{"id":2884,"date":"2020-08-31T14:22:16","date_gmt":"2020-08-31T19:22:16","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/read.streamapse.com\/?p=2884"},"modified":"2020-08-31T14:22:16","modified_gmt":"2020-08-31T19:22:16","slug":"chadwick-bosemans-passing-and-the-power-and-limits-of-afrofuturism","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/streamapse.com\/Magazine\/?p=2884","title":{"rendered":"Chadwick Boseman\u2019s passing and the power and limits of Afrofuturism"},"content":{"rendered":"

If you\u2019re not a comics fan, you may have been surprised at the extent<\/a> of the heartfelt<\/a> grief<\/a> expressed following the death of actor Chadwick Boseman.<\/p>\n

One explanation lies in the extraordinary power of the 2018 movie Black Panther<\/a>, in which Boseman starred as T\u2019Challa\/Black Panther, to address racist stereotypes about Africa and Africans.<\/p>\n

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By Georges Biard, CC BY-SA 3.0, https:\/\/commons.wikimedia.org\/w\/index.php?curid=35409272
https:\/\/creativecommons.org\/licenses\/by-sa\/3.0\/<\/figcaption><\/figure>
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Boseman\u2019s character was heir to the hidden kingdom of Wakanda, a mythical African nation free of European colonisation. The film\u2019s subtext explores African Americans\u2019 varying identifications, past and present, with Africa and a global Black diaspora.<\/p>\n

Dark continent<\/h2>\n

Westerners\u2019 ideas about Africa are steeped in myth. The United States, wrote German philosopher Georg Hegel in 1830<\/a>, was \u201cthe land of the future\u201d. Africa, by contrast, was \u201cthe land of childhood\u201d where history was meaningless. European powers dubbed it the \u201cDark Continent\u201d, as if its people could never make progress.<\/p>\n

Fields of science emerged to classify human beings<\/a>, relying on simplistic notions of evolution and psychology. They all agreed \u201cblack\u201d people inhabited the ladder\u2019s bottom rung.<\/p>\n