Deconstructing Colonial Frameworks in the Black Panther Film Analysis

This research employs a decolonization framework to analyze how the Black Panther film (2018) portrays the narratives and life experiences of the Black diaspora culture. The paper also evaluates how the Black Panther film responds to the question of what it means to be Black in America amidst a global awareness that grapples with issues affecting modern-day Black existence. Using Cartier’s concept of “Future Texts,” this research examines experiences such as identity, culture, and language from the film in relation to communication resistance and decolonization within African and African American experiences. Thus, the research highlights the transformations that result from new media—Black Panther film. Offering a new perspective to cross-examine the Black diaspora media depictions and showcase new trends and achievements made by Black filmmakers and actors on screen, generally overlooked by the Eurocentric ideals dominant in Hollywood films. The research further examines how the scriptwriter and the film cast utilize aspects such as mode of dressing, cultural ceremonies, music, a diverse African language, complex identities, and the use of African names such as Nakia, Okoye, W’kabi, and Ramonda, and personal experiences as a counter-discourse to systematic racism and colonial frameworks. The Black Panther (2018) film's historical, current formation and continuous evolution created a revolutionary power with its avant-garde representations of blackness, African history and cultures, and anti-colonial dialogue as a counter-discourse to previous narratives about Africa, Africans, and African Americans.