Black Panther is a 2018 American superhero film produced by Marvel Studios and directed by Ryan Coogler. With a running time of 134 minutes, this film explores power struggles in Wakanda – a fictional, advanced African kingdom that has developed technology by using the fictional metal Vibranium while keeping their resources hidden from the rest of the world.

At the beginning of the film, Wakanda’s King T’Chaka, the original Black Panther, dies during a terrorist attack, opening the door to the rise of T’Chaka’s son, T’Challa, to the throne. At his coronation ceremony, T’Challa successfully overcomes a challenge presented by M’Baku – the leader of the Jabari Tribe. In consequence, T’Challa becomes Wakanda’s King and the Black Panther. In one of his first rulings, T’Challa decides to seek to bring Wakandan enemy Ulysses Klaue to justice, organizing a capture mission that takes place in South Korea. With the help of the head of Wakanda’s armed forces Okoye and his ex-lover and Wakandan spy Nakia, T’Challa captures Klaue, giving him to American intelligence operative Everett Ross. Eric Stevens – the son of T’Chaka’s brother, Njobu, and a U.S. black ops soldier that goes by “Killmonger” – helps Klaue to escape, later killing him and bringing him to the Wakandan border. As he is allowed in, Killmonger challenges and defeats T’Challa in ritual combat. While everyone thinks T’Challa is dead, Killmonger takes power and prepares to share Wakanda’s vibranium-powered weapons with marginalized people around the world, seeking the violent overthrow of powerful governments. T’Challa, who wants to keep Wakanda’s vibranium hidden from the rest of the world, is rescued by the Jabari, and healed by Nakia, Ross, his sister Shuri, and his mother Ramonda. T’Challa returns to fight Killmonger, causing a battle between Okoye’s army and W’Kabi’s army. With the help of M’Baku and the Jabari, T’Challa and Okoye’s army win. Killmonger commits suicide. The movie ends with the creation of a Wakandan outreach center in Oakland, CA and with T’Challa’s appearance at the United Nations to reveal Wakanda’s power.

Overall, this film makes us think about competing notions of racial consciousness and Black internationalism. Primarily, it showcases the differences between Africans and African Americans. While T’Challa wants Wakanda to remain isolated from the world, US-raised Killmonger seeks the international unity of all people of African descent. Clearly, one of the factors creating such a competing notion could be the varying ways in which each character was raised; T’Challa was raised as a member of the Wakanda kinship and Killmonger was raised in a poor community in Oakland, California. As well, these two characters differ in regards to their support for the potential emergence of international Black revolution. While Killmonger strongly believes in overthrowing governmental structures around the world to empower historically marginalized people, T’Challa takes a more cautious approach, eventually utilizing the United Nations as a forum to establish avenues of international cooperation with other countries. This difference in perspective is also perceived through a generational lens, with the elder leaders supporting caution while younger leaders like W’Baka support a more revolutionary approach.

Significantly, through the characterization of T’Challa as the hero and Killmonger as the villain, it appears that the film takes a stance on several issues, especially in regards to global Black solidarity. Primarily, the film sends a clear message against the kind of Africa-led-global-revolution that Killmonger wants. Instead, it argues for international cooperation between people of African descent around the world. Most importantly, through the utilization of the United Nations, the film’s message is not one against the global status quo. In fact, as I read it, the film asserts the role of predominantly western institutions in the construction of global Black solidarity. In doing so, the film also stood against T’Challa’s initial isolationist perspective, which was not only criticized by Killmonger but by other key characters that surrounded T’Challa. For instance, for a long time, T’Challa’s ex-lover Nakia has advocated for the end of Wakanda’s self-imposed isolation. She thought that Wakanda could use its resources to help African descendants around the world. Therefore, in general, the film takes a moderate approach to questions about Black internationalism.

Finally, through the conceptualization of the powerful Wakanda, Black Panther provides an imaginative, alternative history of the African continent and its descendants. Particularly, the film accentuates Wakanda’s historical efforts to protect itself by maintaining its power and resources hidden from the rest of the world, leading audience members to ask two important questions. First, what would be Africa’s reality today had it not been colonized and exploited by Imperial super-powers? Second, can a Black State only operate successful if clandestine?

Ultimately, history has shown us the inability of global super-powers to respect the sovereignty of Black and Brown countries. Imagining the film’s continuation, it is likely that now that Wakanda’s power has been exposed to the rest of the world, the international community will demand the redistribution of the country’s vibranium. Or, perhaps, an anti-Wakanda international front will be formed to extract the Black country’s wealth and natural resources. If not, can we imagine a world where global white supremacy allows a Blackity-black state like Wakanda to become the World’s super-power?

Wakanda, Forever!