A thread I’ve noticed in a lot of pop culture recently is the idea of blacks from around the world having some innate wish to live in an all powerful “modern” Africa (yes I know Africa is a continent but none of these stories seem to specifically choose a specific country/culture either) that has never been touched by European colonization/slavery. They would go back to their roots so to speak and embrace traditional African fashions and styles while still retaining modern sensibilities.
As a Hispanic I can’t speak for African-Americans on this one, but it just seems odd to wish to live in a complete alien culture just because it happens to be where you’re race is from. I don’t wish I was living in some all-powerful Aztec Empire that rules all of the Americas since that culture is completely alien to what I like about modern society. I’m assuming many African-Americans would feel the same way, as if you were to live in Africa (or in extreme cases your ancestors never having left Africa in the first place) culture would be so thoroughly bizarre you probably wouldn’t like it at all.
Is this actual wishful thinking or just a what-if? that shouldn’t be thought of too seriously?
You’re going to have to be a little more specific here about what you mean than just “a thread I’ve noticed in a lot of pop culture recently.” Otherwise, I don’t see any way this question could be answered meaningfully. Just as Africa is big place, “African-Americans” is a big group of people.
The most obvious example is Black Panther but the video game Mortal Kombat 11 caused some controversy when the African-American character Jax has an ending where he basically is granted time-travel and he uses this to create exactly what I described, he’s living in a futuristic generic African city and he’s dressed in “traditional” African clothing.
I have done no research but I am sure the answer to the OP is “some.” Some African-Americans, no doubt, do long to live in a powerful Africa. I would guesstimate them to be in a small minority among African-Americans at large, though.
There are some African-Americans (and some Americans, period, and I expect people in other places as well) whose idea of “Africa” includes notions such as the idea that Ancient Egyptians were black, or even that modern people cannot be “African” unless they’re black; the Egyptian gods in American Gods are all black, that “pan-African” Wakanda completely ignores the existence of anything that’s not south of the Sahara. Misconceptions exist about Africa like they exist about anything else. Those particular depictions are a sort of Africanist version of the Amazons: it’s a fantasy, and most of the people using it know perfectly well that’s what it is.
“Living in a futuristic generic African city” and dressing in “traditional” African clothing" is a very long way away from “blacks from around the world having some innate wish to live in an all powerful “modern” Africa”. Do you even have proof that the storyline in Mortal Kombat was written by black people? How can that storyline be representative of “an innate wish” if you can’t demonstrate who wrote the story?
You need to demonstrate your premise first: I suspect the opinions you are talking about are a lot more nuanced than what you lay out in the OP.
I’m moving back to Ireland and Norway. Fuck the man. Im gonna have to find a way to split my time and not play favorites (but It’s easy to halve the potato where there’s love). Ahhhh, I denounce my Norwegian heritage! I’m a full blooded Mick! Where’s the craic Scandinavia?
There are a lot of African Americans, and I’m sure they hold a wide diversity of opinions on most everything.
That being said, I think a lot of African Americans fantasize about living in a place where black people aren’t second class citizens, and I think that’s what’s attractive about Wakanda. Americans in general like to think we are tops in science and technology, so Wakanda has that, too. But there’s a huge difference between enjoying a fantasy about a place that doesn’t have some of the problems that trouble you in the real world, and actually wanting to pack up and move to a different culture. I’d guess that few African Americans actually want to do that.
[Moderating]
The only factual answer possible to this is “some do”, because for any idea you come up with, there’s bound to be some people who believe it. Beyond that is IMHO territory. Moving.
[Not moderating]
I expect that what’s really happening here is that these people just want to be a member of the privileged group, which for the most part does not happen with blacks in America.
A bunch of white people want to live with the blue cat ladies of Pandora or elves of Middle Earth or train at Hogwarts or be Jedi warriors so, if a number of black people want to live in Wakanda, I wouldn’t assume it means much besides Wakanda being a fun fantasy.
I don’t know if a lot of black Americans wish to live in an “all-powerful” African country. I think you’re setting up a strawman by framing it like that, but whatever.
But I do think there is a widespread desire to have a mother country like white Americans have that doesn’t get called a “shit hole” by their own president and his favored constituents. A mother country that would welcome Diasporians back the same way that Israel does.
I don’t know what you mean by “taking it seriously”. Do you actually think black Americans en mass are planning to set up Wakanda?
I don’t think they hold elections, which would bother me. Ta-Nehisi Coates’s “A Nation Under Our Feet” storyline in the comics dealt with the idea of political protest and revolution among Wakandans.
And, you know, a warlord can take power at any time just by beating up the current king. So even a benevolent monarchy like T’Challa’s is always in peril.
These are all fantasy stories. One might as well ask if teenage girls really wish they were dating sparkly vampires. Certainly some aspects of the fantasy are appealing enough for the media to sell, but that’s not a “this is how the world should work” endorsement.
Neither Ed Boon, Dominic Cianciolo nor Shawn Kittelsen appear to be very African American, but you can’t really tell by looking. Stan Lee and Jack Kirby certainly weren’t.
I don’t why you people keep misspelling Wauconda and assume it has a large African-American population, which is really 0.4%, smaller than the Waucondan royal family, if those movies are to be believed. And a utopia? It’s okay if you like to drink and fish.
I think the OP is taking cultural enthusiasm about the idea of Wakanda as a fantasy setting and is extrapolating it to make assumption about individuals’ true desires that aren’t supported.
White people are allowed to have fantasies without being asked whether they really don’t like being Americans.
Exactly. I mean, I can totally see how Wakanda in the comics, and Black Panther as a superhero would especially resonate in the American black community. Black superhero from a peaceful African nation that happens to be the richest and most technologically advanced society on the planet? Makes total sense. It basically flips all the tropes about them on their heads.
But I don’t see that as meaning that there’s any kind of movement to actually create Wakanda or anything like that. I think at best, it’s kind of like **Napier **says… who wouldn’t want to live there? Plus, there would be a bonus because in Wakanda, black people would be in the majority and of the dominant group.