How "Black Panther 2" brings the Caribbean to the (Afro) world
Two years ago, I wrote about the impact of Black Panther on my life. I remembered feeling so proud of the Caribbean actors featured in this film because it symbolized how the Caribbean across the world has been contributing to the Black American culture. However, unless you actually care about Caribbean culture, not so many people know that Winston Duke comes from Tobago, that Letitia Wright comes from Guyana, that a couple of Dora Milaje come also from the Caribbean, and that Dominique Thorne who plays Riri Williams in this sequel has Trinidadian roots. Which is cool, I get it. Caribbean representation can’t be a big issue for everybody. It really doesn’t have to be for anyone but us… Until people start acting like we don’t matter because we’re from the Caribbean, because our ancestors were enslaved, because some of our countries aren’t independent. That’s the reason why I started Karukerament: the world won’t acknowledge us, but we’re here and we bring our contribution to world history. And as a French Caribbean woman from an overseas department, it’s even more crucial to me that people stop invisibilizing us because it creates this feeling that no matter how thought-provoking, creative and resilient we are, our identity and our culture are worth nothing.
Earlier this week, I was tweeting back and forth with Jamaican freelance reviewer Akilah White about how the Caribbean roots of French Caribbean thinkers and philosophers who came up with concepts to deconstruct colonization were often erased. Frantz Fanon is probably the best example because of his involvement in Algeria’s independence war, so people are quick now to see him as North African. Hopefully, the upcoming biopic directed by Guadeloupean filmmaker Jean-Claude Barny will be a reminder of Fanon’s origins. My point is being born and raised in the Caribbean or in the Caribbean diaspora doesn’t make us less than anybody. It is what we bring to the world table. It is what we have been bringing to the world, regardless of the dehumanizing way mainstream media portray us most of the time. We’ve been transcending for centuries the destiny that the contemporary world had in mind for us. We cannot change the past, but we have no reason to be ashamed of who we are. That’s what Black Panther 2 said loud and proud.
The film pays homage to Ayiti. Of course, I won’t spoil the details. And I’m not Haitian, so I won't pretend to do a deep analysis of the representation issue for the island. What I can say is the film represented Ayiti as a symbol of dignity, freedom, and hope… There’s no trace of the gang violence and political instability that I’ve been hearing about for as long as I’ve been alive, that I see on my Twitter feed every day. Ryan Coogler and Joe Robert Cole could have kept it on the surface with the actors speaking a few words of creole. Listen, if you’d told me that one day I’d be watching an MCU film without needing subtitles because the dialogues are in Haitian creole, I would have never believed you. Never. And not only did they aim for language authenticity, but they also linked the history of Ayiti to the history of Wakanda. They linked the history of the first Black Republic to the history of the only Black nation that never got colonized. They didn’t create a hierarchy. They just brought them together as 2 equal elements of the Afro world. We are who we are, we don’t have to hide it and no one can take that away from us.
Yes, this is cinema. Yes, this is fiction. And yes, most people won’t get the historical references… at least in the moment because they might do some research after watching the film. It’s okay, though. When I walked out of the movie theater yesterday, I realized there was absolutely no turning back now. The world might still not care about Ayiti and about the Caribbean in general, but it can’t deny our existence. As for us, Caribbean people, I hope that the fact that other people honor our history in a beautiful way will inspire us to keep sharing our stories by any means necessary and to keep supporting our own voices.
See you for the Chevalier de Saint-George’s biopic. He was from Guadeloupe. I already have things to say about the trailer… To be continued.