out of his way to cause violence and harm, often to women. He poisons the curator, chokes a female attendant in the heart-shaped herb cave, gloats at T’Challa’s female family members while beating him into submission, and specifically targets Shuri and Nakia during the final battle. But by far the most disturbing incident of this kind is when Killmonger shoots his girlfriend in cold blood to get to Klaue. This is ostensibly a person to whom he is very close, and yet he dispatches her with complete calm and ease, moving on from her without a second thought. When considered closely, this is Killmonger’s cruelest act in the film, even though it is glossed over. Killmonger’s toxic masculinity is probably the best argument against his particular brand of black liberation, and it is not a coincidence that the principal alternative solution for global black oppression is proposed by Nakia, a woman.
